Early uses of the ivory-billed woodpecker.

I read with considerable pleasure the account of the ivory-billed woodpecker's survival in “Ivory-billed woodpecker ( Campephilus principalis ) persists in continental North America” (J. W. Fitzpatrick et al. , Reports, 3 June, p. [1460][1]) and “Rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker” (D. S. Wilcove, Perspectives, 3 June, p. [1422][2]). The relatively intensive use of ivory-bill skulls in specific items of Native American material culture may suggest that the very low population density and infrequent encounter rates noted for recent populations may not have applied, at least to the same degree, to ivory-bill populations in the past. The Ioway—a group from the American midcontinent not generally associated with the southeastern old-growth bottomland forests identified as the range of the ivory-bill—used the skull of female ivory-bills as central elements in a series of Buffalo clan-related pipe bundles ([1][3]). A single pipe stem associated with the Pigeon clan used seven male ivory-bill heads as decoration. Pileated woodpeckers ( Dryocopus pileatus ) are also sometimes used, and one pipe whose clan associations are unclear included one male ivory-bill scalp, with the scalps of four pileated woodpeckers spaced along the shaft. The ivory-bill's widespread depictions in prehistoric art may also suggest that it was a more familiar sight than would be suggested by its relatively reclusive descendants. It appears, for example, on both engraved shell and ceramics from late prehistoric sites from Florida to Oklahoma ([2][4]); one particular style of engraved shell gorget, the so-called Cox Mound style, depicts four ivory-bills in rotation symmetry around the margins of the design, surrounding a looped square and cross-in-circle. Scholars differ regarding the meaning of the woodpecker heads ([3][5]). Although rarity may have been one factor in the selection of ivory-bill body parts for ceremonial objects, its use as a recognizable iconographic symbol suggests a greater degree of familiarity. 1. [↵][6] 1. A. Skinner , Ethnology of the Ioway Indians, (Bulletin of the Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee, WI, 1926), vol. 5. 2. [↵][7] 1. J. P. Brain, 2. P. Phillips , Shell Gorgets: Styles of the Late Prehistoric and Protohistoric Southeast (Peabody Museum Press, Cambridge, MA, 1996). 3. [↵][8] George Lankford has suggested they represent the four winds (4); Barker suggests sentinels (5). 4. 1. R. Townsend 1. G. Lankford , in Hero Hawk and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South, R. Townsend, Ed. (Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, CT, 2004), pp. 217-218. 5. 1. A. Barker , Archaeology 55((no. 4)), 44 (2002). [OpenUrl][9][Web of Science][10] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1114103 [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1114507 [3]: #ref-1 [4]: #ref-2 [5]: #ref-3 [6]: #xref-ref-1-1 "View reference 1 in text" [7]: #xref-ref-2-1 "View reference 2 in text" [8]: #xref-ref-3-1 "View reference 3 in text" [9]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DArchaeology%26rft.volume%253D55%26rft.issue%253D%2528no.%2B4%2529%26rft.spage%253D44%26rft.atitle%253DARCHAEOLOGY%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [10]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=000185642900027&link_type=ISI