Gift of Edwin Forgan Myers

Ivory shaman's charm carved in the form of an animal with large head. Attenuated body with 4 feet doubled beneath and a long tail. A hole for suspension pierces the object from top to bottom at the neck. CONDITION: Ivory cracked and stained in several places.

Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc.

Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation

Object is a flattish, hollow bone, shaped like a whale with a fin rising from the center of its back. On the fin is a carved face with mouth and teeth indicated. At one end of the whale is an open mouth. Throughout object are carved geometric forms: U-shapes, circles, and elipses forming another mouth, teeth, eyes and nostrils. Several incisions are filled with abalone shell; three pieces of shell are missing. On back of object, at either side of fin, are two holes equal in size. Thought to be used by a Shaman this would be used to catch or hold the ill person's soul while healing ceremonies would be performed. When finished with healing the person's soul would be retunred to his or her body. Condition: A portion of one end of the charm is void. Two holes of equal size appear on its back, one on either side of the fin.

Frank L. Babbott Fund

The exact use of this staff is unknown. It was possibly used as a shaman's curing staff. It depicts a raven with a long beak and flattened wings along the side. (Photograph does not show the body or the long staff itself). Most of the greenish paint has come off.

Two pieces of horn put together. The handle is black and carved, the ladle is thin and amber colored.

Listed on page 46 in "The Exhibits of the Smithsonian Institution at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California, 1915", in section "Arts of the Northwest Coast Tribes (Tools)".