Tlingit Ceremonial Blanket (1920s-1930s)

The Tlingit clan lived alongside the coast mountains, to the left of British Colombia.

This ceremonial blanket is made entirely from foreign wares: dark blue broadcloth imported from the Sprout valley in England, red flannel from textile mills in Manchester and Massachusetts, and pearl buttons from China, America, and Europe. It also contains mother of pearl and abalone shell buttons and glass buttons. This ceremonial blanket was worn at various occasions, displaying the family crest of the owner (depicting ancestor beings and signaling Tlingit clan rights).

The detailed design on this blanket shows us that the American Indians were very keen on intricate designs. Each button is sown on separately, all linked in the shape of what seems to be a kind of fish. The fact that the cloth was traded from foreigners illustrates that not only did the English adopt from the American Indians, but the American Indians also took from the English.

We know from textbooks that the English learned the how-to’s of the land from the American Indians. We also know that the English traded with the Native Americans for their goods, which they then sold overseas. This artifact further shows us that the American Indians also used English goods, particularly cloth. It shows us that the American Indians adopted from the English, and welcomed their lifestyle in some ways.

The Tomohawk of White Swan, Crow, circa 1870.

This artifact is a form of tomahawk that was preferred by the Crow nation. It has a blade that is angular and rhomboid which enhances the aerodynamic effect. The handle is yellow on the bottom and brown on top to make the distinction between where the hand should go prior to the throw clearer. Fur is used to make it easier to hold on to for a long period of time, as well as to decrease friction between the skin and tomahawk. There is a small crook on the bottom of the blade which could be used to account for the affect of wind, as well as to cause more internal injury upon contact. The tomahawk was once owned by reknowned Crow scout, and warrior White Swan.

This tomahawk was not used for hunting. It is far too angular to hurt a large animal, and far too unwieldy to catch a smaller one. This tomahawk was a weapon that was meant to be used as a weapon either against other nations, for the American army, or against individual enemies. White Swan was just 13 when he obtained this blade. This means that he was considered a fully fledged warrior at the age of 13, and equal in the eyes of his entire tribe. This shows that the life expectancies were rather short among Native American communities, and also shows that maturation was extremely rapid, far faster than the contemporary European style of coming of age. White Swan was famous among his tribe mates for being particularly accurate with his tomahawk and for this reason he enlisted into the US army.

White Swan’s talents were not limited to the throes of battle, rather he was also a successful artist and scout. He was also known to be formidable with agriculture, and oral histories dictate that he was a loyal person, who had a raging temper at anyone who endangered the Crows.

White Swan was terrible injured in the Battle of Little Big Horn, when his army regiment George Armstrong Custer’s Seventh Cavalry suffered a paralyzing defeat at the hands of the Sioux/ Cheyenne force. He lost functionality in both ears, and he was also struck with a club over the head which caused him to become dumb as well. He had a severely damaged right wrist, and lost almost all use for his left foot.

He continued to serve as a scout for 5 years, before getting discharged. Afterwards he had no place to live, so he moved back to the Crow Agency. There he attempted to earn a meager living by painting the event of his life including the battle previously described. Eventually the army gave him a very meager pension.

This story is indicative of how the US Army mistreated Native American veterans. White Swan fought bravely for the Army however upon being discharged he was left to handle his life on his own accords.

The Fancy Shawl Displayed on a Model of a Young Girl

Description of the Fancy Shawl

The Circular Room in Which the Fancy Shawl Was Displayed

An artifact that particularly caught my attention was the Yakama Girl’s Fancy Shawl Dance. I found this artifact in the dance exhibit on the lower level of the museum. The layout of the exhibit itself really drew me in and made me very interested in what was inside. The room was large and circular, with the middle of the room an open dance floor and a large screen showing movies of native people performing traditional dances. The dress that caught my attention did so because the model wearing the dress was a child. I learned a lot about the Yakama people, who live in the mid-US, by looking at this dress and reading the description. Their culture is very focused on song and dance, with children being taught to keep rhythm as young as they possibly can. It is very important for Yakama people to know traditional songs and dances. Yakama people are from and currently live in the midwest. This particular costume is worn for the Fancy Shawl Dance. It is an upbeat dance traditionally performed by young girls. This dance was one of the ways through which young children were instructed to respect and serve their elders, families, and entire tribe. It is currently still performed as a way to retain the Yakama traditions.

