“Among other noteworthy objects in the ceremonial equipment of the Iroquois are wooden bowls, spoons, hung ladles and pot stirrers. Those utensils regularly used in the Long House by the individuals and committees who manage the programs have a semisacred status. [...] The carved spoons, generally of maple wood or, like the bowls, made of burls, are the cherished personal property of individuals who bring them to festivals to use in eating the ceremonial foods consumed in the Long House as a sacrament. Effigy carving on the handle of a spoon occasionally depicts the clan animal or ‘totem’ of its owner.” (Speck, 1955:82-84)

This fine classic example is carved with a broad, circular bowl and a short, straight handle with a tapering finial that forms a kind of “pedestal” for the lovely stylized bird. Burls were considered ideal for carving these ladles because of their natural shapes and because the wood would be less likely to split. Birds are the most typical animals portrayed on ladles of this type; other animals depicted included beavers, bears, and wolves.

References: Franklin Gouldsmith Speck, “The Iroquois: A Study in Cultural Evolution” in The Cranbrooks Institute of Science Bulletin Twenty-Three (Michigan, 1955). For a very similar example attributed to the Seneca, New York c. 1840 see Gilbert T. Vincent et al, editors, Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000), p. 44.