Club and Quirt

Description

The implement pictured at the left appears identical to a two-foot-long Atsina club in the Maximilian collection at the Linden-Museum; it has a spiral wooden handle and an elk antler head shaped and incised like a bird's head. The notation above the club indicates color (reddish-brown, blackish-brown). The identification below of "Monitarri" (Hidatsa) has been corrected to Assiniboin. Maximilian remarked in the diaries that he also saw elk antler war clubs among the Atsina. The notations associated with the quirt depicted at the right describe the original as being made of polished, whitish-yellow antler with red painted incising. A watercolor version appears in the next plate. The quirt was also pictured in Tableau 2 of the aquatint atlas.