{"id":"NAEXP-003","label":"Omaha gahoota and horse thieves","people_or_site":"Omaha / Nebraska","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Nebraska (Omaha territory)","macroregion":"North America / Plains","local_name":"gahoota","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"Stick 6 in. long with a notch at one end, fastened to the end of a whip; swung by boys.","function_summary":"Boys' plaything; also used to drive stolen horses in an Omaha tale.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"culin1907_games_north_american_indians","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/annualreportofbu24smit","page_or_plate":"Culin1907 p.750; Fortune1932 pp.178–180","map_confidence":"medium_high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Macy, Thurston County, Nebraska (Omaha Reservation headquarters town), at the GeoNames 5072528 populated-place coordinate, corroborated by USGS GNIS 830989. Representative community anchor only: Culin gives 'Nebraska', not Macy or an exact collection locality. GeoNames data: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Two Omaha brothers set out to steal horses and win rank by giving them away. At the enemy camp they watched a rider come after the herd whirling a bullroarer, “used to drive horses with and called ‘horse scarer’,” and the horses ran back to camp at its sound. The brothers made one of their own and escaped, driving the stolen herd before it. Back home, they gave every horse to the chiefs and were made chiefs themselves; Tecon became the Fire Chief. Omaha boys also played with a gahoota: a six-inch stick, notched at one end and fastened to a whip.","pull_quote":"Mr Francis La Flesche described the bull-roarer, as used by Omaha boys as a plaything, under the name of gahoota. It is made of a stick, 6 inches long, with a notch cut at one end, and fastened to the end of a whip. Mr La Flesche did not know the meaning of the name.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Culin 1907, Games of the North American Indians (BAE 24th Annual Report):750","term_gloss":"gahoota: the Omaha name Francis La Flesche gave Culin for the boys' whip-mounted bullroarer; La Flesche said he did not know its meaning.","cls":"play_practical","class_label":"Play / practical","color":"#24766D","is_candidate":false,"flags":["toy_survival"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Stewart Culin, “Games of the North American Indians,” Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (1907), p. 750.","url":"https://archive.org/details/gamesofnorthamer00culirich/page/750/mode/1up"},{"citation":"R. F. Fortune, Omaha Secret Societies (New York: Columbia University Press, 1932), pp. 178–180.","url":"https://archive.org/details/omahasecretsocie00fort"}],"source_citations":"Stewart Culin, “Games of the North American Indians,” Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (1907), p. 750.; R. F. Fortune, Omaha Secret Societies (New York: Columbia University Press, 1932), pp. 178–180.","source_display":"Stewart Culin, “Games of the North American Indians,” Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (1907), p. 750.; R. F. Fortune, Omaha Secret Societies (New York: Columbia University Press, 1932), pp. 178–180.","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Stick 6 in. long with a notch at one end, fastened to the end of a whip; swung by boys.","function_display":"Boys' plaything; also used to drive stolen horses in an Omaha tale.","confidence_display":"medium to high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"omaha","display_name":"Omaha gahoota and horse thieves","image":{"full":"assets/objects/prm/prm_39594.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/prm/thumbs/prm_39594_thumb.jpg","alt":"Zuni bullroarer assembly with a long narrow wooden component and coiled cord, Pitt Rivers Museum.","credit":"© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford (acc. 1903.129.4.1)","license":"© Pitt Rivers Museum — non-commercial/educational reuse with attribution","source_page":"https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-39594","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Zuni bullroarer with a slender wooden handle and coiled cord, Pitt Rivers Museum."},"slug":"naexp-003-omaha-nebraska"}