Notes

FROM CARD: "ILLUS. IN USNM AR 1888, PL. 16, FIG. 59, P. 270. [Identified in USNM AR 1888 as "Mask. Representing Hooyeh, the raven, with bow and arrow of copper in his mouth..."] '... CROW AS A MAN WITH COPPER BOW AND ARROW IN ITS MOUTH.' - SWAN'S DESC. CAT. 9/8/1970 LOANED TO NAT. GALL. ART. 9/22/1970 RETURNED FROM NGA." IDENTIFIED AS MASK COMBINING RAVEN AND KILLER WHALE ELEMENTS, BELLA BELLA, ON P. 189 IN DOWN FROM THE SHIMMERING SKY BY PETER MACNAIR, VANCOUVER ART GALLERY, 1998.Mask is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027. Appendage (long orca/killer whale fin) not included in loan. Per 2009 Anthropology Conservation Treatment report by Landis Smith: Research indicates strongly that the long orca/killer whale fin fringed with human hair that extended from the back of the "cage" of the mask was most likely added after collection and not originally associated with the other part of the headdress. It has therefore been removed for exhibit, as per curatorial/conservator's judgment. The fin had been attached to the bentwood "cage" of frame of mask with waxed thin cordage, or "fake sinew " - this was added in 1998 for an exhibit. Previously the fin was attached with wire (see ACL Conservation Treatment Report 4/1998).Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on the mask http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=631 , retrieved 5-9-2012: Mask, Haida. This mask of a bird with copper bow and arrows in its beak may represent a story from Haida tradition. The sky god, Shining Heavens, is raised by the daughter of a chief; when she makes him a bow and arrows from her copper bracelets, he shoots a wren, a cormorant, and a blue jay, putting on the skins to become different kinds of clouds in the sky. Copper ornaments on the mask may be stars.