This is a beaded, hide band with clear, black, pink, yellow, blue and red beads. An old tag indicates this belonged to Sitting Bull and collected around 1914.

Plume stick consisting of a wooden handle and two feathers attached to the handle by two cords of white beads.This pin would be stuck into the bunch of owl feathers (08.491.8807). These items are part of the feathered headgear stuck into a hairnet and tied at the back of a dancer's head.

Florence B. and Carl L. Selden Fund

Modeled deer with legs folded under in a posture of repose. (lower right in photo) Tail and ears are modeled; eyes are indicated by holes. Three-pronged antlers, constructed from twisted bits of hide, are inserted in front of the ears. Most of the body of the deer has been covered with black slip. Unslipped are the chin, upper chest, and most of the bottom of the piece.

The object, a dance shield, is one of a pair commissioned by Culin for the Museum. The difference between the two is that this shield has a painted pale blue sun with light red stars and the other (03.325.3504) has a pale red sun with light blue stars.

Heart of the Sky God (Sotuknangu) Kachina Doll. Or sometimes referred to as the Star Kachina (Sootukwnang) Master of the Universe. Either way it represents a deity. This is a deity impersonated by elders in certain kiva ceremonies. May also appear in Powamu, Mixed Dances of springtime. Believed to control the dangerous thunderheads, lightening and destructive rain. He wears a peaked hat (with feathers) that represents thunderheads. He holds a representation of the expandable sticks in his PL hand that represent lightening. The PR foot is slightly raised as well as his PR arm and the hand holds a gourd rattle with a four point star on it. He has yarn ties on his wrists and the top of the carved and painted brown boots. PR hand has a rattle His body painted blue, wears a traditional white kilt and sash with a carved fox tail in the back and a leather bandolier with shells crosses over his chest and back. His mask is helmet style with the front painted white and the back green. Black slits with rain drops over them for eyes, hourglass forms on his cheeks and a triangular mouth. The edge of his headdress is trimmed with ruffled yarn. The ears are large red disks with turquoise bead earring loops. This Kachina appears during the Angk'wa, night dances) usually with a mixed Kachina group. In the dance he carries a bull roarer and expandable sticks to make lightening when he dances.

The toggle head is a seal poking through the ice at one end with an angled spur located at the other. The toggle types have a line hole near the midsection of the harpoon head.The toggle head is attached to a fore-shaft assembly which provides the weight to thrust the head through the mammal’s skin and blubber right down into the muscle. When the strike is good enough to get the harpoon head deep into the animal’s muscle, the fore-shaft assembly falls away. This toggle may have been used for seal hunting.

The object, a dance shield, is one of a pair commissioned by Culin for the Museum. The difference between the two is that this shield has a painted, pale red sun with light blue stars and the other (03.325.3505) has a pale blue sun with light red stars.

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Francis T. Christy

Robert B. Woodward Memorial Fund