Though original mortar is catalogued as #4 in the collection, and listed as from Alaska, the original of this object is either #2 or #3 on the detailed list filed in the accession record, both of which are identified as tobacco or snuff mortars from Skeena River, B.C..Another cast of the same mortar was cataloged as E229797.

This object is identified in Anthropology catalogue ledger book as a "Chilkat blanket pattern board." The word Chilkat was mistranscribed on catalogue card as Clilkat. See related objects E209964 and ET15491. See Fig. 404, p. 187, in The Chilkat Dancing Blanket, by Cheryl Samuel, University of Oklahoma Press, 1982. Pattern board at top appears to be this object.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=289 , retrieved 3-12-2012: Pattern board, Tlingit.Shgen George, a weaver, made the following comments during the Tlingit Recovering Voices Community Research Visit, March 13-March 24, 2017. The design on this pattern board is a diving whale.

From card: "Twined weaving; totemic whale painted on the body. Raven head carved from wood and painted, afixed to top of hat." For small illustration (hat only, not the raven head carving) see Hat 107, p. 221 in Glinsmann, Dawn. 2006. Northern Northwest Coast spruce root hats. Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. Glinsmann identifies the hat as of Haida manufacture.Accession record 41512 calls this "Chilkat straw [sic] hat and raven's head", and also, more correctly, identifies it as a painted spruce root hat. See also accession file for Accession 41221, which contains information about objects from several Emmons accessions. It appears to contain information about hat # E221177? It may be the hat referred to on a list at the end of that file as "Spruce root dance hat painted with wooden bird on top from Metlakatla, Annette Island [Alaska]."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=296 , retrieved 12-30-2011: Crest hat This woven spruce-root crest hat is topped with the wooden head of Raven, yet the design painted on the crown is the Killer Whale, a crest belonging to the Eagle moiety. The combination of symbols from opposing moieties on a single hat is rare. It might represent trade with the Haida, where this combination is allowed, or mockery of an unpaid Raven debt to social opposites. Even more rarely a child may be given permission to use a crest of his grandfather's clan, always of the opposite moiety, creating a mix of designs.Listed on page 41 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".From 2008 Anthropology Conservation Lab treatment report by Landis Smith: The hat is twined, left to right from the center of the top of the hat, and finished with a braided edge. The top of the hat and sides are woven in a plain twine; the wide brim is woven in a chevron design using a weft over double warp, alternating with weft over single warp. An interior head band was woven into the structure of the hat. This headband was trimmed along the bottom edge with a striped cotton cloth. There is another piece of multi-colored cloth sewn into the striped headband trim, and covers the top of the hat where the crown of a person's head would go. Red tradecloth (heavy flannel) ties are sewn to the interior head band to be tied under the chin. The neck and head of a raven is carved from what appears to be red cedar. The base of the neck is slightly convex to fit on top of the hat. There are pairs of holes visible on each side of the exterior of the base of the neck; these connect to two pairs of holes seen on the base of the carving. Lashings were drawn through these holes to secure the carving to the stop of the hat. The raven is open-beaked with a pronounced tongue, large black eyes and squared off ears: The raven head and neck are painted black with red flecking. The interior of the beak, tongue, nostrils and interiors of the ears are painted red. The eyes are black with white paint around them. There is a band of green across the base of the beak and around the eyes; this area is slightly recessed. There is a white, filled-in U shape on each cheek.

Provenience note: List in accession file (this object is # 6 on list) appears to attribute this to the Hutsnuwu Tlingit of Angoon. List identifies this object as a "Stone for sharpening carving knives ... used to give first edge to knives."

FROM CARD: "WOMAN'S. SEWING. IVORY HANDLE."Provenience note: List in accession file (this object is # 12 on list) appears to attribute this to the Sitka Tlingit of Sitka. List identifies as "Woman's awl ... Handle of ivory and pricker of steel. This awl is used by the women in all sewing of skins, furs ... the hole is made with the awl and the pointed thread is stuck through."Listed on page 48 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: "CARVED."

From card: "Basket of spruce root, found in the rock cave burial place of a deceased Shaman of the Hook-ah-tar tribe of the Tlingit people of southeastern Alaska. The cave was on a rocky headland of Admiralty Island, on the Chatham Strait shore near the old village of Neltooskin. This basket was used to drink salt water from before practicing or when fasting. The two bands of ornamentation are in the designs of the butterfly and the half head of the salmonberry. Fitted with a handle of twisted spruce root. Illus. Fig. 28, p. 20 in A Guide to Weft Twining by David W. Fraser. Philadelphia: University of Penn. Press, 1989."