Photo Gallery

The apron of a Niska shaman consists of several pieces of leather sewn together with cedar bark thread and animal sinew and painted with ochre paints. Thirteen ivory halibut charms are tied onto it with cotton threads. Dog's teeth are fastened onto the bottom edge and deer hoofs are attached to the 10-cm-long (4-inch-Iong) leather fringes. (95 cm, NMM)
NMM = National Museum of Man, Ottawa

This small wooden figurine measures 23 cm (9 inches) and presumably represents a shaman who is wearing his face mask and is holding two sea otters. (MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

In this bentwood box, measuring only 32 cm (13 inches), a Haisla shaman from Kitamaat stored his utensils. The lid is decorated with opercula, the "plugs" of a sea snail shell. (MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

This soul catcher, representing the two-headed sea monster Sisiutl, belonged to a Haisla shaman from Kitlope, located on the Gardner Canal. If the shaman was successful in recovering the patient's lost soul during the healing ritual, he would keep it in the body of the small human figure, whose head is removable, and return it to the patient. (16 cm; MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

A wooden shaman figure with human hair, earrings made of animal teeth and a leather apron. The figure, which represents a shaman singing and shaking rattles, is assumed to have been carved by a Tlingit shaman more than 100 years ago. (30 cm, SJM)
SJM = Sheldon Jackson Museum, Sitka

The rattle of a Niska shaman from Gitlakdamix on the Nass River. Both sides are decorated with relief carvings. The reclining figure in the middle is surrounded by fur figures with spread arms and legs. (30 cm: NMM)
NMM = National Museum of Man, Ottawa

Charm of a Chilkat Tlingit shaman. Made of bone, it is carved in the shape of a sea monster with its offspring underneath its belly and a cuttlefish behind it. (13 cm, SJM)
SJM = Sheldon Jackson Museum, Sitka