Notes

This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=703 , retrieved 5-17-2012: Halibut hook, Haida. Halibut surpassed every other food in the traditional diet. Individual matrilineages claimed ownership of undersea "banks" (plateaus) where the fish congregate. Early spring halibut fishing brought some of the first fresh food of the year, and people worked to lay in a large supply, the men pulling the fish from the bottom on wooden hooks and the women slicing them into fillets and drying them for storage. On summer trading voyages, the Haida exchanged dried halibut and seaweed to the Tsimshian for eulachon grease and berries. On this halibut hook, a predatory creature is shown capturing a seal.