Notes

FROM CARD: "THE SHELL IS A BENT HOOP, ITS ENDS SCARFED AND STITCHED TOGETHER WITH A TWISTED THONG, ONE HEAD OF RAWHIDE STRETCHED OVER THE HOOP AND HELD BY WOODEN PEGS DRIVEN IN BACK EDGE OF HOOP. FOUR LEGS OR EARS ARE FORMED ON EDGES OF SKIN AND TWO LINES OF TWISTED THONGS ARE LINES CROSS IN THE MIDDLE, THUS FORMING A HANDLE."This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027. Drum and drumstick on loan.Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact http://www.alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=521, retrieved 4-24-2012: Drum, Tsimshian. Shamans played skin drums during healing rituals, while performers at potlatches and secret society ceremonies more often used wooden box drums. This instrument is a bent wooden hoop covered by thin deer hide, with crossed rawhide holding-straps in back. The drum stick depicts a killer whale in human form, a tall dorsal fin projecting from its head.