Bow Item Number: 1954.140 from the MAA: University of Cambridge
Wooden self bow. The bow shaped nocks, and in cross- section is curved on the front, and flat on the back. The surface of the back is grooved, and a ridge runs down the centre. The arms taper towards the nocks, and narrower at the grip. The bowstring is attached at one end and has a loop at the other for slipping round the nock.; Good
The style of this bow conforms to the description by Emmons of Yakutat Tlingit sea otter bows. He states, in The Tlingit Indians (American Museum of Natural History Washington University Press 1991) page 126, The bow sucks was made of a single piece of spruce: plain, straight, broad...The belly was rounded and the back flattened, the latter usually shaped with two inclined planes that met along the centre (line) and formed a slight ridge. The grip was rounded for distance of some three inches. The nocks were short and straight. The bowstring was of porpoise or whale sinew, made of many fine strands twisted and laid up in a square or flat sennit. An eye was formed at one end, and the standing part was passed over a nock at oneend of the bow. The original European tribal names and, where possible, current tribal names have both been given in separate GLT fields.; Bows of this style were used for hunting sea otters by the Yakutat Tlingit. The hunters used canoes, two to three to a boat, and often hunted some considerable distance from the shore, 10 to 20 miles. There were often several canoes which hunted in a line. When a sea otter was sighted a paddle was raised in the direction it was swimming and the canoes then closed in on the prey. The sea otter would be the target of all the hunters, but only one could claim the animal, the one whose arrow wasnearest the tail was deemed to be the owner. The arrow had a barbed head and a line attached which prevented the otter from escaping. It was eventually pulled into the canoe and killed with a blow from a club (page 122-127 in The Tlingit Indians (American Museum of Natural History Washington University Press 1991).