OBJECTS OF EXCHANGE: SOCIAL AND MATERIAL TRANSFORMATION ON THE LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY NORTHWEST COAST. GLASS, AARON EXHIBITION CATALOG, 2011, Publisher: BARD GRADUATE CENTER

Spirit of the Ancestors-Spectacular sea-monster masks are part of the Kwakwaka'wakw Tlasula ceremony. Masked dancers impersonating supernatural beings enter the big house in firelight, dramatizing an encounter and declaring the high status of the family presenting the dance. This sea monster can spout water through the float at the top of its head by the dancer blowing on a plastic hose and water container concealed inside the mask.

The paint is black, blue, red, yellow, and white.

Spirit of the Ancestors-The dancer cocks the Kolus head to one side, slowly sweeping its piercing eye across the house, then tilts and reverses his swing as the song describes the Kolus, calling it Screecher Mask. - Bill Holm

The paint is dark green, light green, and red.

These shield-shaped objects made of commercial copper represent monetary wealth. As coppers are bought and sold by chiefs, their value increases, sometimes to the equivalent of thousands of dollars. They are displayed on ceremonial occasions, and exchanged at noble marriages. Sometimes during quarrels, pieces were cut from them and publicly given to the offender. That person was then obliged in turn to break a copper to protect his own name. The most valuable coppers have been cut and patched many times.