Woven hat with a 3 tier stepped design. A break in the design is used to indicate the back of the cap.

This headdress would have been worn by a man on the back of the head. The long wooden pin would secure it to a hairnet. It is part of a dance outfit see 06.331.8027,a,b,c,e.

Brooklyn Museum Collection

Brooklyn Museum Collection

An argillite carving of a bird on its back surmounted by three seated figures. It is stable and in good condition. The toes on the rear sitting figure seem to be intentionally undefined. The long hair on the front figure suggests that he is a Shaman. The 'pin dots' in the centers of the eyes on the boat show the carver used a compass to create the circular forms and if so this is unusual. The piece shows great action and movement and it thought to be one of the great argillite pieces by most scholars.

This deeply carved mask is painted with brown, red, green and white. It has painted eyebrows and teeth. The jaw is loose and could be manipulated in a dance performance to indicate a talking mask. This mask is identified as representing an orator, the individual who would recount the histories that were dramatized by Winter Dance performers. The lower jaw, articulated to produce a more lifelike effect, would be moved to imitate the actions of the performer as he spoke. These types of masks were once common among many Northwest Coast tribes and each had their own stories to tell. The deeply carved and exaggerated features of this image are more typical of Heiltsuk that Haida style but the mask could have come from either nation. The otherworldly appearance of the mask would have been attenuated by the flickering light and shadows of the fire lit performance.

Henry L. Batterman Fund and the Frank Sherman Benson Fund

The backs, thumbs, and cuffs of these mittens are decorated with porcupine quillwork in a delicate curvilinear and geometric design complex that was originally colored bright blue, red, white, and purple. The cuff is decorated with a scalloped quillwork line in red and green and a horizontal border in registers of red, blue and green with white and purple diamonds running through it. On the front of the mitten (the back side of the wearer's hand) is a stylized, four petaled, red flower with two secondary tri-lobed flowers, represented by blue outlines and three heart-shaped petals that emerge from the center of the red flower. Four curvilinear green and white lines emerge from the center of this red flower and they in turn terminate in flowers with three-pointed petals of red, blue, and purple. This is referred to as "turning swastika-like cross petals design." On the same side of the mitten, closest to where the thumb is on the reverse, is a quilled strip of red and purple diamonds, bordered in white and placed on a band-like field of blue and red. On the thumb itself is a pattern of three flowers combined, a red one at the center and a blue and white one on each side. This motif is placed above a four-lobed linear representation of a red flower, very similar to the large one on the other side of the mitten. There is evidence the mittens once had a fur strip edging. The mittens have a printed cloth lining, patterned with a brownish green leafy or paisley design on a natural ground. The pattern is not meant to show as it is faced into the inside of the mittens. See Jarvis supplemental file Arts of Americas office.

By exchange

The figure is the one third from the left. It has an open mouth with closed eyes. One of his arms is held across his chest and the other across the chest touching his shoulder. His head has a serrated edge as if wearing a headdress. See also 03.325.4528- 34. These figures were all found together inside a painted pot. They were purchased from the German trader, Cronmeyer.