Skidegate, Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii) / Graham Island, British Columbia, Canada, North America
Accession Date:
21 Dec 1883
Collection Date:
Oct 1883
Notes:
From card: "This specimen belonged to Soodatl, daughter of Ellswarsh. 'Trimmed with ermine. The carved face is a correct likeness of Soodatl at 12 years old.' - Swan. Object is illus.: Plate X, facing p. 66 in Emmons, George T. 'Portraiture among the North Pacific Coast Tribes,' American Anthropologist, 16(1), 1914. Object is identified there as 'mask, which is attached to the ceremonial head-dress, presents the face of a young girl, named Soodatl, the daughter of a Skidegate chief. The face is ornamentally inlaid with small rectangles of the much-prized blue-green haliotis shell in imitation of the old custom, which prevailed among the higher classes, of sticking on the face, with spruce-gum, such small sections of this shell.' - p. 66. Additional Info in Lab Acc. file." Formerly on exhibit in NHB Hall 9, case 29. Exhibit label identified this as a headdress with wooden frontlet inlaid with haliotis shell; headdress is ornamented with upright sea lion whiskers, flicker feathers, and pendant white weasel skins.
Per the entry on E89186 in the website http://alaska.si.edu/, "Ellswarsh" may refer to Daniel Eldjiwus, a chief and builder of the House of Contentment at Skidegate.
Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact http://www.alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=636, retrieved 5-6-2012: Headdress, Haida. During potlatch and spirit-possession ceremonies, a high-ranking Haida woman or man would wear a magnificent headdress with a carved wooden frontlet, a crown of sea lion whiskers, and a floor-length train of white ermine pelts. Before a dance the whisker crown was filled with swan or eagle down, which drifted out during the performance and fell on the spectators like snow. This late 19th century headdress is a portrait of Soodatl, the twelve-year-old daughter of Chief Daniel Eldjiwus of Skidegate. Pieces of abalone on the girl's forehead and cheeks represent the custom of sticking pieces of the shell to the face with spruce pitch.
This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
See Heather Pringle, "The Girl with the Shimmering Eyes," Hakai Magazine, May 27, 2015, accessed August 6, 2015, https://hakaimagazine.com/article-short/girl-shimmering-eyes/ , where Soodatl is identified as Suudaahl, who was also known later in life as Josephine Gladstone, daughter of Chief Daniel Elljuuwas.
