Potlatch dance wand

Carved in the form of a double paddle, this unique dance wand was made for a 1904 Potlatch ceremony marking Sitka’s centenary. It bears the image of a mythological creature known as Sisiyutl, a double-headed sea-serpent, from which a human head emerges. Sisiyutl is associated with war and the duality of good and evil. Here the image is adapted to the form of the wand: the serpent’s heads are depic…