{"id":16854,"date":"2015-05-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-hakamagwp.pantheonsite.io\/news\/girl-shimmering-eyes"},"modified":"2017-10-24T20:23:28","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T20:23:28","slug":"girl-shimmering-eyes","status":"publish","type":"custom_quick","link":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/article-short\/girl-shimmering-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Girl with the Shimmering Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cCan you see anything?\u201d Henry Carter was asked in 1923 as he peered into King Tutankhamun\u2019s tomb. \u201cYes,\u201d he replied, \u201cwonderful things.\u201d This column explores other wonderful things\u2014intriguing artifacts or technologies that give insight into coastal cultures.<\/em><\/p>\n

The girl\u2019s name was Suudaahl. And around the year 1881, a Haida artist carved a remarkable portrait of her on the frontlet of this chiefly headdress. Suudaahl, who was also known later in life as Josephine Gladstone, was the daughter of a Haida chief in the community of Skidegate on Haida Gwaii, just off the north coast of British Columbia. She was 12 years of age when this frontlet was made.<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of\u00a0Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution\u00a0E89186-0<\/p><\/div>\n

James G. Swan, the man who purchased this work of art in 1883 for what is now the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, neglected to record the name of the carver. But the artist clearly had a talent for breaking new ground, as well as an eye for other art forms. Portraiture is rare in Haida headdresses, and Suudaahl\u2019s hair is carved in a manner similar to that used by New England carvers for the figureheads of ships. \u201cThe hair is like waves of water, highly stylized,\u201d observes George MacDonald, director emeritus at The Bill Reid Centre for Northwest Coast Art Studies in Burnaby, British Columbia.<\/p>\n

The artist adorned Suudaahl\u2019s face with thin strips of inlaid abalone shell. In times past, wealthy Haida nobles ornamented themselves with the pearly, richly-colored green shell obtained from what is now California, donning abalone earrings and even dabbing spruce pitch to bits of abalone so that they could wear them on their skin. Above Suudaahl\u2019s portrait is a crown of sea lion whiskers. Behind is a long train of white ermine pelts that would have streamed down the wearer\u2019s back.<\/p>\n

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Suudaahl poses for a photograph likely taken in June 1862. Photo courtesy of University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, NA630<\/p><\/div>\n

Whoever wore this headdress did so at important ceremonial events, and the wearer probably placed soft white eagle or swan down inside it, so that tiny feathers would shake loose during a performance. It is possible, says Bryan Myles, manager of The Bill Reid Centre for Northwest Coast Art Studies, that the headdress was worn in a ceremony held in Suudaahl\u2019s honor, \u201cbut that is pure speculation,\u201d Myles adds.<\/p>\n

Be that as it may, Suudaahl\u2019s descendants still keep her memory alive today in Skidegate and they are intrigued by this headdress. Her great-great grandson, Walker Brown, is a Haida artist and he suspects that the unnamed carver was Suudaahl\u2019s father, Chief Daniel Elljuuwas, known as the creator of a traditional raven rattle that\u2019s also part of the National Museum of Natural History collections. \u201cHe definitely had the technical and design skills,\u201d says Brown.<\/p>\n

Suudaahl\u2019s great-great granddaughter Nika Collinson, a curator at the Haida Gwaii Museum in Skidegate, is also impressed by the likeness of her ancestor. \u201cThe work,\u201d she says, \u201cis beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A mysterious 19th-century Haida carver breaks artistic ground and creates a rare, and stunning, portrait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12985,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"acf":{"hero_video_url":null,"hero_video_caption":"","deck":"A mysterious 19th-century Haida carver breaks artistic ground and creates a rare, and stunning, portrait.","authors_group":[{"by_group":"by","contributors_group":[15554]}],"word_count_override":"","podbean1":"","podbean2":"","redirect":"","geolocation":{"address":"52.750864, -131.5711","lat":52.750864,"lng":-131.5711},"related":[17159,17166],"twitterimage":18779,"facebookimage":18780,"twitterdescription":"","edited":"","factchecked":"","code":"","no_old_story_flag":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/16854"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/custom_quick"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/16854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18781,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/16854\/revisions\/18781"}],"acf:post":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/17166"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-short\/17159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}