Display case - north side

1.  Wild turkey wing configured as a dancing and smudging fan:   Decorated with Four direction colored beads and mink tails.  Fans such as this were used in communal dances and in cleansing the evil spirits away by burning sage and fanning the smoke across the body and the living quarters.  All Native America honored the “four directions” as spiritual power dieties and represented them by the four colors with red for east, yellow for south, black for west, and white for north.

2.  Two ceremonial arrow:   One has beaded shaft in four direction colors (red, black, white and yellow) with a stone point and the other features an obsidian point. These would be ceremonial and not used in hunting or battle, but to honor their hunter-gatherer heritage.

3.  Native American rattle:   Fabricated from a water plant. Painted red, black and white with two spirit figures with one a headless image.  Rattles were used by all Native American tribes to shake prior to saying a prayer to the Spirit World. In this way the Spirit World would turn its ears to listen to the individual’s  prayer.  Indians of all ages prayed using rattles. 

4. Northern Cheyenne beaded knife sheath and knife:   A fine example of Northern Plains Indian knife sheath using beads in the four direction colors honored by all Native American groups.  The ceremonial knife is made from deer antler and a finely carved knife blade of obsidian.  Obsidian is a volcanic glass-like  mineral thought by Indians to be created by lightning (thus a gift from the Creator).

5. Two Paleo Indian spear point fragments:  These two fragments of Florida cert were excavated from Florida rivers (like the Suwannee or Santa Fe).  They probably date from 12,000 years before present and were a key hunting tool for attacking mammoths or mastodons and other large game in Florida during the Pleistocene era in Florida. 

6. A fossilized mammoth tusk and extinct horse tooth:   These remnants from the Pleistocene Era (12,000 years before present) in Florida have become fossilized and were found in the sediments of Florida rivers.  The tusk end was from a young mammoth (about 7 years old) and the horse tooth was found in the Hillsborough River near Tampa. 

7. Native Friendship Lock:   When a person left the village to go hunting or to do battle, they always fabricated a “friendship lock” made of sacred materials and a lock of their hair.  This example features a large button carved from abalone shell, four direction beads and the lock of hair.  This artifact was given to the most loved person (wife, mother, father, grandparent, etc.) so that if you never returned from your journey, they had something of you to honor and remember you in their prayers for your safe journey to the Spirit World.

 Display case – south side

1. Native American prayer pipe:   This is a fine example of a prayer pipe used by all Native Tribes. The pipe bowl and mouth piece are carved from the precious and mystical clay/stone called Catlinite or Blood stone which is mined in only one site in southern Minnesota (Pipestone National Monument).  This most precious pipe bowl material was traded across America to all Native groups(even to Florida). The pipe bowl is carved in a buffalo effigy and the mouth piece is carved as an eagle effigy.  Stone and bone were also used as pipe bowl materials.          These sacred prayer pipes were used when formally wanting to send a prayer to the Spirit World.  The pipe bowl was always kept separated from the stem until a prayer was to be said.  Then the bowl was filled with Indian tobacco and only then was the bowl joined to the stem which just like a rattle, this joining of bowl and stem alerted the Spirit World that a prayer was to be said.  Upon lighting the tobacco, the prayer of the smoker was carried by the smoke into the Spirit realm.

2. Two small clay pots made at the Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico:   These two small bowls are painted in traditional colors and images using a leaf of yucca as the paint brush.  These typically were used for food storage and serving.  The people of the Acoma Pueblo still inhabit the home-site atop the 200 foot high mesa in western New Mexico.  They encountered Coronado in the 1500’s and were conquered in a mighty siege. 

3.  Small stone smoking pipe:   This small pipe would have been used by either women or children to smoke.

4.  Two Native American necklaces:   One necklace features turquoise, coral and Catlinite beads with four silver beads and a metallic “hands of mother earth” symbol.  The other necklace features glass beads, Catlinite beads, cherry amber beads, turquoise, and an authentic Grizzly Bear claw.  All these stones, beads and symbols were typical adornments for adult Native men.

