Although coats of arms originated in Europe and customarily follow European forms, there has been some movement toward adapting the emblems of indigenous people to heraldry. My father, Ridge Durand (1933-2002) was a Lakota pejuta wikasa (”medicine man”) and a member of the Spotted Eagle Medicine Men’s Society. He was a hunkpa (”blood brother”) of Pete Catches (Petaga Yuha…
Category: Heraldry
Howery Coat of Arms
The earliest record of the Hauri coat of arms is an illustration of them in the early 15th century Liber Vitae of the collegiate church of Beromünster, Canton Luzern, to memorialize an undetermined member of the Hauri family. The drawing at right was taken from the Liber Vitae. These arms would be blazoned as: Azure a dove…
Swanström Brand
In heraldic terms, a cattle brand is a badge. The Swanström brand, H Lazy S, was first registered in 1914 with the Wyoming State Livestock Commission by my grand uncle, Hugo Swanström, of Marbleton, Wyoming. He probably had registered the brand a decade earlier with officials in Sublette County. When he moved to California, he…