Halibut Hook And Line

Item number E379805-0 from the National Museum of Natural History.

Public

Item Records

This page shows all the information we have about this item. Both the institution that physically holds this item, and RRN members have contributed the knowledge on this page. You’re looking at the item record provided by the holding institution. If you scroll further down the page, you’ll see the information from RRN members, and can share your own knowledge too.

The RRN processes the information it receives from each institution to make it more readable and easier to search. If you’re doing in-depth research on this item, be sure to take a look at the Data Source tab to see the information exactly as it was provided by the institution.

These records are easy to share because each has a unique web address. You can copy and paste the location from your browser’s address bar into an email, word document, or chat message to share this item with others.

Data
Data Source

This information was automatically generated from data provided by National Museum of Natural History. It has been standardized to aid in finding and grouping information within the RRN. Accuracy and meaning should be verified from the Data Source tab.

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.