5.  Plains Indian Spirit Shield:  Most Plains Indian tribes considered this sacred item the ultimate and most important of a warrior’s possessions. These tribes were warrior societies, meaning that in addition to hunting bison and providing food for their families and tribal members, men rose to tribal prominence and honor through raiding and doing battle with other native tribes for horses or for control of traditional hunting grounds.         As a male youth approached manhood (about 12 to 15 years of age) he would go on a vision quest to seek his personal relationship with the Spirit World. During this four day and night prayer ritual in a remote, isolated location he would be contacted by the Spirit World through several animal spirits (bear, eagle, beaver, bison, etc.). These manifestations within the natural environment would become his Spirit Companions throughout the rest of his life – helping him make decisions and guiding him on his life-long journey. Based on the youth acquiring these Spirit Companions during the vision quest as certified by the tribal spiritual leader, this young Native would be recognized as having been blessed by the Spirit World to acquire a Spirit Shield.        The Indian youth would then be required to go on an individual hunt and kill an old bull bison that had survived and demonstrated great strength and courage – both important spiritual values that the future Spirit Shield would impart to its owner.  Upon returning to the tribal village, the young male would cut a four foot diameter section of the old bull’s hide from the hump region between the neck and shoulders. This piece of hide would be given to the tribe’s pipe carrier (leading shaman), who would prepare the hide for the Spirit Shield in a very sacred process. First women would scrape the hair from the hide with bone or stone scrappers. The hide would be placed on the ground and the shaman would kneel on it and say prayers and sing sacred songs to the Great Spirit. The hide would then be stretched and pegged over a pit of hot rocks where it would shrink to about half its diameter and increase in thickness to one quarter inch, again accompanied by prayers and singing. Once thus prepared, the hide would be mounted on a circular piece of willow branch and decorated by the spiritual leader with symbols of the youthful owner’s family clan and the spirit companions that had appeared in his vision.        The finished Spirit Shield or war shield was then given to the Native youth during a special tribal ceremony where he was initiated and designated as a man and a warrior. This warrior’s shield became his “sacred medicine”, his “protector”, almost his God. The shield became his most cherished possession. To its care and protection, the warrior commended his very life. The shield’s unique power was established by the sacred process employed in its creation. It provided a wall of defense in battle with an enemy. The shield was carried into battle and would protect its owner through deflection of arrows, spears, even musket shots and bullets! This protection was not necessarily accomplished by physically deflecting these battle artifacts; but through its unique power, the shield and its sacred, spiritual energy would prevent the enemy from properly aiming his weapon so as to hit the shields owner.       This shield is 18 inches in diameter and has bear paw symbols signifying the Bear Clan. It has a four directions medicine wheel, a bear claw and an eagle feather as decorations.

6.   Shaman’s Spirit Sucker:  The spiritual leader or shaman of an Indian village was the priest, undertaker and medicine man or woman of the village. When an individual in the village became ill and could not get well through rest and taking natural traditional medicines, the task of finding a cure and healing was turned over to the “expert”, the village shaman. The shaman had dedicated his life to working with the Spirit World and conducting unique ceremonies to extract evil spirits from the patient. When the shaman took over the healing process, he consulted the Spirit World through prayer for guidance in curing the individual. Once the Spirit World informed the shaman regarding the problem, the ceremony for curing was initiated. The shaman used the Spirit Sucker to inspect the patient’s’ body or mind and then placed the “sucker” at the correct location and then literally “sucked” or extracted the offending spiritual entity that caused the illness from the patient and then walked to the village edge and spit the spirit entity out.       This Spirit Sucker is made of a jade-like stone with a venture-like hole ground   through it.

7.   Eagle Bone Whistle:  This whistle was used by Indian warriors during dances and ceremonies to summon the spirit of the eagle to help in their duties as the tribal police force and military soldiers in their battles with traditional enemies. Blowing on this whistle creates a high pitched, piercing sound much like that of the eagle.

Manikin displaying a Tocobaga Indian shaman’s regalia.

Refer to the wall placard that describes this impressive display of the Tocobaga shaman.

On pillar - Two fancy Seminole Indian men’s jackets made using traditional patchwork design techniques.

On pillar - Plains Indian warrior breastplate using bone and rifle shells.

Breastplates were worn into battle by Indian warriors. The Sioux, Cheyenne, Crow and other Indian tribal groups followed their “warrior society” tradition that required their warriors to defend traditional hunting grounds and steal horses from their enemies. This breastplate features traditional materials including colored beads and black colored bison bone hairpipes.  These hairpipes were made by white settlers and traded to Indian tribes in exchange for hides and pelts. 

What is unique about this breastplate is that the central panels are made of rifle shells. Breastplates provided minimal, if any, protection from enemy arrows or bullets.  These breastplates were more decorative or for spiritual inspiration rather than for defensive capability.