{"id":"MUS2026-106","label":"Swampy Cree wind-bringer","people_or_site":"Swampy Cree","country_current":"Canada","historic_region":"Cross Lake, Northern Manitoba","macroregion":"North America","local_name":"","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Bull-roarer of the Swampy Cree, Smithsonian (NMNH/NMAI).","function_summary":"Weather magic: Swampy Cree hunters whirled it all night \"to bring\" the wind, its power lying in a noise like the wind's own rush.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"smithsonian","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/notesoneasterncr00skin","page_or_plate":"Skinner 1911, p. 60 (function); NMAI catalog 17/6836 / NMAI_189343 (specimen)","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"approximate culture/locality centroid","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Among the Swamp Cree the bull-roarer was an instrument of weather magic. Hunters and others to whom the wind mattered would whirl it 'to bring' the wind, sitting up all night working it, its power thought to lie in a noise that resembled the rush of the wind itself. This carved blade, strung on twine, was collected at Cross Lake in the Northern Region of Manitoba in 1930 by the anthropologist A. Irving Hallowell and is now in the National Museum of the American Indian. Skinner noted that such swung implements were rarely treated as children's toys.","pull_quote":"Hunters and others to whom the wind is of importance use a bull roarer to bring it. They sit up all night manipulating this instrument. Its connection with the wind probably lies in its noise, which resembles the rush of the wind.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Alanson Skinner, Notes on the Eastern Cree and Northern Saulteaux (1911), p. 60","term_gloss":"","cls":"weather","class_label":"Weather / fertility magic","color":"#2F6FA3","is_candidate":false,"flags":["weather"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Alanson Skinner, 'Notes on the Eastern Cree and Northern Saulteaux,' Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History 9(1) (1911), p. 60; Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, 17/6836 (Cross Lake, Manitoba)","url":"https://archive.org/details/notesoneasterncr00skin"}],"source_citations":"Alanson Skinner, 'Notes on the Eastern Cree and Northern Saulteaux,' Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History 9(1) (1911), p. 60; Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, 17/6836 (Cross Lake, Manitoba)","source_display":"Alanson Skinner, 'Notes on the Eastern Cree and Northern Saulteaux,' Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History 9(1) (1911), p. 60; Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, 17/6836 (Cross Lake, Manitoba)","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Bull-roarer of the Swampy Cree, Smithsonian (NMNH/NMAI).","function_display":"Weather magic: Swampy Cree hunters whirled it all night \"to bring\" the wind, its power lying in a noise like the wind's own rush.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"swampy cree","display_name":"Swampy Cree wind-bringer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/MUS2026-106_mus2026-106-nmai-17-6836.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/MUS2026-106_mus2026-106-nmai-17-6836_thumb.jpg","alt":"Swampy Cree bullroarer from Cross Lake, Manitoba: a pale wooden blade with teeth along both edges, joined by cord to a long handle.","credit":"Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, 17/6836","license":"Usage Conditions Apply (© Smithsonian NMAI); authorization required for website publication; proposed for non-commercial research rehosting. Metadata CC0.","source_page":"https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/object/NMAI_189343","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Swampy Cree bullroarer with handle, Cross Lake, Manitoba."},"slug":"mus2026-106-swampy-cree"}