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I The NMNH: E20584-0 - Medicine Mans Rattle (Skaga Sisha)

Medicine Mans Rattle (Skaga Sisha)

Item number E20584-0 from the National Museum of Natural History.

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Notes

FROM CARD: "CARVED WOOD RATTLE IN THE FORM OF A HUMAN HEAD COVERED WITH MYTHOLOGICA DESIGNS IN BOTH RELIEF AND INTAGLIO AND PAINTED RED, GREEN, AND BLACK. ACCORDING TO BOAS THE DESIGN IS THE KILLER WHOLE [sic, should be whale] AND IT IS USED IN THE SECRET SOCIETIES. ILLUS. IN USNM AR, 1895; FIG. 210, P. 657. LOANED TO THE S.I. CENTENNIAL COMM. 7-9-75. LOAN RETURNED MAR 22 1990. ILLUS.: HNDBK. N. AMER. IND., VOL. 7, NORTHWEST COAST, FIG. 6, PG. 319." Identified in Handbook caption as carved wooden rattle. "A human figure at the top lies with his back to the killerwhale that encircles the rattle. The whale's dorsal fin rises from the back of the figure's head. Carved features are painted in red, green, and black. This specimen, said to have been the property of a "medicine man," was used in the secrect societies according to Boas (1897:654)."Ian Reid (Heiltsuk) and Jennifer Kramer (anthropologist) of the delegation from Bella Bella, Bella Coola and Rivers Inlet communities of British Columbia made the following comments during the Recovering Voices Community Research Visit May 20th - 24th, 2013. The name sounds and reads Haida. It appears to be yew. It does not seem to be extremely old because it contains canvas and string, as opposed to hide.