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Washington, D.C. "War Risk Insurance basketball team, 1921." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
My first thought is that the axe was from the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. On closer inspection of it and some research, I now believe the axe and bolos (as they would have been called) are from the Igorot tribes located in the mountain provinces of Luzon
Women's basketball was a six-on-six game back then, which explains the six persons. However, only three of them would have been shooters under the rules of that game.
I believe those items on the wall are from the Philippines, very specifically the island of Mindanao.
is Mrs. Ryan of the Bureau of War Risk Insurance basketball team (1921).
It was good that the initials of the team were pinned on the uniforms. Among the "war risks" covered by the Bureau of War Risk Insurance during WWI was soldiers' disability, which lead to a rapid expansion of its work, then its size. Congress and the Harding Administration lost faith in this arrangement in 1921. In August and September 1921, they abolished the Bureau and transferred its functions to the new United States' Veterans Bureau.
That wall hanging belongs in an Agatha Christie book.
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