Sterling Silver Frog Earrings

The design represents the little green tree frogs that live near my studio. They are called “Wookus” by local Lummi People. Northwest Coast Indians believe Frog to be a powerful spirit messenger. An ancient story describes five young men on a fishing expedition. They put in to an island to spend the night and found frogs jumping about their camp. Full of mischief they threw a frog into the fire and laughed as it popped. Quite taken with the fun sound of the experience they repeated it until the ground began to shake and then a mountain erupted. A huge Volcano Woman came out of the forest toward them crying “What have you done to my children?” As her tears hit the earth they magically turned into Frogs. The men ran to their canoe to get away but she had already placed a curse on them. They would all die before they could get home to their village, except one, who would only live long enough to tell the story.