From card: "Coiled, imbricated basket with cover attached. There is an old piece of brass worked into the basket to serve as a catch."Basket was purchased by Victor Evans from Grace Nicholson in 1919; Nicholson # 6036. See copy of Evans correspondence with Nicholson, dated June 19, 1919, filed in the Anthropology Collections Lab accession file; original of correspondence is part of the Grace Nicholson Papers and Addenda, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California; see online finding aid https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf787005cq/ . A small label glued on bottom of basket, presumably from Grace Nicholson, says "6036 Cowichan old."

From card: "Same as "A" except quite thin and the carved representation of a wolf-like animal with its tail in its mouth is not carved all over like "C & D", but only has a row of arrow-shaped points running down the middle of the body. About 2 1/2" of the left edge has been irregularly broken off (not damaging the carving.) Loaned to the Whitney Museum of American Art on Sept. 10, 1971. Returned ... 2-9-72. Illus.: Hndbk. N. Amer. Ind., Vol. 7, Northwest Coast, Fig. 5e, pg. 460."Illus. Fig. 3.15, p. 44 in Brotherton, Barbara. 2008. S'abadeb = The gifts : Pacific Coast Salish arts and artists. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum in association with University of Washington Press. Figure caption notes: "The sinuous creature delicately carved into the darkened wood (perhaps maple wood) bends a flexible body around the circular whorl to catch his tail in his mouth. The series of crescent and trigon shapes that might represent his spinal anatomy drive the flow in a circular direction, imparting a perceptible sense of motion or activity. Both the economy of carving and the particular structure of the eye are reminiscent of older styles, suggesting a much earlier date of manufacture (ca. 1800) than the time this piece was collected - at the turn of the twentieth century."

From card: "Round, thin wooden disk, slightly concave on inside, and convex on the top side which is carved - this one into two faces (human) facing each other at the hole in the center. Design covers the who surface. Brownish color, well used, in good condition (1965). These were once called Tlinkit from SE. Alaska, but 9/1962 Bill Holm of Seattle, Wash. said these were definitely Salish, and not Tlinkit. These were said to be used with spindles that held goats wool. Illus.: Hndbk. N. Amer. Ind., Vol. 7, Northwest Coast, Fig. 5a, pg. 460."

From card: "Woven of yarn made of dog hair and mountain goat wool; cape shape somewhat as in Chilkat and fringed on lower and two sides; painted with a totemic pattern of bear. Very rare." Described on p. 125, cat. entry 87 of Salish Weaving by Paula Gustafson, Univ. of Washington Press, 1980 as "Fibres: Mountain goat hair. Colour: Natural white; painted with totemic bear. Weave: Twill. Attributed to Cowichan; but may be Bella Coola"Pamela Brown (Heiltsuk), Ian Reid (Heiltsuk) and Clyde Tallio (Nuxalk) of the delegation from Bella Bella, Bella Coola and Rivers Inlet communities of British Columbia made the following comments during the Recovering Voices Community Research Visit May 20th - 24th, 2013. This robe is used for dancing. This ceremonial robe takes about 12 months to weave.

From card: "White wool of dog and mountain goat formed into heavy cord and woven by twilled method into a heavy fabric. The work is done by hand. Heavy fringe at one end and several [six] bands of color formed by interlacing a strip of old [trade] blanket stuff with the stitches. Old specimen."Reference: Solazzo, C., S. Heald, M.W. Ballard, D.A. Ashford, P.T. DePriest, R.J. Koestler, and M. Collins. 2011. Proteomics and Coast Salish blankets: A tale of shaggy dogs? Antiquity 85: 1418-1432. http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/085/ant0851418.htm . Identified there as a plain twill-woven ceremonial-type blanket of Mountain goat hair (no Salish wool or woolly dog hair was identified).The collector for E311257 is unknown. Reference: Barsh R, Jones J, Suttles W (2002): History, Ethnography, and Archaeology ofthe Coast Salish Woolly-Dog. 1-12. In: Snyder L.M. & Moore, E. A. 2006. Dogs and People in Social, Working, Economic or Symbolic Interaction. Proceeding of the 9th ICAZ Conference, Durham 2002. Oxbow Books, Oxford. See pp. 4-5 where it is noted that "James Teit was the principal collector of British Columbia antiquities for the Smithsonian Institution as well as the American Museum of Natural History in the early 20th century (Teit, J. A. 1930. The Salishan Tribes of the Western Plateaus. Fortyfifth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1927-28, 23-396. Washington, D.C.). If the Smithsonian acquired E311257 from Teit it could very well have been a product of the Cowichan people who live near Duncan on Vancouver Island. The term "Cowichan" has long been used in the Pacific Northwest as a generic term for all Coast Salish style knitting and weavings, however."

From card: "Same as "A" except not stained as dark brown, and the carving on the top or face side represents a wolf-like animal curled around the edge but taking up most of the surface. Small piece of the upper edge, above the head has been split off but not damaing the carving, and a short crack on the lower right side has been bound together with a cord repair. Illus.: Hndbk. N. Amer. Ind., Vol. 7, Northwest Coast, Fig. 5c, pg. 460."

From card: "See history card. A fringe of heavy loops border one edge of the robe." Note, accession history indicates, that circa 1905: "The blanket has had a formaldehyde fumigation."From accession history: In a letter dated Washington, Connecticut, May 25, 1905, the donor Jeanne P. Platt (Mrs. Orville H. Platt) writes: "I am sending...the Indian blanket...which was very kindly sent to Mr. Platt and myself by Dr. Charles H. Buchanan of the Tulalip Agency, in March, 1903...I quote from the Doctor's letter: 'The blanket is made from wool of the Cascade Mountain goat, now practically extinct...The one I am sending you is the sixth I have seen at the five different reservations of this agency, and the largest. ...The one I am sending you was secured by me from an old Medicine man of the Swinomish Indians. Years ago, before the advent of the white man in this country, old Doctor Joe journeyed over into British Columbia and sought a bride among the Cowichan Indians. He was successful, and returned to Swinomish with his bride, bringing with him many gifts from her family in exchange for the larger gifts given by him ... among which was this blanket ..."