Wounded Head's Drinking Horn
Rating
Title
Wounded Head's Drinking Horn
Artist
Wounded Head (Husis Owyeen) , Nez Perce warrior .
Description
During the war , this horn was carried on Wounded Head's belt . Its thong was long enough that the wearer could dip it in a stream while crossing on horseback . The rim is decorated with ornamental brass tacks . The entire horn is painted red to represent the time that Wounded Head used it to bathe his wounded head after being shot at the Big Hole Battle . The rows of dots carved into the horn's surface were made as a tally of those Indians who died during or as a result of the Big Hole Battle . They number 63 in all : 10 women , 21 children , and 32 men . As explained to McWhorter by the warrior's daughter , the spatial arrangement of the dots signifies each casualty's identity and their relationship to Wounded Head . Men were counted in the leftmost set of rows , children in the next , and women in the last . Indentations separate from the rest in the men's columns are to mark three of the most renowned warriors . The dot just left of the children's columns represents Wounded Head's own young daughter .
Provenance
Taken from a buffalo cow that Wounded Head (warrior of the White Bird Band) killed long before the Nez Perce War , this drinking horn was carried by the warrior throughout his life . It was presented to McWhorter by Wounded Head's daughter on July 13th , 1926 .
Size
Length: 27cm
Date.Original
ca. 1870's
Materials
buffalo horn , brass tacks , red earth paint
Identifier
1986.2.101 (WSU), BIHO #624 (Big Hole)
Present Location
Big Hole Battlefield National Monument, Montana.
Subject
Indians of North America Campaigns & battles Horns (Animal)
Publisher
Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries: https://libraries.wsu.edu/masc
Rights
For permission to publish, please contact WSU Libraries, Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections (509)335-6691. This entity maintains intellectual rights for commercial use of any kind.
Contributors
Museum of Anthropology at Washington State University, Pullman, Washington.
Source
L. V. McWhorter Native American Artifact Collection.
Slide Source
Museum of Anthropology at Washington State University, Pullman, Washington.
Digitization
B/W Tri-X type negatives were scanned on an Epson 10000 XL scanner as 300dpi TIFFs, then added to ContentDM as 72dpi JPEG files at the WSU Libraries.
Date.Digital
2006
Add tags for Wounded Head's Drinking Horn
you wish to report:
Your comment:
Your Name:
...