{"id":"STEWART1941-002","label":"Atsa (Fort McDermitt) wimo'to snow-melting bullroarer","people_or_site":"Atsa (Atsa'kudokwa-tuviwarai, 'red-butte dwellers') Northern Paiute, Fort McDermitt","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Quinn River drainage, northern Nevada","macroregion":"North America / Great Basin","local_name":"Wimo'to","source_term":"wimo'to","source_language":"English","object_description":"Whirrer of juniper, painted red.","function_summary":"Whirled to raise a wind that melts the snow; not a toy.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"stewart1941_ced14_northern_paiute","source_type":"culture_element_distribution","source_url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucar004-004.pdf","page_or_plate":"Stewart 1941, pp. 364, 401, 403, 438","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"McDermitt, on the Nevada-Oregon line, anchors the Atsa band's Quinn River territory and the reservation Stewart names; not a specific use site.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Pete Snap, born at McDermitt on the Quinn River, told Omer Stewart what the wimo'to was for, and the answer was narrow: only to melt snow. The whirrer was juniper, and it had to be painted red. It was swung to make the wind blow, and the wind did the melting; it was never a toy, and the Atsa kept it apart from the buzzers they also spun. Two details make this band's roarer unlike its neighbours': a required colour and a single seasonal job, working against the winter rather than for a crowd.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"Wimo'to: the Northern Paiute name for the bullroarer, cognate with the Surprise Valley kwi'mo and with the wimo- forms in Stewart's Ute and Southern Paiute vocabularies.","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":"Omer C. Stewart, 'Culture Element Distributions: XIV, Northern Paiute,' Anthropological Records 4:3 (1941), pp. 364, 401, 403 and 438","url":"https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucar004-004.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260814093943/https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucar004-004.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Omer C. Stewart, 'Culture Element Distributions: XIV, Northern Paiute,' Anthropological Records 4:3 (1941), pp. 364, 401, 403 and 438","source_display":"Omer C. Stewart, 'Culture Element Distributions: XIV, Northern Paiute,' Anthropological Records 4:3 (1941), pp. 364, 401, 403 and 438","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Whirrer of juniper, painted red.","function_display":"Whirled to raise a wind that melts the snow; not a toy.","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"atsa atsa","display_name":"Atsa (Fort McDermitt) wimo'to snow-melting bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/expansion_2026_07/nmnh_E360251.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/expansion_2026_07/thumbs/nmnh_E360251_thumb.jpg","alt":"Pima painted-wood bullroarer with cord and handle, Smithsonian.","credit":"Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution (E360251)","license":"No rights statement on record page (Smithsonian Terms of Use)","source_page":"https://collections.si.edu/search/detail/edanmdm:nmnhanthropology_8407053","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Pima red-painted wooden blade with cord and handle stick","pool_id":"american-west-pima-complete-rig"},"slug":"stewart1941-002-atsa-atsa-kudokwa-tuviwarai-red-butte-dwellers-northern-paiute-fort-mcderm"}