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Description

Silver finger-ring with a central cross and floral motifs on the band. [CAK 26/05/2009]

Longer Description

Silver finger-ring with a central cross and floral motifs on the band. The ring has a cross carved or soldered onto the front or top portion of the ring. The band around the cross is incised with floral motifs. The band tapers toward the back of the ring, where it is left undecorated. [CAK 12/08/2009]

Primary Documentation

Accession book entry: REV. C. HARRISON, Masset, Queen Charlotte Island, B.C.... - Silver ring with cross upon it given by a Russian priest at Fort Wrangell to the uncle of Kootay, the last Haida devil doctor at Masset, Queen Charlotte Island. ... Pd by cheque £2-5-0

No additional information on catalogue cards. [JC 5 9 1996]

Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - Ring given by a Russian priest at Fort Wrangell to the uncle of Kootay, the last Haida devil-doctor at Masset, Queen Charlotte Id. Purch. 1908 (Harrison). [NM 21 2 1997]

Related Documents File - The Haida Project Related Documents File contains video of research sessions and interviews with Haida delegates from September 2009 as part of the project ‘Haida Material Culture in British Museums: Generating New Forms of Knowledge'. It also includes post-visit communications that discuss object provenance. For extensive photographic, video, and textual records documenting the Haida research visit as a whole, including but not limited to preparations of objects for handling, travel logistics, British Museum participation, transcribed notes from research sessions and associated public events held at PRM, see the Haida Project Digital Archive, stored with the Accessions Registers. Original hand-written notes taken during research sessions have been accessioned into the Manuscripts collection, in addition to select other materials. [CAK 02/06/2010]

Research Notes

The decoration on the ring resembles Haida silverwork from this period, however, it is unclear from the records whether the ring originated in Russia and was given as a present to a Haida man, or if the Russian priest commissioned the ring by a carver (possibly Haida, but perhaps also Tlingit) in Fort Wrangell, Alaska. There were numerous connections between Alaska and Haida Gwaii at this time. For example, a Tlingit chief at Wrangell, Kadashan, is said to have had high-ranking Haida ancestors, including connections to Albert Edward Edenshaw's family. Robin Wright documents the movement of objects between Wrangell and Haida Gwaii, and the presence of Haida carvers in Alaska more generally, in her book Northern Haida Master Carvers (published by Douglas & McIntyre and the University of Washington Press). She also documents silver rings made by Haida carver Duncan ginaawaan and collected by James G Swan directly from ginaawan at Klinkwan and from ginaawaan's relative, Annie, at Wrangell. On page 60, Wright also documents a relative of Kootay's (also spelled k'udee), encountered by sailors in Masset Inlet in August 1791: "The tribe which inhabits this river [Masset Inlet] I am informed is large though we saw but few natives their Chief is named Cuddah [k'udee -- this is certainly the ancestor of Dr. k'udee, a Haida shaman who lived in Massett in the late nineteenth century]." [CAK 26/05/2009]

The following information comes from Haida delegates who worked with the museum's collection in September 2009 as part of the project “Haida Material Culture in British Museums: Generating New Forms of Knowledge”:
This ring was viewed alongside other items of personal adornment on Friday Sept 11, 2009. No information from delegates about this particular object was recorded. [CAK 13/05/2010]