{"id":"JSTEWARD1941-012","label":"Ruby Valley Shoshoni bullroarer","people_or_site":"Ruby Valley Shoshoni","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Ruby Valley, Elko County, northeastern Nevada","macroregion":"North America / Great Basin","local_name":"wütiŋgübü'ü","source_term":"Bull-roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Not described; the Great Basin form is a flat wooden slat swung on a cord from a short handle stick.","function_summary":"Not recorded.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"steward1941_ced4_nevada_shoshoni","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/84152/files/ucar004-003.pdf","page_or_plate":"printed p. 307, element 1870 (column Sm); informant pp. 213-214","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Centroid of Ruby Valley, Elko County, Nevada. Territory anchor for the named people; not a use site.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"The people of Ruby Valley were the Wadadüka, the 'rye-grass-seed eaters', and theirs was an exceptionally fertile, thickly settled valley in a hard country. They wintered high in the juniper belt, where there was wood against the cold, and came down in spring to gather seeds by the two lakes under the Ruby Mountains. The first few horses reached the valley about 1860, and were mostly eaten. The bullroarer was at home here; one woman of the valley called it wütiŋgübü'ü, the word Smith Creek used for the sling.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"wütiŋgübü'ü: the Ruby Valley name for the bullroarer as one woman of the valley gave it — the very word Smith Creek and Snake River Shoshoni used for the sling.","cls":"unknown","class_label":"Function not recorded","color":"#6B7884","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Julian H. Steward, 'Culture Element Distributions: XIII, Nevada Shoshoni,' Anthropological Records 4:2 (1941), pp. 213-214, 250, 307","url":"https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/84152/files/ucar004-003.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013012733/https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/84152/files/ucar004-003.pdf"},{"citation":"Julian H. Steward, 'Culture Element Distributions: XXIII, Northern and Gosiute Shoshoni,' Anthropological Records 8:3 (1943), p. 333","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucar008-004.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260814094033/https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucar008-004.pdf"},{"citation":"Julian H. Steward, Basin-Plateau Aboriginal Sociopolitical Groups, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 120 (1938), pp. 144-147"}],"source_citations":"Julian H. Steward, 'Culture Element Distributions: XIII, Nevada Shoshoni,' Anthropological Records 4:2 (1941), pp. 213-214, 250, 307; Julian H. Steward, 'Culture Element Distributions: XXIII, Northern and Gosiute Shoshoni,' Anthropological Records 8:3 (1943), p. 333; Julian H. Steward, Basin-Plateau Aboriginal Sociopolitical Groups, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 120 (1938), pp. 144-147","source_display":"Julian H. Steward, 'Culture Element Distributions: XIII, Nevada Shoshoni,' Anthropological Records 4:2 (1941), pp. 213-214, 250, 307; Julian H. Steward, 'Culture Element Distributions: XXIII, Northern and Gosiute Shoshoni,' Anthropological Records 8:3 (1943), p. 333; Julian H. Steward, Basin-Plateau Aboriginal Sociopolitical Groups, Bureau of American…","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Not described; the Great Basin form is a flat wooden slat swung on a cord from a short handle stick.","function_display":"Not recorded.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"ruby valley","display_name":"Ruby Valley Shoshoni bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/rbcm_16921_nuuchahnulth_bullroarer.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/museum_harvest/thumbs/rbcm_16921_nuuchahnulth_bullroarer_thumb.jpg","alt":"Nuu-chah-nulth bullroarer: a long split-tipped blade with cord and tapered handle.","credit":"Royal BC Museum, RBCM 16921; photo via Grant Keddie, 'Bullroarers in the Indigenous Collections of the Royal B.C. Museum' (2023)","license":"Rights not stated (Royal BC Museum ToU-only regime); rehosted low-res from the museum curator's research publication","source_page":"https://grantkeddie.com/2023/02/bullroarers-in-the-indigenous-collections-of-the-royal-b-c-museum/","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Nuu-chah-nulth split-tipped bullroarer with cord and handle, RBCM 16921.","pool_id":"american-west-nuuchahnulth-split-tip","last_modified":"2026-08-11"},"slug":"jsteward1941-012-ruby-valley-shoshoni-s-rubv"}