{"id":"KELLY1932-001","label":"Surprise Valley Paiute wind bullroarer","people_or_site":"Surprise Valley Paiute (Kidütökadö)","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Surprise Valley, northeastern California and Warner Valley, Oregon","macroregion":"North America / Great Basin","local_name":"kwi'mo","source_term":"bullroarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Juniper bullroarer, decorated with black spots or lines, tied loosely with deer hide to a wand-like handle.","function_summary":"Boy's toy and weather device: whirled to bring the warm south wind and melt deep snow.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"kelly1932_surprise_valley_paiute","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/82891","page_or_plate":"pp. 177, 202","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Representative Surprise Valley cultural-region anchor; not an informant birthplace or performance site.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"When snow lay deep over Surprise Valley and would not melt, a man whirled the kwi'mo bullroarer to bring the warm south wind. Isabel Kelly's Kidütökadö informants remembered the object as a boy's toy too: a juniper blade marked with black spots or lines, tied loosely with deer hide to a wand-like handle. The wind-calling rite, tüsa'ibidun, was specialist work — performed for payment in beads or a belt, sometimes by a man born in summer, sometimes with nothing more than an eight-inch whirled stake.","pull_quote":"A man whirls a bullroarer (kwi'mo) to bring a warm wind to melt the snow.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Kelly 1932, p. 202.","term_gloss":"kwi'mo is Kelly's term for the bullroarer; tüsa'ibidun names the wind-calling rite (and once a separate whirled stake), with uncertain spelling.","cls":"weather","class_label":"Weather / fertility magic","color":"#2F6FA3","is_candidate":false,"flags":["weather","toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Isabel T. Kelly, 'Ethnography of the Surprise Valley Paiute,' University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 31(3) (1932), pp. 177 and 202; Omer C. Stewart, 'Culture Element Distributions: XIV, Northern Paiute,' Anthropological Records 4:3 (1941), p. 401","url":"https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/82891","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20201210215709/https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/82891"}],"source_citations":"Isabel T. Kelly, 'Ethnography of the Surprise Valley Paiute,' University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 31(3) (1932), pp. 177 and 202; Omer C. Stewart, 'Culture Element Distributions: XIV, Northern Paiute,' Anthropological Records 4:3 (1941), p. 401","source_display":"Isabel T. Kelly, 'Ethnography of the Surprise Valley Paiute,' University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 31(3) (1932), pp. 177 and 202; Omer C. Stewart, 'Culture Element Distributions: XIV, Northern Paiute,' Anthropological Records 4:3 (1941), p. 401","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Juniper bullroarer, decorated with black spots or lines, tied loosely with deer hide to a wand-like handle.","function_display":"","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"surprise valley","display_name":"Surprise Valley Paiute wind bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/expansion_2026_07/HAD1898-014_wereldmuseum_rv362-54.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/expansion_2026_07/thumbs/HAD1898-014_wereldmuseum_rv362-54_thumb.jpg","alt":"Pima bullroarer with blade, cord and handle, Wereldmuseum Leiden.","credit":"Wereldmuseum / NMVW (RV-362-54)","license":"CC BY-SA 4.0","source_page":"https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11840/653087","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Pima bullroarer with blade, cord and handle, Wereldmuseum Leiden.","pool_id":"american-west-pima-painted-rig","last_modified":"2026-08-11"},"slug":"kelly1932-001-surprise-valley-paiute-kidutokado"}