DCM 0273: Anonymous, North American Indian (Chippewa) Reed Pipe, Deer (or Moose) Call

DCM ledger quotes letter from Frances Densmore, 11 Sept. 1922: "On a recent trip to the Chippewa County I obtained one of the whistles used by the Chippewa in calling deer and am sending it to you today. It is in two sections (each being a double cone). When tightly closed, the tone of this one is good. It is the custom of the Indian to place the hand cup-wise over the end of this whistle and to move the hand so as to vary the tone, making it more like the call of a deer. This specimen is made of Sumac. Such a whistle is usually made more effective by pouring over it a decoction of some herb, 'medicine,' which is supposed to attract deer. These whistles were mad in various sizes." As is, in the Miller collection, it is not clear which of the 2 similar components should be inserted into the other, the metal reed therefore being in the center or at the lower end. If at the lower end, the instrument can than take an extra wooden mouthpiece, now with it, but not received or noted by DCM. At the time of its acquisition, Miller recorded in his ledger that it was of Sumac wood, in two pieces, with a beating reed of sheet metal, inserted in lower open end, held in wooden wedges and "caulked" with cloth. Miss Densmore was with the Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington.

Instrument type: Reed Pipe, Deer (or Moose) Call

Medium: Sumac.; 29.5 cm.

Key Holes System: 0 holes.

Mark Maximum: No mark.

Provenance: Frances Densmore, Red Wing, Minnesota, 15 Sept. 1922.

The Dayton C. Miller collection in the Library of Congress, contains nearly 1,700 flutes and other wind instruments, statuary, iconography, books, music, trade catalogs, tutors, patents, and other materials mostly related to the flute. It includes both Western and non-Western examples of flutes from around the world, with at least 460 European and American instrument makers represented. Items in the collection date from the 16th to the 20th century.

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