Tumbled Sodalite

For a stone of frequent mistaken identity, sodalite is unimaginatively named for its sodium content. The more poetic "poor man's lapis" is a common nickname for this beautiful blue-and-white mineral. Sodalite and lapis lazuli can be easily mistaken for each other at first glance; however, lapis contains flecks of pyrite that make the two stones differ upon a closer look. To complicate matters, lapis lazuli (which is technically a rock) may sometimes contain sodalite (which is a mineral in itself). Sodalite is sometimes also confused with azurite, dumortierite and lazulite. Additionally, in Canada, sodalite can be referred to as "Princess Blue" because it was found in Ontario in 1891 during the visit of two members of the British Royal Family.   The stone was known across the Americas before its official entry into Western mineralogy, however: around 2,600 BC, the Caral peoples traded for sodalite in what is now Peru, as did the residents of Tiwanaku in modern Bolivia.