Deer-Drive Sticks 7
date: label: Accession Date
content: 20 Aug 1952
name: label: Collector
content: Dr. Frank G. Speck
label: Donor Name
content: Denver Art Museum
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "7 small sections of branches about 1/4" in diameter, ranging from 2 1/2" to 4 1/4" in length. According to Speck's notes: "Used by driver in deer drive to apportion the stands in the swamp to the hunters who are to intercept the fleeing deer.""
label: Notes
content: Sticks used for "drawing straws" during hunting of deer by deer drive. See p. 338 in Speck, Frank G., “Chapters on the Ethnology of the Powhatan Tribes of Virginia”, Indian Notes and Monographs 1:5, (Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, 1928). "The party of hunters is divided into two crews. One is to occupy boats at stations in the river where they are to wait for the deer to be driven out of the swamp to be shot, the other is obliged to plunge into the swamp with dogs and drive the game toward the river where the animals will be intercepted in their traverse. The method of selection, to be impartial, is as follows: To assign the crews their appointed tasks, the chief or captain holds in his hand as many sticks as there are men on the drive. Half of the sticks are shorter than the others. Each man then draws a stick. Those drawing the "shorts" may remain in the boats, while those drawing the "longs" are to form the driving party.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 11 Oct 2023
label: Specimen Count
content: 8
place: label: Place
content: Not Given, Virginia, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Pamunkey
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 194398
label: USNM Number
content: E391846-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Drive Stick