Locomotoring

The photos above are from Alaska State Museum in Juneau. One on the right shows Tlingit ceremonial rattles. The top row first two are Raven rattles, often intricately carved with a combination of human, frog, hawk and other creatures. On the left are a pair of Yupik ceremonial masks, likely from Qikirtaq island, near St. Michael, they resemble the masks from Unalakleet, Hooper Bay and Nelson Island.

I have been totally swept off my feet by the ceremonial raven rattles. What follows is a fictional story of a woman child, Héen (in Tlingit, Héen means river), in the form of an imagined conversation between the ceremonial mask on top left and the raven rattle on top left.