Tlingit or Tsimshian Shaman's Headdress Attachments

Arthur G. Becker, Jackson, Wyoming
Abraham Rosman and Paula Rubel, New York, acquired from the above on June 25, 1990

The Northwest Coast shaman was a powerful intermediary between the spiritual and mortal realms. “He cures the sick, controls the weather, brings success in war and on the hunt, foretells the future […] reveals and overthrows the fiendish machinations of witches, and makes public demonstrations of his powers in many awe-inspiring ways. He is the most powerful figure in his own lineage.” (de Laguna, Under Mount Saint Elias: the History and Culture of the Yakutat Tlingit, Part Two, Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, Vol. 7, Washington, D.C., 1972, p. 670).

To fulfill his role in society the shaman required extensive paraphernalia, which included masks, rattles, animal skin garments, carved amulets of ivory or bone, and headdresses, or crowns, such as the present lot. According to Wardwell, these “shamanic crowns are in the form of curved tines representing bear claws that are attached to an animal hide or cloth headband.” (Wardwell, Tangible Visions: Northwest Coast Indian Shamanism and its Art, New York, 1996, p. 213). Here the fragile headband is absent, but the finely carved attachments remain.