384 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 191 



with the girls at Syracuse University, who bought them to wear as 

 lapel pins. 



It has been pointed out that none of the crafts is an important 

 source of income to the Onondaga. The volume of business which is 

 done in beadwork and basketwork is small, and in the case of masks 

 almost nonexistent; even Andrew Pierce, who comes closest to openly 

 advertising his wares, probably sells no more than three or four masks 

 in the course of a year. The lack of explicit commercialization is not, 

 I think, due primarily to the traditionally sacred character of the 

 carvings, since the religious prohibitions against selling put no restraint 

 upon the Christians and can, when necessary, be circumvented by the 

 CouncU House people. Rather it is the economic situation which 

 prevents the carvers and the community as a whole from regarding 

 maskmaking as economically profitable. Within the reservation there 

 is very limited demand for false faces. The group which has a use for 

 them is a small proportion of the population, and most of these Indians 

 already own carvings which they have inherited from their families. 



Nor is there a large market outside which can be exploited. The 

 Whites in Syracuse and the surrounding areas have come to look 

 upon the Onondaga as a minority gi-oup which lacks the qualities of 

 strangeness and savagery that are usually attributed to native peoples. 

 Since these particular Indians do not fit the conventional stereotype, 

 it follows that they are not quite authentic and that the articles which 

 they make are not "genuine Indian" handicrafts. Few tourists, there- 

 fore, visit the reservation with the intention of buying souvenirs, 

 while those who do are more apt to purchase the smaller and cheaper 

 items — the baskets, maskettes, bead belts and bracelets — than they 

 are the larger and more expensive masks for which they have no 

 practical use. 



The geographical situation of the reservation affects not only the 

 expectations of the Whites but also the attitude of the Indians. 

 Living as they do almost in the suburbs of Syracuse, most Onondagas 

 find that it is easier and more profitable to hold a job in the city than 

 to attempt to create a market for their native products. It seems that 

 it is expediency and particularly financial considerations, not religious 

 sanctions, which have kept the Onondaga from developing the economic 

 potentialities of mask carving. 



RELIGIOUS ASPECTS OF MASKMAKING 



In many respects the false faces appear to serve the same function 

 and elicit the same emotional responses of fear and reverence today 

 as they did in the aboriginal culture. The formal features of the 

 curative rituals have been retained, the mythology and religious 

 concepts validating the rituals are stUl known, and the ancient precepts 



