Bones (15) Item Number: E168370-0 from the National Museum of Natural History

Notes

FROM CARD: "CARVED. WORN BY MEDICINE-MAN."List in accession file identifies #s 34 (E168370), 35 (E168371), and 36 (E168372) as "Bone necklaces worn by medicine men when practicing about the sick." Old museum tag with E168370 identifies this object as Tanana (i.e. Athabaskan). The heading above the listing for #33 (E168369) says: "These three pieces [which is presumed to apply to #33, 34, and 35] were brought by the Chilkaht Indian traders + packers from the Gunannao? [word hard to read] people who live about the headwaters of the Yukon River." The museum cataloguer has interpreted Gunannao to be Gonaho, i.e. Gunahoo/Gunaaxoo or the Dry Bay Tlingit, and has listed that designation for E168369 - E168373. It may be instead that this is a version of the word Gunana, i.e. Athabaskan (including Tutchone, Tagish ...), as the Chilkat traded with them. The Yukon River location seems to support this, as that would apply to the Athabaskans, not the Gunaaxoo Tlingit. (See p. 57 in Emmons, George Thornton, and Frederica De Laguna. 1991. The Tlingit Indians. Anthropological papers of the American Museum of Natural History, v. 70. Seattle: University of Washington Press.)