Mask depicting Bear Mother with Children by Janice Morin, Cree

Mask depicting Bear Mother with Her Children, 1997by Janice Morin, Cree Nationred cedar, cedar bark, horse hair, pigment32” high (with hair) x 12” wide x 6” deep The Bear Mother story is set in a mythic time when bears and humans lived alongside each other with respectful tolerance. A young woman slips and falls when she accidentally steps in a pile of bear excrement. When she vocalizes her anger with the bears in derogatory and unflattering terms, the bears take her captive and place her in a dark cave for several days. She receives counsel from the Mouse Woman (Quaganjaat), another Haida character, who advises her to place copper, a symbol of wealth and prestige, atop her next excrement. In doing this, she persuades the bears that she has exceptional powers. A bond develops between the woman and the Grizzly Chief’s nephew. They eventually marry and she gives birth to two cubs. Her brothers from the human village find her and her bear family, and in order to save them her husband sacr