Carved Stone Image
date: label: Accession Date
content: 7 Jun 1923
name: label: Donor Name
content: W H. Shir-Cliff
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "A very remarkable carving in gray sandstone representing a kneeling woman evidently in the act of giving birth to some animal. The carving no doubt represents an episode from some myth. One of the best examples of native American stone sculpture." Illus. Pl. 15b, after p. 24, in B.A.E. Bulletin 124, "Nootka and Quileute Music" by Frances Densmore. Densmore also describes it on pp. 31-32 of that publication. Densmore states that she showed a photo of this artifact to her Makah informants in 1926, and Young Doctor identified it as made by Santiano, a medicine man who died around 1909: "... one of Santiano's fancy sinkers that he used on his fishline. The old fellow was handy at carving and had several of them. Young Doctor remembered this one and said that Santiano had pounded a nail in the top of the head to fasten his fishline to it. ... He said further that the little animal clasped in the arms of the figure looked like a baby hair seal and that Santiano obtained the rocks for his carvings from a place at Warm House. Apparently the figure represents a creature to which the Makah attributed the characteristic of a mermaid."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 7 Jul 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Neah Bay, Makah Reservation / Clallam County, Washington, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Makah
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 070113
label: USNM Number
content: E325170-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Figure