Tlingit Shaman's Maskette

John Bauer, acquired in New England

H. Malcolm Grimmer, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Private Collection, Oregon, acquired from the above

The Tlingit shaman, or íxt’, was the intermediary between the spiritual and mortal realms, and between man and the forces of nature. “He cures the sick, controls the weather, brings success in war and on the hunt, foretells the future […] reveals and overthrows the fiendish machinations of witches, and makes public demonstrations of his powers in many awe-inspiring ways. He is the most powerful figure in his own lineage.” (Frederica de Laguna, Under Mount Saint Elias: the History and Culture of the Yakutat Tlingit, Part Two, Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, Vol. 7, Washington, D.C., 1972, p. 670). The ability to communicate with the realm of the unseen imbued the íxt’ with power and authority. He was a figure of tremendous prestige, but the respect he was accorded was tinged with a certain revulsion, for there was something to be feared in his link to the world of yéik, or spirits. A glacier, a stone, a tree, a human, an animal – all things contain a yéik, which can be generous or treacherous. To the íxt’, the yéik were powerful spirit-helpers or spirit-messengers. His reputation rested on his success in commanding yéik; the more he controlled, the more influential he became.

The role of the íxt’ required extensive paraphernalia, which included masks, rattles, animal skin garments, and carved amulets of ivory or bone. De Laguna notes that “the most important part of a shaman’s outfit, except for the [animal] tongues he had cut, consisted of his masks” (ibid., p. 690), which represented specific yéik (the soul, or yahaayí, of the animal whose tongue the íxt’ cut became his yéik). When the íxt’ wore a mask, he took on the powers of the yéik which that mask depicted. As well as full-sized face masks, the íxt’ might possess several maskettes, which were “[…] sometimes miniatures of full-size masks in a shaman’s kit, but [sometimes] represent completely different beings.” (Allen Wardwell, Tangible Visions: Northwest Coast Indian Shamanism and its Art, New York, 1996, p. 110). Maskettes were often part of headdresses of shredded cedar bark and hair, or swan and eagle down, with the maskette placed at the front, over the forehead. Wardwell notes that “because most examples show extremely detailed workmanship, and because they often incorporate so many materials that they might be regarded as conglomerations of magical substances, the maskettes must have been endowed with considerable power […]” (ibid.).

This shaman’s maskette illustrates the superb carving that distinguishes the best Tlingit shamanic objects, particularly masks, which George Emmons thought “exemplified the perfection of Tlingit art in carving […]” (George Thornton Emmons (with additions by Frederica de Laguna, ed.), The Tlingit Indians, Seattle and London, 1991, p. 377). The carving of this maskette is deep, bold, and powerful with a dramatic tension between the concave and convex curves. Around the mouth there are the remains of small strips of hide, which would once have had fur. Their presence, together with the round, open mouth, suggests that this maskette may represent the transformation of a drowned man into a land otter man, or kóoshdaa káa; de Laguna notes that in “[…] masks that are predominantly anthropomorphic in character, the character of an animal, fish, or bird may be rather subtly suggested by the shape of the nose or lips […] The drowned man turning into a Land Otter Man is shown with open lips […] and a heavy beard of fur; already he is growing a muzzle and animal hair.” (Frederica de Laguna, ibid., p. 692). Aldona Jonaitis states that the land otter is the “single most powerful supernatural in the [Tlingit] universe” (Aldona Jonaitis, Art of the Northern Tlingit, Seattle, 1986, p. 90), and land otter men were closely associated with shamanism; for a detailed discussion of the subject, see the chapter “Witches and Land Otter Men” in Frederica de Laguna, ibid., pp. 744-755. For related maskettes, see a group of five examples sold at Sotheby’s, New York, May 22, 2013, lot 110; and Allen Wardwell, Tangible Visions: Northwest Coast Indian Shamanism and its Art, New York, 1996, pp. 156-157, cat. nos. 180, 181, and 182, and pp. 326-327, cat nos. 495, 496, and 497.