thread and sinew-sewn; red and green trade wool detailed with light and medium blue, red white-heart, greasy yellow, translucent green, pink and white glass beads; yellow-dyed horsehair fringe

length 24-1/2 inches x width 26-1/2 inches

Published:
American Indian Horse Masks (Cowdrey, Martin, and Martin 2006: 88-89, cover, inside covers)

This is the mask worn by the horse of David Young Chief in a photograph taken by Lee Moorehouse, ca 1903 at the Pendleton Round Up Parade. Young Chief was the half-brother of Chief Joseph.

A complex beaded pattern featuring a four-point star on the forehead makes this a stunning mask... The Washat or Dreamer Religion was founded in the 1860s by a man called Smohalla. He was related to both the Sinkayuse and the Nez Perce; but Smohalla had wide influence across the Central Plateau in the second half of the 19th century. The North Star and crescent moon were primary symbols of this visionary belief. Smohalla designed his own flag. This banner was yellow, representing the dried grasses along the Columbia, bordered by strips of green, representing the moist hill tops. In 1884, Smohalla said: "This is my flag and it represents the world... There are four [directions] in the world... I have been all those ways. This is the center. I live here... The star is the North Star. That star never changes; it is always in the same place. I keep my heart on that star. I never change." Mooney 1896: 725-26). In the brilliant composition of the artist's design seen here, the same concepts are expressed (Cowdrey, Martin and Martin 2006: 88-89).