Kokopelli Gift House

By chance, I saw a photo of this store online. It looked so interesting I was surprised I had never heard of it. From the sign I could see they have Native American jewelry and rocks and crystals. I didn’t see how a business like that could make it in Dayton.

“We’ve been here for 30 years” Lisa told me. She explained that she and her mother were rockhounds, and that they lived in the West quite a while. They started trading some of their stones to Native Americans for their jewelry and built a wholesale jewelry business.

Thirty years ago, Lisa and her mother returned to Dayton and opened this shop. Now she runs it with her daughter. She still deals with some of the same Native American families she first traded with.

I asked about the store’s name and Lisa explained that the figure on her sign (bent over playing a flute) is Kokopelli. He is a fertility figure in the tradition of some of the tribes in the Southwest. He’s also known as a trickster.

The store is packed with interesting items, and there are signs explaining things to a novice like me. For only $3.50 I might want to carry a piece of turquoise with me, to protect myself from depression, exhaustion and panic attacks. I’m sure that my wife would feel that the turquoise jewelry in the shop would be a better way to get that protection.