False Face Society

…perform such dances as the False Face curative rites, the female mortuary dances known as ohgiwe, and the dances of the sexually integrated Bear and Buffalo medicine societies. Elsewhere, religious dance societies were based on age grades, as in the male warrior societies of the northern Plains.

The Iroquois False Face mask, for example, must be carved from the trunk of a living tree—hence the term live mask. The tree is ritually addressed before the carver begins, and the mask and the tree are “fed” tobacco before the two are separated. Such prescribed ritual…

…various Iroquois medicine societies, the False Face Society is perhaps best known. The wooden masks worn by members of this society during their rituals were carved from living trees; the masks were believed to be powerful living entities capable of curing the sick when properly cared for or of causing…

…of these groups was the False Face Society of the Iroquois people. These professional healers performed violent pantomimes to exorcise the dreaded gahadogoka gogosa (demons who plagued the Iroquois). They wore grimacing, twisted masks, often with long wigs of horsehair. Metallic inserts often were used around the eyes to catch…