Prayer-Stick ("The Bible")
date: label: Accession Date
content: 9 Sep 1898
name: label: Donor Name
content: C H. Bartlett
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "PRAYER STICK. ILLUS. 14TH AN. REPT. B. A.E.. TABLET OF MAPLEWOOD, HAVING CHARACTERS ON ONE SIDE. (SEE MOONEY, 14TH AN. REPORT, PT. 2, BUR. ETHNOL.) KICKAPOO BIBLE. SEE: ALSO PAINTINGS #241 AND 242 OF KICKAPOO INDIANS BY GEORGE CATLIN, SHOWING THE USE OF THE MNEMONIC DEVICES. ILLUS. HNDBK. OF N. AMER. INDIANS, VOL. 15, NORTHEAST, FIG. 8, PG. 663. 178369. ILLUS.: BAE 14TH AR, PT. 2, PL. LXXXVI, PG. 698. SEE PAGES 697-700 FOR DESCRIPTION AND INFO. ON USE AND ORIGIN." Caption in Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 15, p. 663, identifies this as "Kickapoo prayer stick of the Kenekuk religion, with pictographs probably representing heaven and hell, and shaft carved with three sets of the same 5 symbols as mnemonics for a prayer. Maplewood, 31.5 cm long, said to have been once painted red on one side and green on the other; the ... [reverse] is blank. Said to have been collected in Indiana in 1830." Illus. Fig. 29 p. 132 and Fig. 32 p. 137 in Feest, Christian. "The Prophet Stick: Detective Stories from the Museum World". Journal Fünf Kontinente (2020): 96-151.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 27 Sep 2020
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Unknown County, Indiana (not certain), United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Kickapoo (Kiikaapoi, Kikapú)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 033980
label: USNM Number
content: E178369-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Prayer Stick