Wild Dog Drum - Vintage Native American MAKAH DRUM

Hand made by a member of the Makah tribe, an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast, this hand drum is constructed of rawhide stretched over a bentwood frame. The artist is Ben Della, born in 1948, who lives in Neah Bay on the Olympic Peninsula in Northwestern Washington. The hand painted black and white image of a dog was done in formline, a type of art native to the First Nations people. Formline art uses solid shapes against negative spaces (in this case, the unpainted hide) to create very distinctive and recognizable designs.

Ben Della is a registered artist with the Washington State Arts Commission, which has in its permanent collection a Bird Rattle carved by him in 1984. He is known for his unique designs that are based on tradition. We've read online that he is the son of a Makah medicine man, but we have not been able to confirm that.

This drum measures 13 inches in diameter, 3 inches deep and weighs just under two pounds. The hide drumhead is secured over the frame with rawhide strips and there is a brown rawhide strip wound into a handhold in the center. Overall the drum is in very good condition with minor scuffs on the rim. There is a small circular hole in the front that is painted over with the white paint. It's visible to the far left in the photos of the top of the drum. It is backed by a small rawhide patch on the underside which appears as a circle on the far right of the full photo of the underside. Given that it is painted over, it was undoubtedly done at the time of its construction by the artist. It is hand signed in ink on the inner side of the rim "Ben Della wild dog drum makah artist  5-26-87".

The next to last photo was taken during the Annual Makah Days Fair in Neah Bay. Each year the Fair commemorates the date of August 26, 1913, when the first American flag was raised in Neah Bay. Note the large drum in the young man's hands--he is standing in front of a traditional salmon roast. 

FF 5266