Owner: HWMC
Catalog#: 2NA-IDST-08
Provenance: Property from the Estate of Roy Raley, First President of the Pendleton Roundup. In addition to this rattle, a flute, hide scraper, comb and hunting implements were included in the Roy Raley Collection from Alaska, now a part of the Hartenberger World Music Collection.
Rattles
Alutiiq (Aleut) ‘Puffin Beaks’ Dance Rattle
Kodiak Island, Alaska
Alutiiq / Sugpiaq People
Puffin beaks, wood, sinew string
20th century
Diameter: 7 in
Idiophone – Indirectly Struck – Shaken (Rattle)
This hoop dance rattle comes from the Alutiiq people, a distinct group from the Aleuts, of the Kodiak Island. The name, Alutiiq is the way Sugpiaq people say Aleut and reflects the region’s complex Russian and Native history. The circular rattle consists of dangling Puffin beaks attached by sinew to two thin wooden hoops connected by a flat wooden crossbar, stained red. According to Hanna Sholl of Kodiak, the Russian occupation of the region starting in the 18th century, may have contributed to the demise of this rattle and cultural dances of the Alutiiq, due at first to the people being forced to work in Russian camps, targeting sea otters. When the forced hunting ended, Alutiiq dancing was then discouraged by the Russian Orthodox and other churches, so people stopped making dance regalia. She adds, “Only in recent decades has the dancing made a comeback.”
Reference: After the Russians came to the Alutiiq region, the dance rattles went silent. A Kodiak artist has changed that. (adn.com); Alutiiq / Sugpiaq People (alutiiqmuseum.org)