This carving of an orca whale is actually a headdress made by the Tlingit, the indigenous people of the Pacific North West.
Made of wood, tanned hide, sea lion whiskers, shells, iron, and mineral paint, the headdress’ eyes and lower jaw can move during a theatrical performance where a dancer would have worn it.
The headress was collected in 1904 and is currently in Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Alcoa Foundation Hall of American India
