Additional Images

Provenance:

Chief James "Jim" Hunter, Neah Bay, WA
Hal George, Neah Bay, WA
by descent to Gloria George, Washington, USA
Acquired from the above by Jack Curtright & Son, Seattle, WA, 12 February 1992
Private Collection, Toronto, ON

Note:

Made in the form of a Steller’s Jay, the present rattle was carved by Chief James “Jim” Hunter, a resident of Neah Bay and son of the last Chief of the Ozette Village near the Northern tip of Neah Lake close to the Washington coast.[1] The rattle was owned by an important elder on the Quileute reservation, Harold “Hal” George (1894-after 1978), and was acquired by the dealer, Jack Curtright in 1992 from Harold George’s daughter Gloria George, after a fire had damaged the rattle and burnt down the George Family home on the LaPush reservation.[2]

James Hunter was a carver of Sea Wolf headdresses, rattles, paddles, and model canoes in the 1920-30s, carving both for his community and for the market, selling his carvings at the Queets Cabins Store, as well as at Hoh River and Neah Bay.[3]

Harold George was active in the preservation of Quileute-Makah traditions, and was well known in the LaPush community as a storyteller. When the Anthropologist Leo J. Frachenberg visited LaPush and the surrounding area in preparation for his 1921 publication The Ceremonial Societies of the Quileute Indians, George was a principal informant, noted by Frachenberg as speaking English in addition to Quileute and Makah.[4]

Please see the last image in this listing for a photograph of Quileute basket weaver Carrie Gray holding the rattle prior to the fire at the George Family home.

[1] Various Authors, Told By the Pioneers: Tales of Frontier Life as Told by Those who Remember the Days of the Territory and Early Statehood of Washington (Montana: Kessinger Publishing, 2010), 20.
[2] Personal correspondence with Jack Curtright, 2020.
[3] Ibid
[4] M. Terry Thompson, Salish Myths And Legends: One People's Stories (Nebraska: Univ of Nebraska Press, 2008), 213.