Raven Rattle

Renowned Northwest Coast scholar Bill Holm has remarked that the raven rattle is the best known, least understood and most controversial of all Northwest Coast objects. According to the earliest recorded native authorities, rattles of this type have always been known as a chief's dancing rattle. Many scholars, however, believe the form began as a powerful shaman's object. Raven rattles are distinguished by their complex, integrated form. The overall configuration represents a raven; reclining on its back is a human whose tongue is joined with the beak of a second facing raven, symbolizing the transfer of supernatural knowledge and power. On the breast is a face of a third bird with recurved beak, which likely represents yet another manifestation of the mythic raven.