Most children's clothing among Plateau peoples such as the Umatilla was simply a smaller version of adult garments. A great deal of time and energy was spent providing children with articles of clothing and accessories so that they could look their best on special occasions. This remarkable wool shirt decorated with beaded strips and adorned with metal beads and ermine strips reveals one family's devotion to their child.

This bowl is carved with particularly elegant bands of wave patterns, which encircle it just beneath the rim and frame rectangular panels on both ends. The panels and the curved base are each carved with a face characterized by a broad, crescent-shaped brow and deeply underscored eyes. The simple, circular faces resemble those found in the patterns of Wasco/Wishram baskets.

Large masks, with articulated elements designed to add to the dramatic effect of the mask when it is used in a dance, are characteristic of the Kwagiutl. The dancer can manipulate the fins and mouth on this mask so that the whale would appear to be swimming.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

As Plains Indian peoples were confined to reservations in the late nineteenth century, women artists, who created the majoirty of beadwork and quillwork, began to apply their skills to a wider variety of objects. [...] The fully beaded doctor's bag illustrates how beadworkers were able to take commercially made objects and turn them into uniquely Native American artistic expressions.

Plains Indian people frequently made lightweight rawhide containers to hold a variety of objects. Flat envelopes and cylinders were the most common shapes, although the Lakota frequently made boxes. As part of their household duties, women laboriously made and decorated these containers from buffalo hide or cowhide that had been dried and scraped of their hair. Once the rawhide was processed, it was cut into a predetermined pattern and then folded and laced into shape. Painted geometric designs usually ornament the rawhide containers.

The huxwhukw, or mythical Raven, represents one of the supernatural associates of Baxwbakwalanuksiwe’, the cannibal spirit, which appears in the form of birdlike masks in the tseyka, or red cedar-bark ceremony. These masks are commissioned as part of the inherited privilege of being a hamat’sa society initiate. The masks and the dances in which they are worn pacify and tame the hamat’sa, who personifies the cannibal spirit and the insatiable nature of life, and who ultimately exhibits the honored behavior of a high-ranking person. The articulated beaks clap dramatically during a performance, accompanied by the dancers’ characteristic cries.

Worn during the winter ceremonial dances that accompany a potlatch feast, this mask represents the prestigious inherited privilege of a high-ranking individual. The layers of commercial paint reveal that this mask was repainted at a later date, perhaps to refurbish it when passed to a new owner, a hamat’sa society initiate dancer. Masks such as this one are still carved and worn in dances by Kwakwaka’wakw artists and inheritors of this privilege. Ironically, at the time of its creation, First Nations’ ceremonial practices, including the dancing and display of this headdress, were illegal under Canadian law. The artists working during those arduous years of forced assimilation and oppression are celebrated for carrying on traditions that continue in practice today.