This canoe is a small model of the Westcoast seagoing type, in use from below the Dalles to the north end of Vancouver Island and in all the inland waters of Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia. The Makah and their Westcoast relatives across the Strait of Juan de Fuca were the master builders of this style of canoe. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)

The raven rattle is a traditional part of the paraphernalia of a dancing chief, which also includes an elaborate headdress, a robe, an apron fringed with rattling pendants, and leggings. In use, the rattle was often held belly up in the dancer's extended hand and shaken rapidly and continuously throughout the dance. Occasionally rattles were used in pairs. Many of them were made, and there are a great number in museum and private collections. Most of these rattles depict ravens, but there are a few that represent other birds--hawks or thunderbirds, puffins or petrels among them. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)

The paint is black.

The paint is red, green, and black.

The paint is red and black.

The paint is red and black. The bead is blue.

The paint is black and red.

The paint is red and black.

Mat creasers are almost always elaborated by carving, and often take the form of a bird. Ususally they are quite flat, but this one has the hand-comfortable shape of a fat duck. The bulbous body and smoothly sculptured head and tail are reminiscent of some Salish rattles. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)