This mask is a warrior mask with a rattlesnake headdress that may have been made by Allen Long, a well know Cherokee carver who could carve handsome forms while keeping the walls thin. Recently I learned that a small Cherokee shop made Allen Long-style masks in the 1970's, so this is probably one of those. Early masks were often used in ritual dance performances to satirize the tensions between tribal members and outsiders. They were fashioned to represent the faces of foreigners –Europeans, Africans, or neighboring Indians– and the dancers impersonated these clumsy intruders with gusto.

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