Spirit of the Ancestors-This maskette takes the form of a Tlingit shaman's headdress. Many contemporary Northwest Coast artists draw inspiration from both old and new objects from tribal traditions other than their own.

Anonymous loan

Headdress frontlet with a wooden bear crest, set within a frame, and painted red, green, and black. The back is unpainted. The frame as well as the bear's eyes, teeth, and paws have inlaid sections of carved abalone shell. Long ermine trailers hang down the back and sea lion whiskers stick out from the top. The headdress would have been worn for a Welcome or Peace Dance. The face's thick, heavy, black eyebrows help to corroborate this attribution. A fistful of eagle down feathers would be placed inside the center of the frontlet. As the chief danced and bowed and greeted his audience, the feathers would float out of his headdress symbolizing peace and friendship. In Tshimshian this was known as Am-halait or "power from the Sky." CONDITION: The object is in fair and stable condition. Special care in handling the piece should be taken for it was treated with arsenic in the past.

Headdress frontlet with a carved bear that can be identified by the depth of its eye sockets and the way its eyes are carved. The Bear appears to be overpowering an insect that has a segmented body and wings behind its head. Framing the carving along the sides and across the top are inset rectangles of abalone shell. Also inset with abalone are the bear's eyes, teeth and paws. The animal's face is blue-green with thick black outlined ears and heavy eyebrows. Its nose, mouth, and torso are red. The proper left edge of the frontlet was repaired and the wood backing for the abalone shell in this area was probably replaced. The object is in good condition. The frontlet might have been hollowed out at the thickest part of the piece behind the face to prevent splitting. The blue-green color is frequently used among the Tlingit while defined eye sockets are frequently indicated by the Haida. Some pieces of abalone shell in this piece are lighter and pinker than other bluer pieces and these pinker pieces may have been replacement pieces for the original blue inlays.

FRONT-PIECE FOR HEADDRESS. A FLAT PIECE OF WOOD CARVED AND PAINTED IN REPRESENTATION OF A HUMAN FIGURE. WORN IN CEREMONIAL DANCES.

PEALE # 301. CHIEF'S HEADDRESS WITH A CAP MADE OF DEER SKIN, AND A FRONTLET WHICH IS AN INLAID AND PAINTED MASK. THERE IS A LONG CLOTH TRAILER AT THE BACK, AND THE REMAINS OF FEATHERS, THE QUILLS AND DOWN AROUND THE TOP AND SIDES. HAS ORIGINAL PEALE TAG, ALSO WRITTEN ON MASK "NOOTKA SOUND, JL FOX". VIOLA & MARGOLIS, "MAGNIFICENT VOYAGERS," 1985, ILLUS. P. 141. THIS FRONTLET & HEADDRESS WERE RECATALOGUED WITH #72969, & A NOTATION READS, "REENTERED, SEPTEMBER 24, 1883"- THE PIECE NO LONGER HAS THIS NUMBER IN IT, BUT RETAINS ITS ORIGINAL NUMBERS. THIS RECATALOGING WAS APPARENTLY DONE AFTER THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION IN PHILADELPHIA. ON THE RETURN PERHAPS ITS TAG HAD BEEN LOST. EXHIBITED MAGNIFICENT VOYAGERS, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, 1985-86.FROM CARD: "INLAID WITH ABALONE SHELL. MARKED "NOOTKA SOUND" WITH ORIGINAL NUMBER. HOWEVER, THE ORIGINAL NUMBER APPEARS TO BE 301 NOT 296. ACCORDING TO THE 'PEALE' CATALOG THIS SHOULD BE 296 [?]."Provenience note, in 1841 Oregon Territory encompassed the land from Russian Alaska to Spanish California and from the Pacific to the Continental Divide. The U.S. Exploring Expedition did not go to Canada, but did reach Oregon Territory in 1841, and carried out a hydrographic survey of the Columbia River from its mouth to the Cascades, as well as doing some surveying inland.They had dealings with Hudson's Bay Company staff during that time, and it is probable that the HBC is the source of a number of the Northwest Coast artifacts collected by the expedition. The fact that this is marked "Nootka sound.", i.e. possibly Nootka?, is evidence for the HBC as the source of this mask.

FROM OLD 19TH OR EARLY 20TH CENTURY SMITHSONIAN EXHIBIT LABEL WITH CARD: "FRONT-PIECE FOR HEAD-DRESS.---A RECTANGULAR PIECE OF WOOD ON WHICH IS CARVED THE HEADS OF A BEAR AND A BIRD IN BOLD RELIEF. PAINTED BLUE, OUTLINES OF RED AND BLACK. LENGTH, 5 1/4 INCHES; WIDTH, 3 3/4 INCHES. SITKA INDIANS (KOLUSCHAN STOCK), SITKA, ALASKA. 20,755. COLLECTED BY JAMES G. SWAN. NEG. NO. 8379."There are two wooden frontlets for headdresses with this catalogue number. The first frontlet, per Stephen Loring, has a carved design of an eagle over a bear, and is painted blue/green, red and black. Neg. # 99-20244 is a photo of this piece. The second frontlet, with a more elongated shape, is mostly painted red and has a carved design of a fox-like animal. Neg. # 99-20243 is a photo of this piece.

From card: "This specimen belonged to Soodatl, daughter of Ellswarsh. 'Trimmed with ermine. The carved face is a correct likeness of Soodatl at 12 years old.' - Swan. Object is illus.: Plate X, facing p. 66 in Emmons, George T. 'Portraiture among the North Pacific Coast Tribes,' American Anthropologist, 16(1), 1914. Object is identified there as 'mask, which is attached to the ceremonial head-dress, presents the face of a young girl, named Soodatl, the daughter of a Skidegate chief. The face is ornamentally inlaid with small rectangles of the much-prized blue-green haliotis shell in imitation of the old custom, which prevailed among the higher classes, of sticking on the face, with spruce-gum, such small sections of this shell.' - p. 66. Additional Info in Lab Acc. file." Formerly on exhibit in NHB Hall 9, case 29. Exhibit label identified this as a headdress with wooden frontlet inlaid with haliotis shell; headdress is ornamented with upright sea lion whiskers, flicker feathers, and pendant white weasel skins.Per the entry on E89186 in the website http://alaska.si.edu/, "Ellswarsh" may refer to Daniel Eldjiwus, a chief and builder of the House of Contentment at Skidegate.Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact http://www.alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=636, retrieved 5-6-2012: Headdress, Haida. During potlatch and spirit-possession ceremonies, a high-ranking Haida woman or man would wear a magnificent headdress with a carved wooden frontlet, a crown of sea lion whiskers, and a floor-length train of white ermine pelts. Before a dance the whisker crown was filled with swan or eagle down, which drifted out during the performance and fell on the spectators like snow. This late 19th century headdress is a portrait of Soodatl, the twelve-year-old daughter of Chief Daniel Eldjiwus of Skidegate. Pieces of abalone on the girl's forehead and cheeks represent the custom of sticking pieces of the shell to the face with spruce pitch.This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.See Heather Pringle, "The Girl with the Shimmering Eyes," Hakai Magazine, May 27, 2015, accessed August 6, 2015, https://hakaimagazine.com/article-short/girl-shimmering-eyes/ , where Soodatl is identified as Suudaahl, who was also known later in life as Josephine Gladstone, daughter of Chief Daniel Elljuuwas.