{"id":"STEWART1942-009","label":"Mowatci Ute wind-and-cloud bullroarer","people_or_site":"Mowatci Ute (Moache)","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Rio Grande headwaters near Conejos, Colorado, and northeastern New Mexico","macroregion":"North America / Great Basin","local_name":"munu'nunöpö; nianu'nömpö","source_term":"Bull-roarer: whirrer of wood","source_language":"English","object_description":"Whirrer of wood swung on a string with a wooden handle; mountain-sheep horn and rawhide forms denied.","function_summary":"A toy, and whirled to make wind blow and to clear away clouds.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"stewart1942_ute_southern_paiute","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/83548","page_or_plate":"printed p. 291 (U1 els. 2792, 2795, 2797, 2799, 2800 +; 2793, 2794, 2796, 2801, 2802 -; U2 - throughout; el. 4087 - both); vocabulary p. 352; bands p. 236; informants pp. 238-239","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Conejos, Colorado, on the headwaters of the Rio Grande. Territory anchor for the named people; not a use site.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Among the Mowatci, the Moache Ute, the bullroarer was a wooden whirrer swung from a handled string: a plaything, but also the thing that made the wind blow and cleared the clouds away. The memory of it was contested — one elder described all of that; another denied every form and every use, yet gave a Mowatci word for it anyway, nianu'nömpö, beside the first man's munu'nunöpö, the same word the neighbouring Uncompahgre used. Whatever the two disagreed about, it was not whether their people knew the instrument.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"munu'nunöpö: Saparits's Mowatci term, identical to the word Stewart recorded for the neighbouring Uncompahgre (Mowataviwatsiu); nianu'nömpö is Nicholas Eaton's form. Both carry the Numic instrumental ending -nömpö / -nöpö, 'thing for doing X with.' Stewart's comparative vocabulary (printed p. 352) supplies no literal 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":"Omer C. Stewart, Culture Element Distributions: XVIII, Ute-Southern Paiute, Anthropological Records 6(4) (1942), Ute Mowatci lists; informants Saparits (Sapareach), ca. 87, interviewed at Ouray, Utah, and Nicholas Eaton, ca. 76, interviewed near Ignacio, Colorado (pp. 238-239)","url":"https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/83548","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261013023604/https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/83548"}],"source_citations":"Omer C. Stewart, Culture Element Distributions: XVIII, Ute-Southern Paiute, Anthropological Records 6(4) (1942), Ute Mowatci lists; informants Saparits (Sapareach), ca. 87, interviewed at Ouray, Utah, and Nicholas Eaton, ca. 76, interviewed near Ignacio, Colorado (pp. 238-239)","source_display":"Omer C. Stewart, Culture Element Distributions: XVIII, Ute-Southern Paiute, Anthropological Records 6(4) (1942), Ute Mowatci lists; informants Saparits (Sapareach), ca. 87, interviewed at Ouray, Utah, and Nicholas Eaton, ca. 76, interviewed near Ignacio, Colorado (pp. 238-239)","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Whirrer of wood swung on a string with a wooden handle; mountain-sheep horn and rawhide forms denied.","function_display":"A toy, and whirled to make wind blow and to clear away clouds.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"mowatci ute","display_name":"Mowatci Ute wind-and-cloud bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/expansion_2026_07/nmai_029224.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/expansion_2026_07/thumbs/nmai_029224_thumb.jpg","credit":"National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution (2/9224)","license":"Usage Conditions Apply (Smithsonian)","source_page":"https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/object/NMAI_30456","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Penobscot wooden blade with cord and handle stick","pool_id":"auto-expansion_2026_07--nmai_029224"},"slug":"stewart1942-009-mowatci-ute-moache"}