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Silver scarf slide with fan and flower engraved designs / Kugee Supernaw

Essay/Description

A man's scarf slide in nickel (German) silver. The shape of the slide is an outline of a loose feather fan showing 7 eagle feathers - 1 at top center and 3 on either side of center. Each feather is engraved. The tips are engraved to appear dark, as eagle tail feathers do. The quill is engraved the length of the feather and markings on each quill create the appearance of complex decorations on each feather. Chicken hackles at the middle point on each feather and decorative spots at the base of the webbing of each feather. Placed atop the fan is a representation of a salt shaker rattle of the type used in the Gourd Dance. The rattle's handle is engraved in the same plane as the fan, but the can is cut from a separate piece and attached atop the fan. The horsehair tassel that is typically placed atop such rattles is engraved in the space of the center feather. The appearance of the whole is of a loose feather fan positioned with its feathers pointing upward and with a smaller gourd dance rattle (also pointing upward) resting in front of (or atop) the fan. Where the buckskin fringe would normally be found on both the fan and the rattle is placed a silver dangle attached with a wire loop. The dangle is in the form of a peyote cactus button. Hanging beneath this small round dangle are three rectangular strips or fringes each bent to form a loop that attaches to the disk at the bottom of the slide. A wide band of silver is placed horizontally at the back of the slide to hold the scarf with which it is worn around the neck. Such a slide would be worn by a male powwow dancer, Gourd dancer, or peyotist.

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Title(s): 
Silver scarf slide with fan and flower engraved designs
Creator(s): 
Kugee Supernaw (Artist)
Culture: 
Native American; Caddo, Quapaw, and Osage (artist and user)
Date: 
circa 1990s
Materials/Techniques: 
nickel silver, German silver
Classification: 
Object Type: 
Accession No: 
69.161
Department: 
Not On View

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