Mask worn on back of ceremonial dancer

The Kwakwaka’wakw mechanical mask is a colorful and eccentric head ornament that is worn during ritual performances. The artifact was found in Cape Mudge, Vancouver Island, British Columbia from the early 20^th century.

The mask is thought to resemble the sea monster Namxilagiyu, and is worn by ceremonial dancers at Kwakwaka’wakw potlatches. The mask isn’t simply one large mold, but is made of various components that allow the different parts of the mask to be manipulated and moved around during ritual performances.

The Kwakwaka’wakw placed great emphasis on cultural rituals. This mask is very intricate and the mechanical portions of the mask must have taken a very long time to build. The movable pieces of this mask couldn’t have been simple to create, and the fact that this mask doesn’t seem to have a functional use in the day to day lives of the natives shows that this was solely created for traditional dances. The great amount of time and effort put into these works indicate that rituals are very important to the Kwakwaka’wakw people.

This nation was also very respectful of nature, as shown by the reverence that animals are given in their spiritual practices and beliefs. Also, much of the cultural paraphernalia often resembles animals and contains parts of animals. Much of this mask in particular was formed from pieces from nature such as wood, paint, fur, and cordage to tie the different pieces together.

Cherokee Booger Dance Mask North Carolina, ca. 1910

This mask is part of the Cherokee culture and it is made out of gourd, fox fur, and cordage. The mask has a long nose and bushy hair all over. Dances to this day are a part of Cherokee social and ceremonial life. In the Booger dance, men wearing ragged clothing and this type of mask interrupt a social event. When they are asked who they are, these wild intruders give foreign names and try to start fights. Each intruder then proceeds to preform a solo (and often lewd) dance. The Cherokees believed that all forms of death and illness came from outside of their settlements so these intruders represented Euro-Americans that often trespassed Cherokee homelands and disrupted their way of life.

The recreation of outsiders interrupting Cherokee social events and these interruptions starting fights suggests that dancing was not only a social event, but also a significant part of Cherokee culture. Also, we can see that the Cherokees held negative views toward the European colonizers since when these intruders came dressed as the Europeans, they were seen as wild men who wore horrid masks, made loud noises, and wore ragged clothing. In fact, the Cherokees blamed the colonizers for bringing any illnesses and deaths into the tribe.

By: Mayan of La Corona, Department of el Petén, Guatemala Limestone (AD 600-750).

The Maya civilization inhabited the lands of Central America and Mexico such as modern-day Yucatan, Tabasco, Chiapas, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras. This artifact depicts a Maya ball player ready to strike a ball. The ball player’s pose shows that this game heavily depended on the use of the whole body, particularly the hips, to strike the ball. The ball player is wearing a mask, headdress, a leather or wooden yoke belt, and a chest protector called palmas. The heavy gear that the ball players wore indicated that protection was necessary in this game because most of these games ended with blood. The reason that this game was filled with violence is because of the rubber filled ball that was about two feet in diameter that could literally knock out the player. The panel is carved from limestone and comes from the royal center of La Corona. The exquisite material that the panel is carved from and the location that it was carved in shows the importance of this ball game in Maya civilization. The figure on the panel seems noble and divine-like showing that this ball game was used for religious and ritual reasons. In fact, this panel was carved around 600-750 AD when the Maya civilization was dominated by the imperial city of Calakmul. Many Calakmul kings visited La Corona for its fortunes and amazing ball courts. The winner of the ball games was believed to be favored by the gods. The headdress also has a jaguar figure which is important because the jaguar was a symbol of strength in Mayan civilization. The idea that most of these games ended with the death or severe injury of the player depicted the gruesome rules of this game.The gruesome rules of the ball game, the various gears worn, and the religious symbols depicted in the panel demonstrated the importance of strength and sacrifice in terms of pleasing the Mayan gods.

This artifact tells us that even Native American cultures such as the Mayan culture had an establishment of a social hierarchy. This game was played by individuals of different social classes down the social hierarchy pyramid. The interesting fact about this ball game is that it was played by women, children, and nobles alike. This meant that this game was somewhat an equalizer in the social hierarchy because the loser of the game would often be used as sacrifice to please the gods. This is also important because it portrays the method of settling disputes between rival Native American societies. Native American societies settled their disputes by playing this ball game because the winner of the game aimed to kill or injure the rival in a way that seemed legal in Mayan civilization. This was a loop hole in which rivals could legally settle disputes rather than illegally causing public bloodshed. The ball game had religious purposes as well as political purposes of settling a dispute between rival communities.

