{"id":"GIFFORD1940-003","label":"Four directions before the sickroom","people_or_site":"Northern Tonto Apache, Fossil Creek band, Strawberry Valley semiband","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Strawberry Valley / Fossil Creek, Arizona","macroregion":"North America","local_name":"","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Pine blade about 10 by 2 inches, whirled on a cord about three feet long.","function_summary":"A shaman whirled it toward the four cardinal points before entering a patient's house.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"gifford1940_northern_tonto","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/84148/files/ucar004-002.pdf","page_or_plate":"pp. 58-59, 151-152","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Strawberry community anchor for the named semiband; not a performance site.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Before he crossed the threshold, the curer turned. The Northern Tonto were the northernmost of the Western Apache, hunting and planting in the broken pine country at the head of the Verde — Fossil Creek, Strawberry Valley — and in the Strawberry Valley semiband a shaman took the bullroarer to a sick person's house and whirled it toward each of the four cardinal points before he went in. The blade was pine, ten inches by two, on three feet of cord. The four soundings came first; the treatment came after.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"E. W. Gifford, 'Culture Element Distributions: XII, Apache-Pueblo,' Anthropological Records 4:1 (1940), pp. 58-59 and 151-152","url":"https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/84148/files/ucar004-002.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013035153/https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/84148/files/ucar004-002.pdf"}],"source_citations":"E. W. Gifford, 'Culture Element Distributions: XII, Apache-Pueblo,' Anthropological Records 4:1 (1940), pp. 58-59 and 151-152","source_display":"E. W. Gifford, 'Culture Element Distributions: XII, Apache-Pueblo,' Anthropological Records 4:1 (1940), pp. 58-59 and 151-152","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Pine blade about 10 by 2 inches, whirled on a cord about three feet long.","function_display":"","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"northern tonto","display_name":"Four directions before the sickroom","image":{"full":"assets/objects/BOURKE1892-002_fig431.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/BOURKE1892-002_fig431_thumb.jpg","alt":"Bourke’s engraving of two decorated Apache bullroarers: rectangular boards with long cords, the left bearing a central figure and zigzags, the right wavy lines.","credit":"J. W. Powell / J. G. Bourke (1892), Ninth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology","license":"Public domain","source_page":"https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42616/42616-h/42616-h.htm","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Two decorated Apache bullroarers figured by Bourke","pool_id":"american-west-apache-pair","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-09-03"},"slug":"gifford1940-003-northern-tonto-apache-fossil-creek-band-strawberry-valley-semiband"}