WISHHAM YOUNG WOMAN

This carving is from a Edward Curtis portrait of a young indian woman in 1910. She is a Chinookan from Washington state. The tribes were along the Colombia River and along the coast. She is from the Wishham tribe. The choker around her neck is shell disks and earrings are abalone. These were used as barter and they were good at trade. It takes me some time to carve portraits as I don't measure the different layers. I go by if it looks right to me, so I carve it a little at a time. The dark brown area is a pitch mark that goes all the way through the wood.