Though catalogued as #3 in the collection, 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..A cast of this mortar was cataloged as E229786 [there is also a mold]

From card: "Shot-pouch."

Seems to be part of a fire set? See E209914, flint, which is identified as being for this steel.

FROM CARD: "BONE. ILLUS. IN USNM REPT, 1895; PL. 18, FIG. 3; P. 784." Identified there as bone skin dresser.Provenience note: List in accession file appears to attribute #s 19, 20, 21, 22?, 23 and 24 to the Chilkat Tlingit of Klukwan. List identifies all as scraping, skinning and dressing tools for hides/skins. This object is most likely # 21 on the list.Listed on page 47 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: "Same as "A" except quite thin and the carved representation of a wolf-like animal with its tail in its mouth is not carved all over like "C & D", but only has a row of arrow-shaped points running down the middle of the body. About 2 1/2" of the left edge has been irregularly broken off (not damaging the carving.) Loaned to the Whitney Museum of American Art on Sept. 10, 1971. Returned ... 2-9-72. Illus.: Hndbk. N. Amer. Ind., Vol. 7, Northwest Coast, Fig. 5e, pg. 460."Illus. Fig. 3.15, p. 44 in Brotherton, Barbara. 2008. S'abadeb = The gifts : Pacific Coast Salish arts and artists. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum in association with University of Washington Press. Figure caption notes: "The sinuous creature delicately carved into the darkened wood (perhaps maple wood) bends a flexible body around the circular whorl to catch his tail in his mouth. The series of crescent and trigon shapes that might represent his spinal anatomy drive the flow in a circular direction, imparting a perceptible sense of motion or activity. Both the economy of carving and the particular structure of the eye are reminiscent of older styles, suggesting a much earlier date of manufacture (ca. 1800) than the time this piece was collected - at the turn of the twentieth century."

359E; ORNAMENT OF CARVED WOODEN ANIMAL HEAD TIED TO CIRCULAR BRANCH WITH HAIR ATTACHED; TLINGIT, CHILKAT--G.T. EMMONS, COLLECTOR.Information below on American Museum of Natural History records, etc. was provided by Allen Wardwell, 1988. This object has a number E359 written on it. This is an American Museum of Natural History number and indicates the object comes from George Thornton Emmons collection, #359, at the American Museum. According to Allen Wardwell, this object was collected by Emmons between 1884 and 1893 and acquired by the AMNH in 1893. Over the years, a number of objects have left the AMNH collection in various ways, and the AMNH has no records that the piece was lent or traded from the collection. This object does not seem to match any of the catalogued items listed as having been donated to the Smithsonian by the AMNH or by George Thornton Emmons. Emmons' catalogue entry for # 359 at the AMNH reads: "359 Wooden, ornamental portion of Doctor's dance headdress - "Take-cheany" from Kluck-qwan, "Chilkhart-qwan," the property of a Doctor, the carved wooden head, represents a land otter. Ornamentally painted in black and red."