Sitkinak Island, Kodiak Islands / Trinity Islands, Alaska, United States, North America
Accession Date:
8 Feb 1884
Notes:
From card: "a-gai-julch-gu-dit. Came in two parts (chin had been broken off), left side of face from top of forehead to bottom of chin, including the highly relief carved eyebrow or ridge, long narrow nose, narrow mouth slit, and an eye slit. Remains of red paint. There is some burning on the nose, which may be the result of the practice of some of the missionaries of trying to destroy all evidences of the native religion." Illus. Fig. 133, p. 143 in Crowell, Aron, Amy F. Steffian, and Gordon L. Pullar. 2001. Looking both ways: heritage and identity of the Alutiiq people. Fairbanks, Alaska: University of Alaska Press.
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=202, retrieved 8-28-2012: Mask, Sugpiaq (Alutiiq), Koniag. agayullgútaq "mask" - Language: Koniag Sugpiaq (Kodiak Island dialect) This mask has a birdlike mouth and the pointed head of a dangerous being called an íyaq on Kodiak Island and a kaláaq in Prince William Sound; today's elders translate these words as "devil." An íyaq was the soul of an evil or insane person who had died five times and was said to be hungry for meat or human flesh. An íyaq could be used by a shaman as his helping spirit to spy on distant events, to carry messages, or to carry him to other worlds. Owls, cranes, and other birds also served as shaman's assistants, perhaps explaining this mixed being's pointed beak. The mask has been partly burned, perhaps to destroy it after a shaman's ritual or hunting ceremony.
This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
