NUU-CHAH-NULTH OR MAKAH THUNDERBIRD AND WOLF CLUB

George Terasaki, New York, acquired in the 1970s

Steven C. Brown, Transfigurations: North Pacific Coast Art. George Terasaki, Collector, Seattle, 2006, n.p., pl. 70 (two views)

The main figure of this fine, early bone club is a thunderbird whose arched, open beak lends power and personality to the object. Above the beak, a deeply incised circle with two opposing trigon shapes defines the eye of the thunderbird. Above this head, the smaller profile figure appears to be a wolf, with a blunt snout and pointed, laid-back ears. A double-incised line along the thunderbird’s brow extends down to the round hole cut through the pommel for a wrist strap. From this juncture, four finely incised lines indicating the front paws of the wolf are carved into the cheek of the thunderbird.

This club once had the uncommon feature of inlays added to the sculptured and incised decorations. The eyes of the thunderbird, three small rectangles beneath the mouth, and a narrow triangle at the tip of the blade all appear to have been cut deeply enough to accept inlaid shell pieces. These would have been cut from the blue-green abalone (Haliotis fulgens) obtained in trade from the California coast. Commonly held in place with spruce gum, these shell pieces have since been lost from the surface. Three simple, incised lines run parallel down the length of the blade and terminate at the once inlaid triangle at the tip. This incised blade design possibly represents a whaling harpoon.

The carving style and general appearance of this fine club suggest that it was made sometime around the arrival of the first Euro-Americans in the late eighteenth century. Most clubs of this type were probably in existence at this time, though they presumably continued to be made into the first half of the nineteenth century. Ownership of these types of weapons was apparently limited to those families who had traditional rights to the hunting of whales. Thunderbird, wolf, and serpent imagery is common to objects related to whaling ceremonials, and the use of such images indicated one’s connection to the chiefly families who upheld ancient whaling traditions among the Nuu-chah-nulth and Makah First Nations.

Steven C. Brown