Reference Materials
on Native American Crystals

Last Updated on March 25, 2007

[C100] William Gilbert, "The Eastern Cherokees" Bulletin 133 of the Bureau
of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institute.

"There were five different sizes of divining stones used in ancient times. The largest was used in war divination; the next largest for feasts, purification, and divination concerning sickness; the next for hunting; the next for finding things lost or stolen; and the smallest for determining the time allotted for anyone to live. These curious stones were crystalline quartz and six-sided, coming to a point at one end like a diamond. They were called ‘lights’ and were important to ritual."

[C101] Samuel Drake, Annals of Witchcraft, ???

There is an account of a woman named Knapp who was put to death for witchcraft in New Haven Colony in 1653. One of the witnessed who testitfied against her gave the following account:

"Hester, Wife of Andrew Ward, testified,         'that aboute a Day after that Goodwife          Knapp was condemned for a Witch, she         goeing to the Prison House where said Knapp was kept, she, the said Knapp, voluntarily, without any Occasion given her, said that Goodwife Staplyes, told her that an Indian brought unto her, the said Staplyes, two little Things brighter than the Light of the Day [crystals], and told the said Goodwife Staplyes they were Indian Gods, as the Indian called them, and the Indian withall told her, the said Staplyes, if she would keepe them, she should be so big Rich, all one God; and that the said Staplyes told the said Knapp she gave them again to the said Indian, but she could not tell whether she did so or no."