Native American Seneca False Face Mask

Circa 1900. Carved and painted wood, brass. Plate 13. The Iroquois reverently address the wooden Face used in their Midwinter and curing ceremonies as Grandfathers. Its twisted nose and mouth identify this Seneca brasswood and horsehair mask as the Grandfathers of all Grandfathers. It represents the Rim-Dweller, the great spirit at the edge of the world, whose face was permanently twisted in a collision of a moving mountain. Rim-Dweller is the patron of the curing faces worn to this day in traditional Iroquois rituals. The small image on the forehead is a miniature guardian mask.

Literature: Peter T. Furst, Jill L. Furst: North American Indian Art, Rizzoli, 1982, (illustrated) pg. 26-27, plate 13.