Staff

Museum number:
2-7136
Permalink:
ark:/21549/hm21020007136
Accession number:
Acc.176
Description:
Staff with crook at top. Made of ash wood; decorated with swans down and feathers of the mottled eagle.
Donor:
Francis La Flesche
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
Object type:
ethnography
Function:
3.1 Status Objects and Insignia of Office
Accession date:
1905
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 Mawadane
Department:
Native US and Canada (except California)
Dimensions:
width 35 centimeters and length 217 centimeters
Comment:
Native name and meaning: "washabe" - a dark object (seen at a distance). Materials, techniques: description of manufacturing cf. p. 276, "The Omaha Tribe", BAE 27. Exhibited: UCLMA, "Plains Indians", 1971. References: P. 278-283, "The Omaha Tribe", BAE 27; Fletcher & LaFlesche. See Accession envelope #52 for additional information. "I am very glad you were pleased with the white lance. By the way it is not a lance and never used for a weapon, although a steel point is sometimes attached to it, but is really a standard around which a society of warriors rally when hard pressed in battle. It is also followed in a charge and the warriors who gather around it are supposed to do valorous deeds or die under it. Sometimes it is encased in otter skin but I have been unable to get one of that kind." F. LaFlesche to Alfred Kroeber, letter of June 10, 1905. 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 Mawadane.
Images:
Hearst Museum object 1 of 5 titled Staff, accession number 2-7136, described as Staff with crook at top. Made of ash wood; decorated with swans down and feathers of the mottled eagle.Hearst Museum object 2 of 5 titled Staff, accession number 2-7136, described as Staff with crook at top. Made of ash wood; decorated with swans down and feathers of the mottled eagle.Hearst Museum object 3 of 5 titled Staff, accession number 2-7136, described as Staff with crook at top. Made of ash wood; decorated with swans down and feathers of the mottled eagle.Hearst Museum object 4 of 5 titled Staff, accession number 2-7136, described as Staff with crook at top. Made of ash wood; decorated with swans down and feathers of the mottled eagle.Hearst Museum object 5 of 5 titled Staff, accession number 2-7136, described as Staff with crook at top. Made of ash wood; decorated with swans down and feathers of the mottled eagle.
Legacy documentation:
Documentation associated with Hearst Museum object titled Staff, accession number 2-7136, described as Staff with crook at top. Made of ash wood; decorated with swans down and feathers of the mottled eagle.Documentation associated with Hearst Museum object titled Staff, accession number 2-7136, described as Staff with crook at top. Made of ash wood; decorated with swans down and feathers of the mottled eagle.

Tools