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This is a swan mask. This mask was an angalkuq's dance mask used during the last feast of winter. The face shows the shaman's helping spirit. It brings the swans, geese, ducks, and other birds back to the coast in the spring to give nourishment to the people especially the eggs and young birds.
The mask represents the swan spirit.. A caribou ruff originally encircled the face, and the head stood upon a piece of baleen so that it trembled at the lightest touch. An enlarged caqiqsak [woman's labret] is attached to the chin; the wooden rods dangling from its base appear on many Kuskokwim masks.
Swan feathers were often used to surround masks. Mary Mike explains how this was done: Ellanguat [representations of the universe] are made of rings [usually bentwood strips] surrounding the mask, separated from it with some sort of pegs. Various appendages made of wood and feathers were attached to or through the ellanguaq pieces. Those pieces would rattle loudly when they wore the masks and cried out imitating the sounds of birds or animals represented. The owner of the mask, the angalkuq , would explain to the people present what it represented.
 Swans are graceful long-necked, heavy-bodied, big-footed birds that glide majestically when swimming. Whistling swans are named for their voice. They have a black bill and a small yellow spot near their eye.
Swans migrate in diagonal or V-formation at great heights: no other waterfowl moves as fast on the water or in the air. They fly with slow wing beats and necks outstretched. Swans feed by dabbling (not diving) in shallow water for aquatic plants.
Swans are sociable except in breeding season. Swans mate for life. Baby swans are called cygnets. They emerge with short-necks and thick downy feathers; cygnets are capable of running and swimming a few hours after hatching. Cygnets are carefully tended for several months. Young swans have mottled gray or brown feathers for two or more years. Swans mature when they are three or four years old. They live for up to 20 years in the wild.
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