Cleveland Museum of Art

Beaver-Shaped Bowl

Date

c. 1890–1920

Medium

wood

Culture

Native North America, Northwest Coast, Alaska, Tlingit?

Department

Art of the Americas

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Bowls were a major Northwest Coast art form, used in many contexts including potlatch feasts that validated the rights and privileges of wealthy noble families. When Euro-American settlement forced a change from traditional to cash economies in the early 1900s, Indigenous carvers turned their skills to creating bowls like this example for the outside market.

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