The Iroquois have a legend that explains the origin of their healing masks. According to the legend, the Creator challenged a stranger to a mountain moving contest and banished the stranger when he tried to peek, leaving his face disfigured. Iroquois masks are carved onto living trees and used in healing rituals by the False Face Society to invoke spirits and cure the sick, who then join the society. The masks represent direct spiritual connections in Iroquois culture and were taken back by the Iroquois when they began being sold as artifacts for profit against their wishes.

1. Iroquois Masks
LDSmith
1st block

2. The Legend
The Creator
encountered a
stranger one day and
challenged him to a
competition of moving
mountains. In the
contest, the stranger
could only move the
mountain a small
amount. The Creator
then started moving
the mountain with
ease, telling the
stranger not to look

3. The Legend
The stranger tried to
rake a peek out of
curiosity and the
mountain struck
him in the
face, leaving it
disfigured. The
stranger was then
banished to the
undercaves and
forests, only to
appear when
healing was
needed.

4. Iroquois masks are made to be used in
healing rituals designed to invoke spirits.
Impact of the Legend

5. The Iroquois have a “False Face Society” of
people who use ritual-like methods in
medicine and healing. Those who are
cured by the society become members.

6. In recent years, people began making the
masks just for profit, ignoring their cultural
value and calling them artifacts.

7. The Iroquois didn’t like the masks to be sold
for profit so they banned all sales and took
all of the masks back.
They refused to call the masks “artifacts”
since the represent the spirit directly in
their culture.

8. Iroquois masks
often have
deep set
eyes, bent and
crooked
noses, and
hair and
tobacco
attached to the
top.

9. Masks are carved directly onto trees and are
only removed once they are completed.
They are painted red if finished in the
daytime and black if finished at night.

10. Because the
masks are
carved directly
into living
trees, they are
considered by
the Iroquois to
be living and
breathing.