War bonnet or headdress made of a brown felt cap with a wide beaded band that sits at the forehead, with long eagle feathers attached above the band, completely surrounding and obscuring it. They are attached by skin loops and each is wrapped with red fabric, secured by sinew, on the lower portion of the shaft. Tufts of animal hair and burgundy fibres sit on small squares of leather, and are attached with adhesive to the feathers at the tips. The beadwork on the band has geometric designs in red, blue, green and gold on a white beaded background. Strands of red cotton and smaller feathers drape down from behind the headband. Overall colours are dark brown, white, red, green, blue and dark yellow.

Robert B. Woodward Memorial Fund

Robert B. Woodward Memorial Fund

Anonymous gift in memory of Dr. Harlow Brooks

Robert B. Woodward Memorial Fund

Headdress frontlet with a wooden bear crest, set within a frame, and painted red, green, and black. The back is unpainted. The frame as well as the bear's eyes, teeth, and paws have inlaid sections of carved abalone shell. Long ermine trailers hang down the back and sea lion whiskers stick out from the top. The headdress would have been worn for a Welcome or Peace Dance. The face's thick, heavy, black eyebrows help to corroborate this attribution. A fistful of eagle down feathers would be placed inside the center of the frontlet. As the chief danced and bowed and greeted his audience, the feathers would float out of his headdress symbolizing peace and friendship. In Tshimshian this was known as Am-halait or "power from the Sky." CONDITION: The object is in fair and stable condition. Special care in handling the piece should be taken for it was treated with arsenic in the past.

Designs made up of incised lines and pierced or "cut out' shapes elaborate the form of this flattened section of elk antler. The upper end of this hair ornament is a carved, elongated semi-circle, rounded at the top, but it is cut at the bottom to suggest the form of two figures which emerge at the shoulders, as if headless, with slightly flexed knees. The figures' torsos have cut triangular shapes pointing downwards. The elongated, lower section of the ornament is pierced with circles, a semicircle, narrow or linear crescents, and two pointed ovals. Each of the "cut-outs" is surrounded with an incised outline, most of them rubbed with red pigment, with the following exceptions: the inner legs of the two figures, on the shins from the knee to the ankle, are rubbed in black. A horn shaped outline is also rubbed in black. At the rounded end, beyond the bone tube is a cross, cut through the flat piece of antler. A faded ribbon, now off-white, is tied to the bone tube and a thin piece of thong is knotted underneath the tube, on the unornamented side of the antler plate. The spreader has lost any remnant of feathers or woodpecker beak that once may have adorned it coming out of the femural bone tube.

Osage name by curator Stewart Culin may not be accurate. Fan is made from the tail feathers of a winter hawk. Large hawks have 12 feathers; small hawks have 10 feathers in tail. According to Sean Standing Bear 10/20/2000 this fan is missing its center feather. The handle is woven with dyed porcupine quillwork with a row of blue and white beads along each edge.

Northern Plains area. The drum has a red painted patch glued onto drumhead. The design is a buffalo with a zigzag line around it but no power lines emanating directly from the buffalo. There are red areas of pigment on drumhead. Wool and hide fringe dangles from drum. Remnants of silk ribbons are attached with nails along the edge. It has a knot in the hide ties in the middle back. This was possibly made as a showpiece as would have been very awkward to hold and play. This is a drum that would have ceremonial significance These are specialized.