FROM CARD: "OLD. WELL CARVED. ENTIRELY FROM THE SOLID. UNLIKE THE HAIDA HELMETS WHICH ARE CARVED FROM A SOFTER SPRUCE OR CEDAR, THIS HELMET IS CUT FROM THE HARDWOOD. FACE UNPAINTED, EXCEPT FOR EYEBALLS AND EYEBROWS. TOTEMIC CARVINGS IN VERMILLION AND A BROWNISH BLACK. NEG. NO. 43,228-B (FRONT), 43,228-D (PROFILE-LEFT SIDE) 43,228-C (PROFILE-RIGHT SIDE). 41,207 A. LOAN: CROSSROADS SEP 22 1988. LOAN RETURNED: JAN 21, 1993. ILLUS.: CROSSROADS OF CONTINENTS CATALOGUE; FIG. 310, P. 232. ILLUS.: HNDBK. N. AMER. IND., VOL. 7, NORTHWEST COAST, FIG. 13 TOP LEFT, PG. 218. "Per Repatriation Office research, as reported in the Tlingit case report (Hollinger et al. 2005), in 1893, Herbert G. Ogden received a wooden helmet in trade from the leaders of the Ishkeetaan clan from the Upper Taku River area of British Columbia.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=261 , retrieved 9-20-2011: Helmet. Tlingit warriors wore carved and decorated helmets, mask-like wooden "collars" over their necks and faces, thick leather tunics, and wooden body armor. Their weapons included bows and arrows, short spears, war clubs, and double-bladed daggers.(1) This helmet, collected in 1893 from the T'aaku/Taku of the upper Taku River in British Columbia, shows a wrinkled human face that was once embellished with bear fur whiskers and shocks of human hair.(2) Its eyebrows are painted brown, the eyes black, and the lips reddish brown against a background of light green. The figure's pierced hands stretch across the front rim of the helmet, joined to a stylized body that is painted around the back. The helmet was carved from a hard, dense spruce burl. Tlingit helmets depict human beings or crest animals belonging to the owner's clan. (3) Helmets were carved from tree roots or knots for strength, and were very dense and heavy. Tomas Suria, who was at Yakutat with the Malaspina expedition in 1791, wrote that, "They construct the helmet of various shapes; usually it is a piece of wood, very solid and thick, so much so, that when I put on one it weighed the same as if it had been of iron."(4) Some type of padding needed to be worn underneath the hat, such as a fur cap.(5) Russian naval office Urey Lisianskii, who helped the Russian-American Company's Alexander Baranov fight the Tlingit at Sitka in 1804, noted that the helmets "are so thick, that a musket-ball, fired at a moderate distance, can hardly penetrate them."(6) Nonetheless, Tlingit helmets and wooden body armor gradually went out of use as firearms became more common on the Northwest Coast. The helmets continued to be important as at.óow, or crest objects owned by clans and presented at potlatches.(7) Tlingit warfare usually pitted one clan against another, rather than whole tribes or villages. It often developed from the harm or insult that one individual suffered at the hands of a person from another clan, and escalated into a conflict that involved all of the relatives on both sides.(8) One observer wrote in 1885 that, "For every bodily injury, for any damage to his goods and property, for any infringement by strangers on his hunting or trading territory, full compensation is demanded or exacted by force."(9) Raiders often attacked their enemies at dawn, killing the men and taking women and children as prisoners and slaves.(10) However, disputes were sometimes settled by duels in which solo fighters from each side fought each other armed only with daggers and dressed in their armor and helmets.(11) 1. DeLaguna 1972:590-91; Emmons 1991:337-46; Holmberg 1985:22; Hough 1895; Lisianskii 1968:149-50; Olson 2002:109, 478-89. 2. DeLaguna 1990:218; Fitzhugh and Crowell 1988:232 3. Emmons 1991:344-45 4. W. M Olson 2002:479 5. Emmons 1991:342 6. Lisianskii 1968:150 7. Jonaitis 1986:21; Lisianskii 1968:150 8. Emmons 1991:328; R. L. Olson 1967:69-82 9. Krause 1956:169 10. Krause 1956:170; Litke 1987:87; Niblack 1890:340-42 11. Holmberg 1985:22; Niblack 1890:342This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.

From card: "Made in bird cage stitch. Original catalogue has no listing of 204224a; nor does the Houtz accession papers mention any Quinault baskets. This is probably not a Houtz collection specimen. See note on cat. card # 204224."As of 2009, there are 2 baskets bearing the number 204224: E204224 and E204224A, and the cultural identifications for each appear unclear. The original Anthropology catalogue ledger book entry lists only one object for this number: original # 8, identified as a Quinault wallet (i.e. bag). E204224 is a flat basketry bag. Catalogue card now identifies it as Wasco, not Quinault, though it does not seem typical Wasco style. An old tag on the object also identifies it as possibly Chehalis. It is listed in the database under all three cultural identifications of Wasco, Quinault and Chehalis pending further study. E204224A is a cylindrical basketry bag. Catalogue card identifies it as Quinault, though it is not typical Quinault style (and seems more Columbia River style, possibly Wasco?) It is currently listed in the database under both cultural identifications of Quinault and Wasco pending further study.

