Exploring Muscogee Culture Through Shell Carving

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Exploring Muscogee Culture Through Shell Carving

Chris Thompson is a Muscogee shell carver. Using various marine snail and clam shells, he’s preserving the heritage of his people by recording imagery of their lore and connection to nature. Some are decorative gorgets, while others are the sacred ceremonial medicine cups. These are carved onto the shells of large lightning whelks, the only snails whose shells spiral to the left.

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Rob Diaz de Villegas is a senior producer for television at WFSU Public Media, covering outdoors and ecology. After years of producing the music program OutLoud, Rob found himself in a salt marsh with a camera, and found a new professional calling as well. That project, the National Science Foundation funded "In the Grass, On the Reef," spawned the award-winning WFSU Ecology Blog. Now in its tenth year, the Ecology Blog recently wrapped its most ambitious endeavor, the EcoCitizen Project.

Rob is married with two young sons, who make a pretty fantastic adventure squad.