Staff with a crook at the top. Made of ash wood. Decorated with lynx fur and the feathers of the mottled eagle. Metal blade set in at top.
Donor:
David Ives Bushnell Jr., G. B. Gordon, Phoebe Apperson Hearst, and W. C. Farabee
Collection place:
Central Plains, Great Plains, North America
Verbatim coll. place:
; Central Plains
Culture or time period:
Umoⁿhoⁿ
Collector:
Francis La Flesche
Collection date:
1901-1902
Taxon:
Accipitridae
Object type:
ethnography
Function:
3.1 Status Objects and Insignia of Office
Accession date:
1904 and September 8, 1902
Context of use:
Staff belongs to the leader of the people at the tribal buffalo hunt; kept in the Sacred Tent with the White Buffalo Hide when in camp. Carried during the surround and thrust in the ground as a signal for the hunt to charge. Standard of the Omaha Tokala
Department:
Native US and Canada (except California)
Dimensions:
width 40 centimeters, depth 7 centimeters, and height 227 centimeters
Comment:
Native name and meaning: "washabe" - an object seen at a distance (dark). Materials, techniques: For manufacture cf. p. 276, "The Omaha Tribe". Photo: 13/98. Exhibited: UCLMA, "Plains Indians", 1971. References: p. 278-283, "The Omaha Tribe", BAE 27; Fletcher & LaFlesche. See Accession envelope #52 for additional information. Staff belongs to the leader of the people at the tribal buffalo hunt; kept in the Sacred Tent with the White Buffalo Hide when in camp. Carried during the surround and thrust in the ground as a signal for the hunt to charge. Standard of the Omaha Tokala.