Brooklyn Museum Collection

The object is a bow, a bow case, arrows and a quiver. Bow is inlaid with elk antler and decorated with bands of mallard duck neck skin. There is red dyed horsehair tufts at each end. Duck skin is used because for the Sioux the duck appears in all three levels of the world - sky, water and earth. The buffalo hide bow and quiver case has red and black pigment mixed with glue. Even lines of glue are used to create lines around the black triangles. The bow has an elaborate design on the surface created by inlaid sections of elk horn. On either side of the inlaid area is a red painted band, at the ends of which are mallard scalp feathers that have almost disappeared. The bow is backed with white-painted thread. Attached to each end of the bow are red horsehair ornaments. Also attached is a strip of red stroud cloth fastened around the handgrip. The bow case and quiver are made of buffalo hide and have sparsely painted designs. There are five configured designs: two on each side of the bow case and one on the quiver. The designs are made up of elongated diamond shapes divided in half with a small linking section between each repeated triangular part. All parts of the design are delineated with thin impressed lines. The triangles are filled in alternately with dark brown and red color. The small linking section is brown. The intensity of the colors is pale, perhaps from an application of sizing. From the bottom of the bow case hang hide tabs, with pierced decorations.

The Pomo bear-doctor and the dagger he carried have left a trail of confusion in scholarly literature. Dr. Hudson, informant to Stewart Culin, Museum’s curator, summarized as follows. Bear men belong to a secret organization with a representative from each tribe. He preyed on the community and if killed another would be elected in his place. The object of the society was to eliminate undesirable people in the tribe. Bear-doctors were said to have carried one or two daggers of this type with the tips sharpened and rubbed on grinding stones.The realistic style of incising, impeccably rendered does indicate artist provenance to William Benson and has been found on other items know to have been made by Benson. Since several of these have been found in Museum collections, all made by Benson, these are clearly "models" made for the non-Native market.

This is a dark blue wool cloth dress with three bands of ribbon trim, red and white, along the bottom hem and sleeves. Individual teeth are tied in a yoke pattern on the front and back of the dress. The dress has rows and circles of brass and tin sequins on the skirt. Purple, ribbed silk binds the neck. The bottom hem has geometric cut edge so that it dips lower on each side than the front and back, a reference to historical hide dresses where the legs of the animal would be kept and oriented to the sides of the dress.

A tine wedge made of elk (wapiti) antler (Figure 10.11b: Larson & Lewarch 1995: 10-28 to 10-37).

Sorted from Excavated Material A flesher made from an elk (wapiti) proximal metapodial(?) (Figure 10.3d; Larson & Lewarch 1995: 10-6 to 10-12).

Worked elk (wapiti) proximal metapodial (Larson & Lewarch 1995: 10-25, 10-27). This object is also discussed in Appendix 4 in Larson & Lewarch 1995 (A4-3).

Sorted from Excavated Material Worked elk (wapiti) proximal metapodial (Larson & Lewarch 1995: 10-25, 10-27).

Sorted from Excavated Material A flesher made from an elk (wapiti) proximal metapodial(?) (Figure 10.3e; Larson & Lewarch 1995: 10-6 to 10-12).

Sorted from Excavated Material Bone wedge made from an elk (wapiti) limb bone (Fig 10.1c; described in Larson & Lewarch 1995: 10-4)