Snow Snake
date: label: Collection Date
content: 1954
name: label: Collector
content: Ann Marie Shimony
label: Donor Name
content: Dr. William C. Sturtevant
notes: label: Notes
content: Notes from Sturtevant's personal catalog: "Gift of Annemarie Shimony, who collected in 1954 during ethnographic field work at Six Nations Reserve, Ontario. Snow snake, 6' 9 1/2" long. According to A.S. (in letter of Mar. 29,1956): "The snake was made sometime before 1924 by Mr. George Green (for the tourist trade known as "Chief Little Bear"…) of Six Nations Reserve. His mother was white and his father was Mohawk. His family had been church people, but when Mr. Green was 18 he married a Long house girl, and was adopted at Sour Springs Long House into the Turtle clan... He later became a deacon at Sour Springs. In 1955 he was 78 yrs old. He had a reputation for being a great snowsnake man, as well as lacrosse, hockey, and other sports player. In Snowsnake he usually made and polished, but had a partner to throw for him. This particular snake was thrown by Kervin Jamieson and "Trump" General (or 69 General, because he lives on the 69 Road at Six Nations). Wolf clan (moiety opposition purely coincidental). (I do not know who Kervin Jamieson was, and believe he is dead now). Trump threw the snake from early 20's on. (Trump represented Canada as a runner in one of the Olympic games, 1920 at Antwerp. He is now a deacon at Sour Springs.) According to Mr. Green, only he and Willie White (now dead) made snowsnakes with the carved out section, and they are known as "boat sticks", kauhnwah djo'anandachkwa (ch pharyngeal). Mr. Green copied the technique from Willie White (lived on Seneca line, below at Sour Springs)...Your stick is for all-around purposed, but not for ice, as it is too light and small. It is of maple. Should be picked (don't know whether it actually was, as he couldn't remember) in Feb. - dry timber 3 years inside, in stable or so. First work with Jack knife, then jack plane, use round chisel for boating out the hollow, sandpaper to smooth, and finish off with pummy stone to work down. Put paper around front, and put in mold with hot lead and paper burns off. (used to melt up old salt shakers for the lead, but now the lead is just bought.) The advantage of the boating is to make it lighter, and keep straighter in the track. (I bet that is just superstition [sic].) The notched end is notched with a jackknife. The red mark is the identifying mark of Mr. Green's sticks. The shine was probably melted down candles...he [Mr. Green] has a great reputation for having been a great whittler, which is significant in his snowsnake making efforts, however, his greatest fame at snowsnakes is in polishing." Iroquois"
label: Notes
content: Ann Marie Shimony was a Yale graduate student with Sturtevant
label: Notes
content: For some information on snow snake see Zotigh, Dennis. "How to Play Snow Snake, the Traditional Winter Game of the Haudenosaunee." Smithsonian Voices, February 29, 2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-american-indian/2024/02/29/snow-snake-traditional-winter-game-of-the-haudenosaunee/.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 14 May 2024
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Six Nations Reserve, Ontario, Canada, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Iroquois (Haudenosaunee), Mohawk (Kanienʼkehá꞉ka)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 2049174
label: USNM Number
content: E437797-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Snowsnake