REPLACEMENT CARD: INFORMATION COPIED FROM LEDGER,AUGUST,1983. "SEE ALSO CAT. NOS. 316,629-316,985." OBJECT NAME DERIVED FROM OBJECT.

From card: "Cedar wood post. One end carved in shape of a human standing on a fish. Used at back of a salmon trap."

E-231014: Painted Wooden Spoon “Haida, British Columbia. Plain form after the home spoon; painted with mythological design in black and red.” (Catalog card)Comment from Graduate Student Research Paper, "A Report on Accession #42610 of the National Museum of Natural History", written by Athena Hsieh in April 2012, for the class "Anthropology in the Museum" taught by NMNH Curator, Dr. J. Daniel Rogers for the George Washington University. Approved for inclusion into notes by Dr. Igor Krupnik. Dr. Krupnik and NMNH has not verified the contents of the comment below, and suggests future researchers verify the remarks before citing Ms. Hsieh. The complete paper is attached to the accession record of this object in EMu. "This spoon is carved from a light-colored wood, possibly cedar, and is painted with a killer whale design on the front. The back of the spoon is undecorated. In describing traditional Haida spoons, Dr. Swanton wrote, “Sometimes they illustrate a story, sometimes they are the crests of the owner, and sometimes they are purely ornamental” (137). The stories most commonly told by the ornamentation on carved spoons were Raven stories, where Raven would occasionally be represented as human figures, both male and female. According to Dr. Swanton in, “only (hunting) members of the Raven clan, on the West Coast, used spoons when they ate black cod. The Eagles used their hands” (Swanton 1905, 57). Spoons were also used in potlatches for feasting and given away as gifts (164). However, most of the spoons Dr. Swanton based this research on were carved from goat's horn. His only mention of wooden spoons in “Ethnology” referred to illustrations of designs from wooden spoons “used in eating soap-berries” (147). This spoon, which has a flat, straight handle, does not appear to have been used as a utensil, suggesting that Dr. Swanton may have collected this from a craftsman selling trade goods. The lack of any complex designs or additional crest images supports this. Citations: Swanton, John R. 1905. “Contributions to the Ethnology of the Haida” in Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History 8-1. New York: G. E. Stechert. Swanton, John R. 1905. Haida Texts and Myths: Skidegate Dialect. Washington: Government Printing Office."

From card: "Ceremonial sheet copper mask used in mortuary ceremonies (killing of slaves.) Inset of nacred abalone shell as eyes & teeth held in position by rivit copper support strips on inside of mask. Skull cover of bear hide attached to top and sides of copper with cord and copper rivets. Design on crescentic extention at the sides near top indicate shoulders. On cheeks indicating ear thus [drawing] ... 9/12/1966 after removal of oxide in the Anthropology Conservation Lab, what appear to be fabric impressions are now visible on the mask surface. This specimen was purchased from the Nugget Shop Inc., - Curio dealers, jewelers, and opticians, Juneau, Alaska, June 1926, Comment: Robert Simpson, Mgr. ...'The mask originally came from Yakutat, I have forgotten the name of the native who brought it in, but it is a genuine article and is probably the only one in existence. It is the finest specimen of Tlingit copper craftsmanship I have ever seen. These were worn by the medicine men at their various ceremonies and particularly when they killed the slaves at the potlatches.' Loaned: Osaka Expo-70, July 1969 - Jan. 1971, and returned 12-7-1970." See BAE 46th Annual Report, p. 34, where acquisition of this artifact is discussed.Illustrated Fig. 15, p. 95, and discussed pp. 92-93 in Lenz, Mary Jane, 2004, "No Tourist Material: George Heye & His Golden Rule," American Indian Art Magazine, 29(4):86-95, 105.This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.From 2008 Anthropology Conservation Lab treatment report by Kim Cullen Cobb: Copper shaman's mask in the shape of a bear's head with fur sewn to back. The mask is fabricated from sheet copper that has been shaped into a deep concavity, likely by sinking - or hammering - the copper into a concave surface. The anatomical features of eyes, nose, mouth and brow ridges have been emphasized by repousse and chasing. Chased lines define eyebrows, eyes and nose, and chased symbols have been worked into the ears and cheeks. Abalone shell has been inserted into holes in the eye and mouth area to describe eyes and teeth. A backing of copper sheet, riveted to the back of the mask in the area of the eyes and mouth, holds the abalone elements in place. Bear hide is attached to the back of the mask; the hide is sewn with twisted sinew to the edges of the mask at the top and sides through holes drilled through the copper sheet; the hide is also riveted to the brow of the mask using copper rivets. There is a seam down the center back of the hide.