Money

Item number 1927.76 from the MAA: University of Cambridge.

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Data
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Description

Eleven dentalium shells of standard length and colour that have been strung together, probably by Ridgeway or the museum.; Good

Context

The catalogue card states the dentalium shell are called Haikwa or Hi-A-Qua among the Kyuquots other tribes of the Westcoast of Vancouver. The original European tribal names and, where possible, current tribal names have both been given in separate GLT fields.; Emmon' s text on the Tlingit, The Tlingit Indians 1991, (University of Washington Press), contains a note on dentalia, page 173-4, Dentalia were used for personal ornaments and to decorate blankets, were procured in trade from the Quatsino Kwakiutl and the Nootka (Nuu-Chah-Nulth). They were, however more valuable in trade to the interior people, and were therefore often called the shell money , since there were fixed trade values for a certain number of standard lengths and colours. A further note added by Frederica de Laguna records that the Russians would acquire dentalium shells at about thirty rubles per hundred in order for them to trade with north Americans.