Region: Wisconsin

Circa: Pre-contact

Materials: Dense hard stone with patches of dried lichen.

Dimensions: L. 13” x W. 11” x H. 9 .” – Weight: 45 lbs.

Condition: Excellent, heavyily weathered. No restoration.

Comments: A naturally formed boulder of triangular form with deep eye sockets and mouth pecked and abraded for definition. A stone sculpture of this size and weight would have functioned as a boundary marker delineating local tribal territory by those traversing the area. 

The triangular effigy head with puffy cheeks and elongated snout suggests a powerful predator. Local fauna in Wisconsin indicates this effigy may be a  badger, a legendary carnivore of ferocious and tenacious hunting and defensive skills. “When startled they rush at their assailants, releasing a potent scent from their anal glands, rattling and standing tall with their hackles raised.”(discoverwildlife.com).

Badgers and coyotes are recorded as engaging in “mutuality” in the hunt for prairie dogs, an observation undoubtedly made by Native people who revered the collaborative  powers of the animal world. 

Collection History:

Acquired from a Conn. antique dealer who acquired it in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin where it had been found on a farm. This was an area of continual movement and migration in the Great Lakes along the Canadian border. In the historic period it is the traditional region of the Potawatomie. The town’s name in the Potawatomie language means waterfall.