This exceptional figure of a shaman is Haida, and dates to the third quarter of the nineteenth century. Its elements are rendered in exquisite detail, down to the knot in the cord holding the shaman's hair. Steven Brown, formerly of the Seattle Art Museum, writes of this figure: "This bold and dramatic figure represents a shaman, carved in traditional Haida style, who crouches in a posture typical of those employed by shamans in their healing rituals. The finely sculpted shaman image holds his left hand in a special position known to the shaman to assist in his work of healing and restoring lost souls. He once held a rattle in his right hand, possibly carved of bone or ivory in the globular style typical of the shaman's calling. The masklike quality of the face in this figure is a great example of Haida stylized portraiture. The long, traditionally uncut hair of the shaman is tied up in a manner common to shamans and shamanic imagery, and the fringed leather apron is hung with dried deer hoofs, known for their rattling, percussive sound that accompanies the shaman's movements. . . . After the devastating smallpox pandemic that struck the Northwest Coast in 1862, a number of surviving Haida artists began to carve representative figures of this type as a means of memorializing features of the old culture, which were seen as dwindling along with the rapid drop in population due to ongoing disease and other factors. Images of regalia-clad chiefs and detailed shaman figures such as this one were made in both wood and argillite, and give us a special glimpse at the peak of Northwest Coast culture as created from within by skilled artisans."