Headdress decorated with small colored feathers. Construction materials include hide, cotton, and reinforcements of wood or reeds. Object is moderately unstable in fair condition. Size: adult. Probable wearer: male or male? Plain weave, feather glued to hide (NK). Paired warp plain weave cotton ground (AR).

The Dzunuk'wa, or Cannibal women is a figure important to those Kwakwaka'wakw people who have an ancestral relationship to the stories involving her. She is a large, cumbersome figure, looking very bear like with shaggy fur over her body. She is clumsy and lumbers through the Northwest Coast cedar forests crying "Hoo Hoo Hoo" through her pursed lips. She is thought to carry a large woven basket with her. Should she discover a child who has disobeyed their parents and entered the woods without an adult she scoops them upinto her basket and takes them to her den to eat them! Thus children are always warned against entering the forests without permission! Her mask is a large, and wooden, painted shiny black with spattered white pigment overall and accents of red pigment and fur. The mouth has a large round opening that is surrounded by prominent red lips. Pursed as if she is crying "hoo hoo." The interior of the eyes and nostrils that are large round holes painted red. Fur, possibly bear, attached with iron nails, surrounds the lips and forms the eyebrows. A previous application of fur on these areas is suggested by the appearance of corroded nails holding down remnants of fur plus extraneous nail holes. Used originally to secure the mask are leather thongs at the eyes, the back surface just below the eyes, and at the chin where they were attached to a leather strap. The ritual dance performed with this mask continues today by an individual who inherits the privilege. On the body of the dancer would be bear like regalia and the dancer mimics the clumsy gait of the real Dzunuk'wa. Some feast dishes have forms similar to those contained in these masks. The object is stable and in fair condition. Along the edges, especially on the lower, proper right side is old insect damage. Long vertical cracks are present in the wood, but appear stable.

Charles Stewart Smith Memorial Fund

High hide boots with beaded trim in chevron pattern rows along calf and around vamp.

Anonymous gift in memory of Dr. Harlow Brooks

Anonymous gift in memory of Dr. Harlow Brooks

Bequest of W.S. Morton Mead

Brooklyn Museum Collection

Brooklyn Museum Collection

This is a painted elk hide. The narrative includes a camp scene with tipis, a "sun" dance, modified to show an eagle rising above the pole structure, which has an unraised buffalo head. Warriors dressed in finery are entering the village. On the fringe a group of women sit near a fire. The perimeter depicts a buffalo hunt with the hunters on horseback using rifles. Vignettes of skinning the buffaloes are also depicted with heaps of the heads, hides and hooves separated and piled. The colors used are brown, black, red, pink, purple, blue, maroons, and green. See supplementary files in Arts of Americas office for a study of paints.