Wooden Mask

Item number E360364-0 from the National Museum of Natural History.

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Notes

From card: "Nass and Skeena Rivers, B.C.. Represents an eagle beak."This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=700, retrieved 3-31-2012: Mask, Tsimshian. Tsimshian individuals acquired supernatural powers, or helping spirits (naxnox), through a series of ritual initiations held by members of that spirit's society. The spirits, like this bird, were represented by masks. During the initiation ceremony, holders of the power “threw” it into the novices so that it became theirs as well. Masks were kept hidden away except at ceremonies.