The amazing thing about museum collections is that their objects represent people, real people. Someone once made or used the objects and they hint at lives lived and stories to tell. This past weekend I was at the Grand Canyon. At the Visitor’s Center in Tusayan, a National Geographic IMAX film shows a scene with an archaeologist finding a split-twig figurine in a deer-like shape. A child’s toy, one surmises, dating back 3,000 years. So a very long time before I hiked down into the Canyon, others were walking there (although probably not panting quite as hard as I was coming back up!).

Split-twig figurine from Grand Canyon, circa 2000 BCE, ASM collection, photograph by Jannelle Weakly

ASM has two split-twig figurines from the Tse-an-Kaetan Cave site in the Grand Canyon that date to 2,000 BCE in the Late Archaic period. Mike Jacobs, ASM’s archaeological collections curator, told me that these split-twig deer-like figures were probably not toys. More likely they were connected with hunting beliefs. Many of these were found in the Grand Canyon area and north into southern Utah. They are almost always found in fairly remote places, preserved in caves high in the Canyon walls, which do not show evidence of regular habitation. Perhaps these were shrines or places for internal preparation for a hunt. Some of the figures even have miniature twig spears in them.

Mike referred to the figures as “Archaic origami, except with split-twig rather than a piece of paper.” They are small, fitting in the palm of your hand. They are made of a single twig from the sumac bush that is bent and folded over a number of times. Mike mused, “How long did it take for someone to figure this out? How to do it?” He continued, “It’s really quite complex. You start with a long twig, split it, and then continue folding it and wrapping it over itself.”

When I left the Grand Canyon area and started driving back through the Coconino National Forest towards Sedona I paused to take in a Native Arts and Crafts sale. I found contemporary Native artists making the same split-twig deer figurine, only out of silver wire. These were offered as a charm for sale. I’m not sure wearing one would convert me into a hunter, but I loved their design and their connection to the early inhabitants of the Grand Canyon.

[If you'd like to learn more about split-twig figurines, comment and ask for a copy of a bibliography of reference materials that Mike Jacobs compiled. I'd be glad to email it to you.]