This broadens our narrative of American history because it shows the diversity and unity that was present before European colonization of the Americas. This sport was widely practiced in Mesoamerica/ Caribbean and many other similar sports were used in religious practices in other parts of America. The museum administrator told us that the museum was divided into 10 regions based on different beliefs, traditions, and laws. The practice of this sport in Mesoamerica further proved the point that even though diversity was found throughout America prior to colonization, similar sports and religious beliefs would unite regions of Native American cultures.

By: Valdivia natives of Ecuador (3500 B.C. – 1800 B.C.)

The clay figurines exhibited are of the Valdivia women of Ecuador around 3500 B.C. Although the faces were simple, their unique expressions and flowing hair were accentuated in detail. They were made by pressing two long pieces of clay together for sculpting the body while a slab at the top became the boxed-hair look. The colors were both red and the natural tint of clay. The figurines on display were all female and had long hair which shows that the Valdivia females most likely kept their hair lengthy. The female bodies were standing upright with plump breasts, straight shoulders, and heads raised. Another themed characteristic of this particular set of figurines is that the arms are crossed over the belly.

As the figurines are female, they may be made to represent fertility, production, or agricultural development. In particular, the arms crossed over the belly suggest an association with the womb and fertility. The Valdivia culture may have involved the use of these figurines in agricultural rituals and calling for rain. Several from the collection were found to be intentionally broken revealing that the breaking of these figurines may have been a ritual. However, there are missing pieces to what we have discovered about the Valdivia natives, including when their culture came to a definite end. In reference to Native American culture, the figurines standing with poise show reverence to the female body and agriculture success.

In finding these clay figurines, it was revealed that the Valdivia culture created the oldest-known pottery of the Western Hemisphere and the oldest-known figurines in the Americas. The origin of ceramic production, still used today, can be traced back to these Native Americans who lived in the Americas thousands of years ago. This practice may have started individually in different cultures or spread through trade and cultural interaction.

Akime! O’odham Oos:hikbina (calendar stick) Kept by Joseph Head

This stick made of saguaro cactus wood is a calendar stick titled “Akime! O’odham Oos:hikbina” and was found in Arizona, dating back to circa 1833-1921. ‘Oos:hikbina’ was translated by the Akimel O’ odham (River People) as “stick cut upon” and was used to keep oral histories alive using etchings and various symbols. One side of the stick was kept flat to ensure easy etchings of dots, small notches, V-shaped cuts, and deep straight lines to represent years. The symbols on the stick were often painted with blue soot and red clay. This Oos:hikbina records events dating back to 1833, from battles to natural phenomena to European influences like the building of the railroad in 1886. This stick documented important parts of history for the Akimel O’ odham, which gives historians a means to analyze and record parts of Native American history that are unknown to the public. A common misperception is that the natives are a savage group of people without any language or written form of communication; however, this stick – although seemingly useless – actually gives insight into the world of the Native Americans and shows that many of the tribes were organized and sophisticated enough to document important events.   

This artifact is a piece of stone with a depiction of what seems to be mountain goats on it. It is a gray, medium sized stone. The goats are etched into the stone, possibly by another stone. There are two big goats on top, followed by six smaller goats beneath them. This artifact is known as a petroglyph. A petroglyph is an image created by removing a part of a rock’s surface to create rock art. It is a type of engraving on rock or stone. This petroglyph was said to have been made somewhere between 600 and 1300 A.D. This style of art is very common in the area in which it was found. Over 100,000 rock elements were found in a relatively small area in California, in the Inyo County. The artist was most like describing a goat hunting ritual. This was one way in which Native Americans expressed and documented all that they did, even the more mundane things like hunting.

This artifact tells its audience that although very limited, the Native Americans did have some way in which they expressed and recorded that which was going on around them. Hunting was a fundamental part of their life to give them the sustainability they needed to live. We learn from this that art was a main part of the culture. This was the way they expressed themselves and told about their day to day life. This was one rock found that could have been part of a whole collection of rocks which may have made up an entire story. Their culture included art, and this piece of art portrays a key activity that they took part in. Their art form shows the way they would use different tools and materials they had around them in nature to create their piece of work.

This piece broadens the narrative of American history, by showing that the Native Americans had a whole life before the Europeans came. They had their own pieces of artwork and made them based on what they were doing. The goats were one of their sources of food. It further proves to the audience that they were people, just living their lives like us.