Notes

Catalog number 88960 [part numbers E88960-0 through E88960-3] are four hats of a similar style. One of the four hats is illustrated (small) as Hat 112, p. 221 in Glinsmann, Dawn. 2006. Northern Northwest Coast spruce root hats. Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006.This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027. Only 1 hat of 4 on loan (E088960-3).Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on artfact (called E88960A) http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=626 , retrieved 6-24-2012: Hat This woven spruce-root hat, made at the village of Masset in the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, is not painted with clan designs and was probably made for everyday wear and rain protection. Roots for weaving are roasted in a fire, stripped of their bark, split into strands, and softened by soaking in water. "The Elders gathered the spruce roots, and when they were ready to quit they sang a song... The first one who started the song would go down and start the fire for the spruce root, the cooking of the spruce root…Then the next group would sing and they would be the ones who would help get the kindling. And it would go clear around, and when it reached the last ones they all went down the beach then and started the cooking…We pulled the roots through a stick that was forked, and that took the outer skin off." - Delores Churchill, 2005