a) Section of fossil cephalopod ("Buffalo Stone"); b) Pouch; buckskin; beaded; carrying loop.
Donor:
Phoebe Apperson Hearst
Collection place:
Blackfoot Reservation, Canada
Verbatim coll. place:
Canada; Blackfoot Reservation
Culture or time period:
Blackfoot of Canada
Collector:
J. Disbury and Philip Mills Jones
Taxon:
Cephalopoda
Object type:
ethnography
Object class:
Fossils
Function:
5.2 Magic: Objects Associated with Practices reflecting confidence in the ability to manipulate supernatural agencies
Accession date:
1903
Context of use:
Ingredient of medicine bundle. One of most widely distributed types. Taught songs to the finders, giving them power to influence the buffalo; the small fossils, "little buffalos," were believed to have power to grow while in the medicine bundle.
Department:
Native US and Canada (except California)
Dimensions:
(b)— height 3.5 centimeters
Comment:
References: Clark Wissler. Ceremonial Bundles of the Blackfoot Indians; AMNH, Anthro.