{"id":"RAY1942-003","label":"Kutenai bull-roarer","people_or_site":"Kutenai (Ktunaxa)","country_current":"Canada","historic_region":"Upper Kootenay River, southeastern British Columbia","macroregion":"North America / Plateau","local_name":"","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"A wooden blade whirled on a cord, fitted with a handle.","function_summary":"Swung from a handle to call the Chinook; also a child's toy.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"ray1942_plateau","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucar008-003.pdf","page_or_plate":"printed p. 184, elements 4094-4103","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Upper Kootenay River near Cranbrook, southeastern British Columbia -- territory anchor, not a findspot.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"At the eastern edge of the Plateau, where the Kootenay runs down toward the Rockies, the bullroarer is built differently. Along the Columbia the cord was whirled from the bare hand; the Kutenai swung theirs from a handle, a stick to whirl it by. Otherwise the Kutenai instrument did everything a Plateau roarer could do — wooden, of cedar, a child's toy, an influence on the weather; it called the Chinook and brought rain, and children sounded it when the old people asked them to. Only the Kittitas, on the Yakima, matched it use for use.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"","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":"Verne F. Ray, 'Culture Element Distributions: XXII, Plateau,' Anthropological Records 8:2 (Berkeley, 1942), p. 184, elements 4094-4103","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucar008-003.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260814094023/https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucar008-003.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Verne F. Ray, 'Culture Element Distributions: XXII, Plateau,' Anthropological Records 8:2 (Berkeley, 1942), p. 184, elements 4094-4103","source_display":"Verne F. Ray, 'Culture Element Distributions: XXII, Plateau,' Anthropological Records 8:2 (Berkeley, 1942), p. 184, elements 4094-4103","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A wooden blade whirled on a cord, fitted with a handle.","function_display":"","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"kutenai","display_name":"Kutenai bull-roarer","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":true,"caption":"Swampy Cree notched blade with handle stick, Manitoba","pool_id":"auto-MUS2026-106_mus2026-106-nmai-17-6836"},"slug":"ray1942-003-kutenai-ktunaxa"}