FROM CARD: "EXHIBIT HALL 9, 1987. IDENTIFIED IN EXHIBIT LABEL AS HUMAN-EAGLE MASK, COLLECTED AT THE VILLAGE OF BELLA-BELLA IN 1875. DANCING MASK REPRESENTING BIRD. ILLUS. IN BAE 3RD AR, PL. XVI, FIGS. 28-9, P. 176."Ian Reid (Heiltsuk) of the delegation from Bella Bella, Bella Coola and Rivers Inlet communities of British Columbia made the following comments during the Recovering Voices Community Research Visit May 20th - 24th, 2013. This mask is a humanoid, it's a human ancestor to be danced in the potlatch. The mask depicts human eyebrows and eye sockets, but instead of a nose and lips, it has a beak. It is carved out of alder wood.

FROM CARD: "CARVED WOOD DIVIDED INTO HALVES, LOGITUDINALLY. THE UPPER HALF ORNAMENTED WITH THE HEAD AND BEAK OF A BIRD. PAINTED RED, WHITE, GREEN, AND BLACK."

FROM CARD: "FROM: PAGE 69, BOXES AND BOWLS CATALOG; RENWICK GALLERY; SMITHSONIAN PRESS, 1974. OBJECT ILLUS. ON SAME PAGE. 59. BENT BOWL WOOD; CARVED IN RELIEF; PAINTED BLACK AND RED; RIM INLAID WITH OPERCULA. WIDTH: 7 1/2. BELLA BELLA, BRITISH COLUMBIA. "DINNER DISH." COLLECTED BY JAMES G. SWAN. CATALOGED JANUARY 15, 1876."Ian Reid (Heiltsuk) of the delegation from Bella Bella, Bella Coola and Rivers Inlet communities of British Columbia made the following comments during the Recovering Voices Community Research Visit May 20th - 24th, 2013. The dinner dish appears to be made out of alder wood, as was usual of most bowls and spoons. Alder wood didn't carry poison, it didn't have toxins like red cedar and yellow cedar.

FROM CARD: "THUNDER BIRD ORNAMENT. ??? ILLUS. IN USNM AR, 1888; PL. 28, FIG. 132, P. 286. LOAN: CROSSROADS SEP 22 1988. ILLUS.: CROSSROADS OF CONTINENTS CATALOGUE; FIG. 313, P. 234. LOAN RETURNED: JAN 21 1993." Crossroads catalogue caption identifies as "War Club, Tsimshian? Few weapons rival the elegance of this fine wooden club, with the raven's beak for a striking point. The form was probably derived from the antler club of the Athapaskans .... Two frogs crouch flanking the grip and another, topped with a reclining human figure, caps the club. Between his folded wings, the raven grasps another, inverted human. Abalone shell once glittered in the wing feathers. Such clubs were once true weapons, and later were used as emblems of chiefly rank. It is said they were sometimes used to kill slaves on ceremonial occasions."This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=46, retrieved 3-31-2012: Ceremonial War Club, Tsimshian. Designs carved on this polished wooden club include Raven and three Frogs. Although recorded by collector James Swan as an “ancient war club,” it was probably a ceremonial weapon used during initiation rituals of the Tsimshian Destroyer society, called Wi'-nanal (meaning "strong breath"). Novices underwent a ritual of possession by the protector spirit of the cult. While possessed they destroyed canoes, boxes, and other property using wooden clubs decorated with crest designs. The Tsimshian apparently adopted the Destroyer cult and other secret societies from the Bella Bella. "This is an amazing carving…These are probably potlatch rings above Raven's head. Below is a human figure between his wings. You see a lot of this kind of design on shamans' things, where they are riding in a canoe, going to the spirit world. Maybe Raven is that canoe." - David Boxley (Tsimshian), 2009.

From card for E23523-46: "Dec 20, 1972, Bill Holm says that these are definitely Haida."Cultural ID for paddles E23523 - 23546 is somewhat in question. They were catalogued as Clallam, Bill Holm has identified them as Haida, but James Swan in correspondence in the accession file references 24 Bella Bella paddles.

Listed on page 49 in "The Exhibits of the Smithsonian Institution at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California, 1915", in section "Arts of the Northwest Coast Tribes (Tools)".

FROM CARD: "ILLUS. IN USNM AR 1888, PL. 16, FIG. 59, P. 270. [Identified in USNM AR 1888 as "Mask. Representing Hooyeh, the raven, with bow and arrow of copper in his mouth..."] '... CROW AS A MAN WITH COPPER BOW AND ARROW IN ITS MOUTH.' - SWAN'S DESC. CAT. 9/8/1970 LOANED TO NAT. GALL. ART. 9/22/1970 RETURNED FROM NGA." IDENTIFIED AS MASK COMBINING RAVEN AND KILLER WHALE ELEMENTS, BELLA BELLA, ON P. 189 IN DOWN FROM THE SHIMMERING SKY BY PETER MACNAIR, VANCOUVER ART GALLERY, 1998.Mask is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027. Appendage (long orca/killer whale fin) not included in loan. Per 2009 Anthropology Conservation Treatment report by Landis Smith: Research indicates strongly that the long orca/killer whale fin fringed with human hair that extended from the back of the "cage" of the mask was most likely added after collection and not originally associated with the other part of the headdress. It has therefore been removed for exhibit, as per curatorial/conservator's judgment. The fin had been attached to the bentwood "cage" of frame of mask with waxed thin cordage, or "fake sinew " - this was added in 1998 for an exhibit. Previously the fin was attached with wire (see ACL Conservation Treatment Report 4/1998).Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on the mask http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=631 , retrieved 5-9-2012: Mask, Haida. This mask of a bird with copper bow and arrows in its beak may represent a story from Haida tradition. The sky god, Shining Heavens, is raised by the daughter of a chief; when she makes him a bow and arrows from her copper bracelets, he shoots a wren, a cormorant, and a blue jay, putting on the skins to become different kinds of clouds in the sky. Copper ornaments on the mask may be stars.