Tangible Visions

Northwest Indian art is famous for its totem poles, house posts, feast dishes, boxes and painted house fronts that served to announce the privileges of the powerful chiefs and families who owned them. A less well known but equally important aspect of this is the art that was made for use by shamans. This study brings attention to a body of Northwest coast art which, until now, has not received much attention. This is an attempt to study and illustrate the various forms of painted and carved objects that were carried and worn by shamans as they fulfilled their spiritual duties. In order to form alliances with animal spirits, the shamans deprived themselves of food, water and sleep during long vigils in the wilderness. The spirits that came to them in dreams and visions at such times could then be summoned by shamans to assist them as they performed their healing and divinatory seances. Much of their ceremonial paraphernalia represents the helping spirits in a shaman's service. Certain examples, which show complex juxtapositions of many animals and human figures, depict the dreams or trance experiences which the shaman had undergone at the time he was forming his alliances.
In this way, the masks, rattles, painted costumes, amulets and other objects can be seen as the "tangible visions" of the book's title. There are almost 500 objects depicted and illustrations of shamanic art that can be found in museums and private collections throughout the world. Much of the material comes from the burial houses of deceased shamans at the end of the 19th century.