Wand, Animal Figure

Item number E220187-0 from the National Museum of Natural History.

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Notes

From card: "Carved in crouching position. Neat work. Teeth, eyes, nose and brow inlaid with abalone shell. Painted red. Short bands."Though catalogued as #5 in the collection, and just assumed to be from Alaska, this object is actually #6 on the detailed list filed in the accession record. This list describes it as: "Ceremonial club, from Blunden Harbor [sic, this is Blunden Harbour, which is in British Columbia, Canada], the Kwakiutl tribe, the property of Chief Seaweid [a.k.a. Siwid or Seaweed]. It is carved as the head of a wolf, ornamentally painted and inlaid with haliotis shell. It was used to charm the salmon + halibut back or to bring them in the spring, or when they went fishing and failed to make a catch. A fire was built and they would take the halibut hook a[nd] char the end over the fire, and the club was used as a wand during the feast and dance."Listed on page 42 in "The Exhibits of the Smithsonian Institution at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California, 1915", in section "Arts of the Northwest Coast Tribes".