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=634 , retrieved 6-24-2012: Spoon Open-work figures carved from pieces of black mountain goat horn and inlaid with abalone shell cover the handle of this elaborate ceremonial ladle. The bowl was carved, steamed, and molded from a single mountain sheep horn. Haida artists excelled in this style, even though the raw materials had to be obtained from the Tsimshian, who could hunt sheep and goats in their mainland territories. Large horn ladles were used at feasts and passed to guests for eating preserved berries from wooden bowls. Feast spoons were owned by clans rather than individuals. "Amongst the Haida, certain shapes were for certain foods, even our horn spoons. The little black horn spoons were used for eating seaweed, but the white ones were for halibut…When a chief came to our meal, my mother took out a fancy spoon with carving, and he used it. We were never allowed to touch it, just him." - Delores Churchill (Haida), 2005

Originally cataloged as "Nest Of 4 Baskets" but only one basket with this number remains in the collections. From card: "1 [basket exchanged] Trocadero [Museum, France] July 1885. 1 [basket exchanged] Salem, May [18]86. One basket Illus.: Hndbk. N. Amer. Ind., Vol. 7, Northwest Coast, Fig. 11 right, pg. 249." Handbook caption describes this object as a "Plain close-twined basket with grown-dyed bands on the natural buff background, a characteristic Haida basketry decoration. height 41 cm."One basket 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 basket lent to Anchorage Museum http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=183, retrieved 5-19-2012: Basket, Haida. Raspberries, salmonberries, currants, blueberries, huckleberries, and salalberries ripen during summer in southeast Alaska and Haida Gwaii. Haida artist Delores Churchill identified this large spruce-root basket as a collection vessel into which berry pickers emptied their loads. The dark bands are a traditional Haida design, woven from roots dyed with hemlock and iron soaked in urine. Extracts from Elders' discussions of the basket in 2005 (see web page cited above for the full entries): Delores Churchill: This one is definitely Haida. If you could see that they started here [vertical line on outside], and as I said they go counterclockwise, so it would be going around in that direction. Some of these baskets when— Suzie Jones: You moved clockwise though when you did that though so- Delores Churchill: That's because we hold it upside down. Clarence Jackson: Oh, start it from the bottom. Delores Churchill: Right. And we're going counterclockwise. . . . I'm going to turn it on its side, because I want to look at the bottom. There was one woman and her descendants still do that, Charles Edenshaw's wife's family. And you could see all the way that they added every five or six rows, and that way they went from finer to coarser, and they didn't have to keep adding. Her family did it that way, so it kind of signifies some of those families, because they did it in that way. Delores Churchill: And these baskets, when I was a child, we used this sized baskets. And we had small ones that we picked [berries] with. Everybody picked with the smaller ones [about a six inch diameter]. . . . You didnt carry this, but there was a small one you carried on your back. And you had a smaller one [in hands] and then you took from the front one to put in the back [over the shoulder]. And when I was a child . . . when we collected berries, we put the skunk cabbage leaves on the bottom, because it acted like wax paper and that way it caught the juice too. We didn't want the juice to drip down our back, but we also saved the juice to use when putting the berries away. But I noticed some of the children in the Haskell Institute-some of the Haida children that went from Hydaburg and Kassan to some of these schools-they had these as their suitcases. You could see the children arriving, and there's a picture of them and their baskets are lined up in the back where they kept it. When I was a child they were still using these kinds of baskets. . . . Delores Churchill: Another thing that we did, we did go harvest spruce roots with our Elders. And it was really interesting because we would go to Toe Hill to harvest razor clams commercially, then we would walk to the area where we would harvest the spruce roots. But when we harvested, the elders they didn't allow us to do it. Just the elders gathered the spruce roots. But when they were ready to quit-it was really interesting-they sang a song. They were all scattered around, and the first one that started the song would go down and start the fire for the spruce root-the cooking of the spruce root, because they would put it in the fire. Then the next group would sing, and they would be the ones that would help get the kindling, the beach wood. And it would go clear around. And when it reached the last ones, then they all went down the beach then and started the cooking. And we did it the same way as the Tlingit. We put it [cooked root] through a stick that was forked and took the outer skin off right at that time. The Haidas really worked on it right away. But Tlingits stored it when they got that far. When they cooked it, they would bundle it up and put it away. But the Haidas didn't do that. They'd immediately start splitting and continue to split it until it was down to where it was workable. And I don't know if the Tlingits did it earlier, but from what Jennie told me, they never worked on it. We gave her some that we had harvested, and she just put it away, so I think that was a common Tlingit [practice] because they had so many things happening right at that time. "Delores Churchill: This is quite typical of the Haida weaving where you have the black bands. And I don't know if they have any meaning or not, except that in Klukwan-what they told me, when they were feasting with the Mother Basket-low caste people would get the bottom just up to there [first horizontal line from bottom]. High class people as you go higher, then the chiefs got the ones that were full. So I don't know if that's why the lines were on there, because they didn't know in the village anymore. But when we were looking at the Mother Basket, and I saw the lines on the Mother Basket, I asked Mrs. Willard. I said, "Why do you have the lines on the Mother basket?" And she said that was the reason that different caste people got different amounts of goods from when they were having a feast.Delores Churchill: But this is beautifully made. I know that we all admire real fine baskets, but this is so even, the weaving, the roots. Everything is so even. Every time we see baskets in a museum, I'm always pushed back to kindergarten, because these are so even and so nice. And you'll notice that the inside is the shiny part, because that's the water resistant part. And now when you see people weaving, that part will be on the bottom, because they're not made for use. And one of the things that people don't understand is that they all thought we wove really tight. But I watched Ida Kadashaan. When she's weaving, she takes her bear tooth, her grizzly bear tooth, rub, rub, rub. And that rubbing spreads the fibers. So you can weave it as tight as you can, but the rubbing also spreads the fibers so it's water resistant. Suzi Jones: What's used to make the color? Delores Churchill: That's iron oxide, and that's why it's fading already. It fades pretty fast. They would use hemlock and iron oxide on the black. But this kind of a basket was used in Klukwan too, because there are many in many different collections that I've seen that look just like this. That's why I had to turn it around again to look at the beginning when she mentioned that, because I have seen some at the Field Museum that I thought were Haida. But the Klukwan people used them with the lines on them too, and same top and so you have to really watch these baskets. Because if they're red, I always look, because most of the time the Klukwan liked to use the red. And I don't know if they had easier access to red and we didn't for the early ones." [From discussion with Delores Churchill (Haida), Peter Jack, Sr. (Tlingit), Clarence Jackson, Sr. (Tlingit), Anna Katzeek (Tlingit), George Ramos (Tlingit), and Donald Gregory (Tlingit) and Rosita Worl (Tlingit) of the Sealaska Heritage Institute at the National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of the American Indian, 4/18/2005-4/22/2005. Also participating: Aron Crowell and Bill Fitzhugh (NMNH) and Suzi Jones (AMHA).]In 2023, Paz Nunez-Regueiro, Head of the Americas collection at the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac confirmed that basket sent to the Trocadero is still there at the Branly, now as catalog number 71.1885.78.321.

