The pigment is red. The cord is cotton. The down is bird.

CEDAR BARK CAPE Kwakwaka'wakw Skilled weavers soak yellow cedar bark in salt water and pound it until it is soft enough for capes and robes. This cape, from Alert Bay, British Columbia, originally had a comfortable fur neckline. 1800s; Gift of Young Naturalists' Society; No. 4794

The cord is cotton. The pigment is red. The down is bird.

This mask represents one of the mythical human-eating birds that appear during the Hamatsa dances, the most important of the Tseyka dances. The appearance of these masks helps to calm and tame the initiate Hamatsa dancer, who has been possessed by the Cannibal Spirit. The dancer, hidden by a long fringe of red-dyed cedar bark, imitates the high-stepping actions of the bird, shouts the bird's call, and snaps the hinged beak loudly at important points of the dance. (Holm, Crooked Beak of Heaven, 1972)

Masks worn in the taming of the hamatsa vary widely in size. At just over one foot in length, this crooked beak mask is among the smaller masks. It may be an example of a type called heyhliwey, a small forehead mask worn by the hamatsa himself or his female attendant during his last, tame dance. However, because the jaw is hinged and controlled with a cord suggests that it was intended to be used in the humsumala or cannibal mask dance. The short snout, simple painting, and the form of the nostril are characteristic of hamatsa masks made around the turn of the century. (Holm, Crooked Beak of Heaven, 1972)

The dye is red.

Galokwudzuis, Crooked Beak of the Sky, is one of a household of monster birds and creatures, associates of the Man-eater Bahkwbakwalanooksiwey, the motivator of the major dances of the Tseyka, the winter ceremonial of the Kwakwaka'wakw. Of these dances, the first is the Hamatsa, impersonator of Man-eater himself. The Tseyka dances come from ancestors' fabled experiences with the creatures of the supernatural world, and the public dramatizations of those encounters are among the most prestigious ceremonial acts. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)

The paint is red, white, black, and green.