Aam'halait (headdress frontlet)

ca. 1860

Among Northwest Coast First Peoples, artworks can be symbols of identity, storehouses for knowledge and memories, signifiers of tangible and intangible properties of the owner, markers of family history and lineage, and validation of claims to particular lands. This headpiece has acquired an esteemed history gathered over 200 years and 300 miles. Likely created by a Tsimshian artist for a chief, it traveled from there to Nuxalk homelands as a gift to their leader, Tlakwamot. By 1898, it was the property of the Kwakwaka’wakw (‘Namgis) chief, Lagiyus. It continues to be memorialized as a family treasure by living descendants.

Maple wood, abalone shell, paint

9 3/8 x 9 x 3 in. (23.81 x 22.86 x 7.62 cm)

Gift of John H. Hauberg

91.1.47

Provenance: Julia Hunt Nelson (daughter of Chief Mungo Martin-Kwakwaka'wakw), Alert Bay, British Columbia , until 1971; Michael R. Johnson, Seattle, Washington, 1971; John H. Hauberg, Seattle, Washington, 1971-1991; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1991

Photo: Paul Macapia

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The Box of Daylight, Sept. 15, 1983 - Jan. 8, 1984.

Paris, France, Fondation Cartier pour l'art Contemporain, Comme un Oiseau, June 14 - Oct. 13, 1996.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, YOU ARE ON INDIGENOUS LAND: places/displaces, Apr. 6, 2019 - June 28, 2020.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, American Art: The Stories We Carry, Oct. 20, 2022 - ongoing.

Published ReferencesFair, Susan W. and Rosita Worl, Eds., Celebration 2000 - Restoring Balance Through Culture, Sealaska Heritage Foundation, Juneau, AK, 2000

The Spirit Within: Northwest Coast Native Art from the John H. Hauberg Collection, Seattle Art Museum, 1995, pp. 158-159

Holm, Bill, Box of Daylight: Northwest Coast Indian Art, Seattle Art Museum, University of Washington Press, 1983, no. 6, p. 22, illus.

Other Documentation: 1898 photograph of frontlet being worn by a Kwakiutl, daughter of Lagius, at Alert Bay.

Pierce, Jerald. "How Seattle Art Museum is working to make its American art galleries more inclusive." The Seattle Times, October 25, 2022: reproduced, https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/visual-arts/how-seattle-art-museum-is-working-to-make-its-american-art-galleries-more-inclusive. [A version of this article appeared in print on October 30 with the headline: "Re-imagining American art: Seattle Art Museum offers a more expansive, inclusive look at U.S. art" (not reproduced).]

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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