Coming for the bride. Photographer: Curtis, Edward Sheriff
Scope & Content:
View of wedding party and masked dancer in a canoe: 'In the bow qunhulahl, a masked man personating the thunderbird, dances with characteristic gestures as the canoe approaches the bride's village. '
Masked dancers in canoes — Qagyhl (a). Photographer: Curtis, Edward Sheriff
Scope & Content:
View of three canoes approaching the camera, each with a costumed figure standing in the prow: 'Visitors approaching a village where the winter dance is in progress sometimes array themselves in their ceremonial costumes, and dance while the canoes slowly move shoreward. From left to right the d...
Dancing to restore an eclipsed moon — Qagyuhl. Photographer: Curtis, Edward Sheriff
Scope & Content:
View of dance in progress, looking upwards towards the figures from a low viewpoint: 'It is thought that an eclipse is the result of an attempt of some creature in the sky to swallow the luminary. In order to compel the monster to disgorge it, the people dance round a smoldering fire of old clot...
A Nakoaktok chief's daughter. Photographer: Curtis, Edward Sheriff
Scope & Content:
When the head chief of the Nakoaktok holds a potlatch (a ceremonial distribution of property to all the people), his eldest daughter is thus enthroned, symbolically supported on the heads of her slaves.
Carved posts at Alert Bay. Photographer: Curtis, Edward Sheriff
Scope & Content:
View of two large totem poles in front of a wood frame house: 'These two heraldic columns at the Nimkish village Yilis, on Cormorant island represent the owner's paternal crest, an eagle, and his maternal crest, a grizzly-bear crushing the head of a rival chief. On the subject of crests and tote...
Hamasaka in Tlu'wulahu costume with speaker's staff — Qagyuhl. Photographer: Curtis, Edward Sheriff
Scope & Content:
Three-quarter length standing portrait: 'The principal chief of the Qagyuhl is depicted in a 'button blanket' (which is simply a woolen blanket ornamented with hundreds of large mother-of-pearl buttons), cedar-bark neck-ring, and cedar-bark head-band. His right hand grasps a shaman's rattle, and...