
Mask (Spirit of Brown Bear). Tingrit, Alaska. 1875. Wood.
This mask was made long ago in the land that is now known as Alaska. The people who made it admired the strength of the brown bear. They believed that the mask could bring the spirit of the bear to them and make all the people strong.
This mask was carved from wood and then painted. The design is symmetrical. Symmetrical means that both sides of the mask are the same. The mask in this lesson and the next were created by Native American Artists.
This Iroquois mask tells a story about a good spirit. The spirit has a broken nose and a twisted mouth. These masks were used in healing rituals that invoke the spirit of an ancient hunch-backed healing man called “Old Broken Nose.” The Iroquois people live in the eastern United States and Canada.

False Face Mask. Iroquois. c. 1950’s