Unga Island / Delarof Harbor, Port Moller Quad / Aleutian Islands / Shumagin Islands, Alaska, United States, North America
Accession Date:
26 Jan 1869
Collection Date:
1868
Notes:
FROM CARD: "USED IN RELIGIOUS CEREMONY & C. ILLUS. IN BAE 3RD AR, PL. XXIX, FIG.74, P. 203. ILLUS.: HNDBK. N. AMER. IND., VOL. 5, ARCTIC, PG. 127, FIG. 7. WOODEN MASK WITH LIGHT TRACES OF COLORING REMAINING; ONE EAR IS MISSING AS ARE THE TEETH, WHICH WERE SINGLE PEGS." On p. 140 and in the illustration caption, p. 203, of the BAE 3rd AR, Dall describes this mask and indicates that in 1868, Captain Riedell gave it to him and that it was an Aleut mortuary mask from a cave near the entrance to Delarof Harbor, Unga Island, Shumagin Islands. He also indicates E7946 and A13002 are from the same cave.
Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=24, retrieved 5-15-2014: Mask Masks were worn during the elaborate "plays" or ceremonial performances that Aleutian Islands villages presented to invited guests from other settlements, accompanied by generous feasts and gift-giving that often left the hosts in a state of proud poverty and near-starvation.In the chief's communal house, masked performers enacted hunts, dramatic battles, and ancestral legends for the assembled guests, accompanied by drumming and songs. In other kinds of winter festivals, described by Solov'ev, Tolstykh, Levashev, Sarychev, and other Russian visitors during the latter half of the 1700s, masked men and women danced to the beat of drums and carried bladder-rattles made from inflated seal stomachs. In celebration of obtaining a whale, Solov'ev - in the eastern Aleutians during 1764-65 - wrote that "some of them dance naked in wooden masks, which reach down to their shoulders, and represent various sorts of sea-animals." Men and women dressed in beautifully decorated parkas, hats, belts, and intestine coats to attend and perform in the winter festivals. Detailed descriptions of the Unangan ceremonies are lacking, and their real meanings are largely lost. Krenitsyn and Levashev (on Unimak Island in 1768) said that the masks represented "devils" that appeared to shamans, and Netsvetov (on Atka Island in 1828-1844) also wrote that Atkan shamans created masks to represent the spirits of animals and the natural world. Religious conversion to Russian Orthodoxy brought about the decline of the original ceremonies by the early 1800s. A modern masking tradition continues, however, in the form of mascarrata, a religious play in which devils or evil spirits are represented by masked members of the community. It is performed on Russian New Year (January 6). The same custom (called maskalataq) is maintained in some Alutiiq villages. Traditionally, masks and drums were either destroyed or placed in caves, never to be used again. Masks have been found in several Aleutian caves at Atka, Tigalda (see mask NMAI 75905), Kagamil, and most abundantly at Unga Island in the Shumagin group. French linguist Alphonse Pinart, who was shown the cave in 1871, thought that the masks and human burials he found inside were connected to the ritual practices of Unangan whale hunters. Anthropologist Lydia Black suggests that the Unga masks represent men who have been transformed into killer whales. This Unga Island mask, with its large nose and flaring nostrils, is similar in style to others from the cave. It bears traces of red and green paint. Holes around the edges once held painted wooden ornaments. Attached to the back is a wooden grip for holding the mask with the teeth. For this reason, it may be supposed that the Unga Island masks were once worn by living dancers, although the dead were also supplied with ritual equipment that they could use to participate in ceremonies during the afterlife.
From Elders' discussions of the object in 2003 with Mary N. Bourdukofsky, Vlass Shabolin, Maria Turnpaugh and Daria Dirks (Tanadgusix Foundation) at the National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of the American Indian, 4/07/2003-4/11/2003. Also participating: Aron Crowell and Bill Fitzhugh (NMNH) and Suzi Jones (AMHA). Mary Bourdukofsky: The story I used to hear was that long ago, when they buried the chief - tuukg^uu [chief, leader] I always call it - of the village and the islands, they buried him with his things that he treasured and were sacred and put them in the cave where they put him after they mummified him. I think the rest of his things were handed down to the sons and their grandchildren and so on. And another story I heard from my dad is that Aleuts taught themselves how to cure. And if somebody died, they say they wrapped them up like a mummy, but they took all the insides out and studied their insides to figure out the cause of the death. And before they buried them, they stuffed them with grass and moss, then wrapped them all up. That's where the mummies come from, and women started making burial masks for them. Daria Dirks: Maybe they used some of the masks for ceremonial dancing. Mary Bourdukofsky: Yeah, they did. When he's dancing, how did he see? The eyes are not - unless his eyes were here [nostrils]. How they kept it on their face? Aron Crowell: I think if it was worn for dancing, it would have to have some sort of brace. Some of them have a bar that you can plant in your teeth and a strap around the back. Mary Bourdukofsky: Mm-hmm. Daria Dirks: What kind of wood do we think this is? Vlass Shabolin: Cottonwood. Cottonwood is so soft you could cut into it like that. Mary Bourdukofsky: It's driftwood. We don't have trees, but there's a lot of driftwood around the Island. Maria Turnpaugh: We get all kinds of driftwood. Aron Crowell: This might have been painted. You can still see little traces of red. Some of the masks from the cave showed more paint than this one. Daria Dirks: Doesn't that [side of nose] look like green? Aron Crowell: Yes.
Maria Turnpaugh: Looks like it might be stained, and under the lips there too. Aron Crowell: It's likely that these holes around the sides were for attachments of different kinds. A lot of the pieces that were found in the cave are parts that stuck out around the mask. Mary Bourdukofsky: Sticking feathers and stuff in it, to decorate it. Aron Crowell: One thing I'm noticing is a piece that fell off was fixed with wooden pegs, I think while the mask was being made, because you even see the lines go right over the top of the pegs. Maybe the maker had to add some pieces to get it wide enough or something.
