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Tule Grass Duck Decoy - Lake Lahontan Style by Mike Williams [147073]

Currency:USD Category:American Indian Art Start Price:300.00 USD Estimated At:600.00 - 1,000.00 USD
Tule Grass Duck Decoy - Lake Lahontan Style by Mike Williams  [147073]
SOLD
250.00USD+ (55.00) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2022 Apr 21 @ 09:57UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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This Canvasback Tule grass decoy is about half-scale made by Mike Williams of the Schurz, Nevada Paiute tribe. It is in the Lake Lahontan- Lovelock Cave style; signed and dated by the artist 2017. It measures 9 in. X 5 in. Please see photos for details. Description assistance by Norm DeLorme.
Tule Decoys (Duck Decoys)

A discussion of Native American duck decoys with Norm DeLorme, a 6th Generation Paiute-Washoe Basket Weaver.

Duck decoys have been used throughout history by man with the intent of luring ducks as part of the hunting process for food. Norme provides us with his historical perspective of Nevada Native American Tule Decoys:

“Anthropologists have discovered caches of ancient Tule duck decoys, many of which, prior to those discoveries, were looted by local pioneers coming into the Lahontan Valley area or Lahontan marshes, so a number of items were dispersed in the 1880s- 1900s. Specific ones were discovered when the ranchers started to set up; the Lovelock Cave is an example of a cache of ancient decoys that was discovered in the early 1900s. Those were the first large cache discovered and has been protected by Nevada State Museum and the Smithsonian(?) such that for a long time no one could see them. In the Fallon Stillwater Paiute Shoshone Reservation, the family that focused their cultural knowledge regarding Tule Decoys was the Jimmy George Family (circa 1890-1960?). Jimmy George and his wife, Wuzzie George, retained a lot of the cultural knowledge of the Stillwater Marsh band, the Toi-Tkud Paiute Band, which means the “Tule Eaters.” Jimmy George’s son, Ivan George, learned the skill and tradition of making Tule decoys and Ivan George taught his two sons, Davin and Martin George, to make the decoys as well. More recently (circa 1980s) two other Northern Paiute craftsmen, Michael Williams and Joey Allen, picked up and practiced the knowledge of Tule Decoy Duck making. To my knowledge there haven’t been very many others.”

The decoys in this sale came from the Stillwater Paiute Band, collected by a long-time Fallon collector.

Throughout America, wood decoys are perhaps better known than Tule decoys. Wood decoys are known in America back to the early 1800s, where beautiful and ornate hand-carved and painted specimens still exist in collections in museums.

Fred Holabird, a lifelong Geologist, historical researcher, outdoor advocate, and cultural preservationist, asked Norme if other bands of Native Americans throughout the U.S. use a form of decoy to attract ducks and if so, what they were. Norm knows of decoys made by the Ojibway of the Great Lakes Area, which is part of Norm’s heritage. According to Norm, duck figures become important in western cultural history used in Kwakiutl and other Native American ceremonies. The reader is encouraged to research duck decoy use and concepts in North American history.

Both Fred Holabird and Norm DeLorme feel the concept, artistry and technology of the ancient tradition of Tule Decoys is diminishing, as modern technology supersedes the concepts of the need to create like-kind or replicas of mother nature’s birds.