Card says "Exchange: Mr. Karl, Australia, February 9, 1898 / Still in USNM collections 1/15/[19]42 JW". Originally catalogued as canoe model, mat, sails, paddles, etc.. 3 parts were found in 2005: Canoe model, and 2 paddles.From Card: " Model of ancient Haida canoe with mat sails as formerly used by the Haidas of Queen Charlotte Islands, B.C. The sail was reefed or furled by turning the mast around and winding up the mat. This model made by Kwulka-ass or Johnson at Massett, B.C., July 1883. It represents the famous war canoe of the ancient Haidas but is now superceded by the modern model with both sails of cotton cloth or old flour sacks. Mats are occasionally but very rarely used. Purchased at Massett, B.C. July 2, 3883. James G. Swan."Per John Hudson, 11-2-2010, this is a model of the type of canoe called a Head canoe.

As of 2006 there is only one rattle with this number and it is not a leg rattle. Neither object name nor description in remarks as typed on the catalogue card accurately describe this rattle (they more describe objects like # E89189 or E89190?). It seems some kind of mistake was made when the card was typed, because the object name and remarks on card # E89089 appear to describe this rattle. The object name and drawing in the original Anthropology ledger book for E89088 do match this object, so object name has been changed in EMu to match the ledger book entry. - F. Pickering 9-28-2006

TO REV T.L. FLOOD, PA, 1885.From card: "Canoe- and animal-form bowl; wood; carved in relief. From: page 51, Boxes and Bowls catalog; Renwick Gallery; Smithsonian Press; 1974. Object illus. on same page. Canoe- and animal-form bowl; wood; carved in relief; length: 10 3/4"; Haida; Skidegate, British Columbia. "Seal." Collected by James G. Swan, October 1883."

From cards for 2588 and 2589; remarks related to 2588 and 2589 are typed on the backs of the cards for both numbers, starting on the back of card 2588 and continuing to the back of 2589: [card 2588] "Two argillite pipes from the Wilkes collection appear with the #2588 on old USNM photo #1103 (negative destroyed). The legend written in the same old hand as on other Wilkes pieces, in white ink on both specimens reads "2588, U. S. Ex. Ex., Q. Charlotte I.d," the original printed Peale catalogue label number #273 appears in the photograph on one, but it no longer remains on the specimen. The other #2588 still bears the original Peale number #276. These pieces were entered in the museum catalogue on January 8, 1867. The entry for #2588 only calls for 1 specimen. Since that time the "original #273 has been renumbered "8898." The actual "8898" also an argillite pipe, was given to the Smithsonian by Dr. Charles Deselding who collected at Puget Sound. "8898" was entered in the museum catalogue on July 27, 1869. It too appears in photo #1103 with the legend: "8898, C. Deselding, Puget Sound" in white ink and written in the same hand as the "2588" specimens." [card 2589] "Subsequently, "8898" has been figured in Niblack, USNM AR., pl. 47, fig. 364 as "2589" - and as collected by the Wilkes Expedition. That number appears on the specimen today (7/14/1967) as it apparently did in 1888. Therefore, because of photo #1103, the Deselding pipe has been changed back to "8898" - its original number; and the Wilkes specimen (original Peale #273, formerly "2588", now "8898") has been changed to "2589" - since no specimen currently exists with that number nor apparently ever did (for duplicate "2588's must represent a misnumbering error. - William C. Sturtevant and Carole N. Kaufmann July 14, 1967."Jay Stewart and Peter Macnair 7-20-2005 note about this argillite panel pipe that "The implied figurehead, a beaver and the ropes, pulleys and ships rigging suggests this may be a representation of the Hudson's Bay Company steamship, the Beaver." Reference: Fig. 12, p. 45 in Wright, Robin K., 1979, "Haida Argillite Ship Pipes," American Indian Art Magazine, 5(1). Wright identifies as "Abstracted [portrait of S. S.] Beaver pipe with identifying paddle wheels and beaver figurehead. Note diamond-shaped window at rear; much like those in quarter galleries of sailing ships".Provenience note, in 1841 Oregon Territory encompassed the land from Russian Alaska to Spanish California and from the Pacific to the Continental Divide. The U.S. