NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN. MURDOCH, DAVID, 1995, Publisher: EYEWITNESS BOOKS - ALFRED A. KNOPF FROM THE LAND OF THE TOTEM POLES. JONAITIS, ALDONA, 1988

FIELD, FAIR, MUSEUM: FRANZ BOAS, "THE KWAKIUTL," AND THE MAKING OF ANTHROPOLOGY (BARD GRADUATE CENTER, NEW YORK, NY, USA, 2019) TOTEMS TO TURQUOISE (AMNH, NEW YORK, NY, USA, 2019)

These shield-shaped objects made of commercial copper represent monetary wealth. As coppers are bought and sold by chiefs, their value increases, sometimes to the equivalent of thousands of dollars. They are displayed on ceremonial occasions, and exchanged at noble marriages. Sometimes during quarrels, pieces were cut from them and publicly given to the offender. That person was then obliged in turn to break a copper to protect his own name. The most valuable coppers have been cut and patched many times.

Coppers vary widely in size, but this one seems too small for actual use as a copper. It may have been made for some decorative use. The fact that this copper is made of brass weighs against its use as a real copper. A face is painted on the upper, flaring section, and there are stripes and stars on the two sides of the lower part. (Holm, Crooked Beak of Heaven, 1972)

One of the most characteristic objects of Northwest Coast manufacture is the copper. Superficially resembling a shield, it had throughout the northern coast a place of high regard as an object of chiefly paraphernalia. Among most of the coastal people, and especially among the Kwakwaka'wakw, it was considered to represent monetary wealth. (Holm, Crooked Beak of Heaven, 1972)