"The Uncompahgre Ute Indians from Central Colorado are one of the first documented groups of people in the world credited with the application of piezoelectricity and the piezoelectric effect involving the use of quartz crystals to generate both light and electricity. The Ute employed an ingenious invention which allowed the creation of light by piezoelectricity thousands of years before the modern world learned of the concept. The Ute constructed special ceremonial rattles made from buffalo rawhide which they filled with clear quartz crystals collected from the mountains of Colorado and Utah. When the rattles were shaken at night during ceremonies, the friction and mechanical stress of the quartz crystals impacting together through the translucent buffalo hide produced flashes of electric light. These rattles were believed to call spirits into Ute ceremonies, and were considered extremely powerful religious objects." » original news (via huge)sOct 20, 2006
300 year old piezoelectric applications
"The Uncompahgre Ute Indians from Central Colorado are one of the first documented groups of people in the world credited with the application of piezoelectricity and the piezoelectric effect involving the use of quartz crystals to generate both light and electricity. The Ute employed an ingenious invention which allowed the creation of light by piezoelectricity thousands of years before the modern world learned of the concept. The Ute constructed special ceremonial rattles made from buffalo rawhide which they filled with clear quartz crystals collected from the mountains of Colorado and Utah. When the rattles were shaken at night during ceremonies, the friction and mechanical stress of the quartz crystals impacting together through the translucent buffalo hide produced flashes of electric light. These rattles were believed to call spirits into Ute ceremonies, and were considered extremely powerful religious objects." » original news (via huge)s