Council War Club of Chief Shingwauk

Council War Club of Chief Shingwauk

Council War Club of Chief Shingwauk

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Introduction

Anishinaabe gunstock club attributed to Chief Shingwauk of Garden River. Flat wooden shaft set with rectangular metal blade. Feathers tied at blade end with cotton twine. A dark band, possibly made with stain, spirals around the surface of the shaft creating a parallel line motif. Dr. Oronhyatekhya Ethnology collection.

Nation of Maker: Anishinaabe
Place of Origin: Garden River First Nation
Date Made or Date Range: 1860
Summary of Source(s) for this Relative

GRASAC generated by AN

Materials

Wood - soft wood (not heavy), rectangular blade made of metal inserted into the outside of the elbow, about 8 feathers attached with cotton twine string.

Techniques or Format

A spiral line creates appearance of about 15 dark brown parallel bands around the surface, probably made with a stain. Two holes, one at the handle end and the other at the point of the gunstock, where feathers are attached.

Motifs and Patterns

The spiral line could represent a coiled snake (Heidi Bohaker has read this - check source)

Other Notes

Rough notes in ROM’s HD files for this object suggest that the dark stripes may have been made by winding the shaft with a strip of bark, and exposing the unwrapped surface to smoke. This process of "fire coloration" is described in further detail in: Frances Densmore, Chippewa Customs, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 86, Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1929 [Reprint 1970, New York: Johnson Reprint Company], p 171.

Dimensions: 61.5 × 16.5 × 0 cm
Condition: Good, chip out of the top of gunstock end
Current Location: Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, ON, Canada
Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: 911.3.169, HD 5825
Date of Acquisition by the Institution: 1911
Publication History

F. Barlow Cumberland, Catalogue and Notes of the Oronhyatekha Historical Collection (Toronto: Independent Order of Foresters, 1904), p 30,

Item 124. "Council War Club of Chief Shingwauk"

GKS Reference Number: 1567
How to Cite this Item

Unknown artist, pincushion. Currently in the Royal Ontario Museum, 911.3.169. Item photographed and described as part of a GRASAC research trip December 2008; GRASAC item id 1567.

Record Creation Context

GRASAC team research trip to the Royal Ontario Museum, Dec 15-19 2008, funded by SSHRC Aboriginal Research Grant. Participants: Heidi Bohaker, Alan Corbiere, Lewis Debassige, Anne De Stecher, Darlene Johnston, Stacey Loyer, Trudy Nicks, Ruth Phillips

Dec 17, Ethnology Coll team: Lewis Debassige, Alan Corbiere, Cory Willmott, Ruth Phillips, Stacey Loyer, assisted by Tracey Forester

Approximate Place of Origin

46.534677225632, -84.155965803657

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