The Bullroarer Atlas

STEWART1941-009 - ethnographic attestation

Tago-toka wind-making wimo'to of the Owyhee

United States - Owyhee River, southwestern Idaho and southeastern Oregon - North America - Great Basin

Weather / fertility magic

Pima painted-wood bullroarer with cord and handle, NMNH E360251.
Representative — not this record’s object. · Pima painted-wood bullroarer with cord and handle, NMNH E360251. Image source

wimo'to

Source term: bull-roarer (wimo'to)

Wimo'to: Stewart's survey-wide Northern Paiute element heading for the bullroarer.

On the Owyhee, where Idaho, Oregon and Nevada nearly meet, the wimo'to was swung to bring wind and was not given to children — a weather instrument, kept out of play, matching what three other eastern bands said independently.

Object
A wooden whirrer; not described further.
Function
Swung to make the wind blow; toy use denied.
Source
Omer C. Stewart, Culture Element Distributions: XIV, Northern Paiute, Anthropological Records 4:3 (1941). Tg column, table p. 401: 1870 bull-roarer +, 1871 whirrer of wood +, 1872 of sheep horn -, 1873 used as toy -, 1874 to make wind blow +. Band and informant, p. 364: the Tago-toka lived 'on Owyhee River in the SW corner of Idaho and the SE corner of…
Source location
Stewart 1941, pp. 361, 364, 401, 403
Source confidence
medium Owyhee River near Jordan Valley on the Idaho-Oregon line, the aboriginal territory Stewart assigns the band. Territory anchor for the named people; not a use site.

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