Mountain Sheep Horn Bowl Item Number: E10079-0 from the National Museum of Natural History

Notes

FROM CARD: "HNDBK. N. AMER. IND., VOL. 7, NORTHWEST COAST, FIG. 4E, PG. 539." BOWL ORIGINALLY CATALOGUED AS WOODEN BUT HANDBOOK IDENTIFIES AS MOUNTAIN SHEEP HORN. BOWL APPEARS TO BE OF WASCO/WISHRAM MANUFACTURE. - STEVEN L. GRAFE 1997Pamela Cardenas, Shayleen Macy and Valerie Switzler of the Wasco delegation from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs made these comments during the Recovering Voices Community Research Visit Aug 31-Sept 4, 2015. For the Wasco, the cup or bowl is the center of the culture, it is what our stories are based off. Our creation stories are based off coming out of a spring that was shaped like a bowl. These objects are unique to our tribe because it represents us. We don't differentiate between a cup, ladle/spoon, or bowl. Shayleen noted that it is interesting how the Wasco don't make the designs anymore, the simple zigzags, triangles and chevrons. This horn bowl work hasn't been carried into the contemporary. You used to see these all around, everyone had them, but not anymore. Mountain sheep is 'kakwiq' or 'kakwik' in Kiksht. There are still mountain sheep around, they live in the mountains along the Columbia River, but that's not where our reservation is. You can see the sheep from the mountains, we can hunt them because it is ceded land. Our ceded land runs from Mount Hood to Multnomah Falls. Kiksht is the language of the Wasco tribe.