Club

Whale bone clubs have long been in use on the southern Northwest Coast, in particular among the Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth cultures of the region of Cape Flattery and the west coast of Vancouver Island. This club appears to be closely related in style to several other examples collected by Captain James Cook in 1779 at Yuquot Village, Vancouver Island. The designs carved into the surface of this club, which include the thunderbird and lightning serpent, are symbols of the whaling tradition that is central to Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth cultures. The thunderbird, or supernatural eagle, has the ability to capture whales in its talons. Lightning serpents act as their supernatural associates and can be used as lightning bolts—the harpoons of the thunderbirds—to successfully impale the hunted whale.

This club has a similar shape and decoration to those known to the Wakashan-speaking Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth. Typically, these clubs are approximately 20-inches long and 3-inches wide, with the blade slightly rounded rather than flat. The blade includes relief carvings of circles and trigons arranged vertically down the center of the blade. The handle, or pommel, is often an elaborate sculpture of the heads of birds or humans that sometimes wear what appear to be a headdress. Holes cut near the pommel originally held thongs of hide that were attached to the wrist of the wearer so that the club would not fall away.