Throwing Stick Atlatl

Item number E7899-0 from the National Museum of Natural History.

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Notes

FROM CARD: "PEOPLE: *TLINGIT OF SITKA. REMARKS: MADE OF WOOD, CARVED IN TOTEMIC DESIGNS AND INLAID WITH HALIOTIS SHELL. *THERE IS SOME CONFUSION AS TO THE PROVENIENCE OF THIS SPECIMEN. ACCORDING TO THE CATALOG BOOK IT IS ALEUT, BUT IN USNM AR 1884, PT II, PL. XVII (LEGEND) IT APPEARS TO BE TLINGIT (SITKA). IT IS VERY SIMILAR TO #20771 COLL. BY J. G. SWAN AT SITKA IN 1875. BOTH SPECIMENS ARE EXTENSIVELY CARVED IN TYPICAL NW COAST ART MOTIFS. GEP. THE TLINKIT ARE KNOWN NOT TO HAVE USED THE THROWING STICK, WHILE IT OCCURS THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE ESKIMO AREA. ILLUS. IN USNM AR, 1888; PL. 27, FIG. 127A,B; P. 286. LOAN GLENBOW NOV 13 1987. LOAN RETURNED NOV 25 1988. ILLUS.: THE SPIRIT SINGS CATALOGUE, GLENBOW-ALBERTA INST., 1987, #N44, P.141."Provenience uncertain. Original catalogue lists locality as Unalaska/Ounalaska, i.e. Aleutian Islands, but object was later published/identified as Tlingit from Sitka.Florence Sheakley, elder, made the following comments during the Tlingit Recovering Voices Community Research Visit, March 13-March 24, 2017. The design on this object is Eagle, and so belongs to the Eagle clan, but might have been made for trade.