Mask, Wooden Item Number: E30210-0 from the National Museum of Natural History

Notes

FROM CARD: "30209-11. LOCALITY: ALASKA (NOT ALL)*. REMARKS: ILLUS. IN BAE 3RD AR: #30210 ON PL. XIV, FIGS. 22, P. 173. NO. 30210 EXHIBIT HALL 9, 1987. IDENTIFIED IN EXHIBIT LABEL AS SUPERNATURAL MAN MASK, WESTCOAST (NOOTKA)."See Brown, Steven C., 2000, "Turning the Tables: The Influence of Nineteenth-Century Southern Design Styles on the Northern Northwest Coast," American Indian Art Magazine, 25(3): 48-55. In the discussion in the article on Field Museum of Natural History housefront model and totem pole model Cat. No. 264015, in footnote # 2 on p. 55, Brown speculates on the artist who made it. He notes: "The identity of the artist who created this housefront is not yet certain. Contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth artists have proposed three possibilities: Dr. Atleo or Sitakanim (both Tla'oquiaht [Clayoquot]) and Chel'tus (Ditidaht) (Black 1999:110). The writer's opinion leans toward Chel'tus, because masks more certainly attributed to Dr. Atleo or Sitakanim differ significantly in style from the former artist's apparent body of work." Brown goes on to list other artifacts he attributes to the same artist who created the Field Museum housefront model, including serpent mask # E54153 and humanoid face mask # E30210 as part of his work.