^°No'!°74r*^' IROQUOIS MASKS AT ONONDAGA — ^HENDRY 379 



Pierce admits that he has not carved for many years, while Andrew 

 Pierce claims to make masks but is repudiated by the Council House 

 people who say that although he has made bows and arrows, he has 

 never carved a false face. 



The carvers are not regarded primarily as craftsmen either by the 

 community or by themselves. The reservation as a whole speaks of 

 them as Council House people and members of the False Face Society, 

 while the Christians add the statement that they are lazy. The 

 prevailing sentiment among this group is that only Indians who do 

 nothing else do carving, an assertion which has some basis in fact, as 

 the maskmakers tend to belong to the less prosperous element on the 

 reservation, being frequently out of work and on Government relief. 



Among themselves the carvers seem to identify with each other 

 more on the basis of their membership in the medicine society and 

 their common interest in masks than on their technical and artistic 

 ability as craftsmen. Several, when they were asked for the names 

 of other carvers, included Floyd Henhawk, who makes the turtle rat- 

 tles used by the False Faces and who wears the masks but has never 

 made one. Nor could any one of them give me a complete list of those 

 in the community who do or who have done carving, four or five 

 persons being the most some could recall, while others could think of 

 only one or two. The two men who were most frequently mentioned 

 and who come closest to having the status of craftsmen are Eddie 

 Schenandoah and Kenneth Thomas; the first is known for his abUity 

 to turn out a mask in a week, and the other for his careful, finished 

 work. 



The general lack of recognition accorded the carvers as such is due, 

 at least in part, to the small number of masks that are produced today 

 and to the close association of these carvings with religion rather than 

 with any of the other crafts. Maskmaking is not necessarily related 

 to the carving of lacrosse sticks, snow snakes, etc., since only three 

 of the men who carve masks also make these objects. The others 

 limit themselves to the false faces and say that they have no intention 

 of trying anything else. Nor is maskmaking associated with the 

 women's crafts. The wives of some of the carvers do beadwork, but 

 women whose husbands are not carvers are just as apt to engage in 

 this work. There is a somewhat closer link with the cornhusk masks 

 which some of the mothers and aunts of the carvers have made in 

 the past. Very few of this type, however, are made today. 



The fact that mask carving was formerly a ceremonial procedure 

 suggests that this art has always cut across the other craft speciali- 

 zations and been associated with the medicine societies. There 

 are, however, no historical materials to validate this supposition, 

 just as there is no information as to the amount of carving which 



