This is carved in the style of many elongate carvings depicting a human figure and associated animal helpers, as used by Tlingit shamans in their divination practices. Shamans were able to control the weather, predict the future, witness far distant events as they occurred, cure and heal disease, physical trauma and soul-loss, ensure good luck in hunting and in love, communicate with the dead and identify witches and other malevolent beings. To this end they were both protected and abetted by spirit forces whose essence was manifest in a variety of paraphernalia: charms, rattles, soul catchers, masks, headgear, wands and figural carvings.

While a shaman could, and often did commission his ceremonial paraphernalia from an established artist, it is known that the practitioner sometimes carved his own devices in order to maintain secrecy about his personal and powerful spirit helper, (Emmons, 1991; de Laguna, 1972; Wardwell, 1996).

Jay Stewart
Peter Macnair
April 26, 2001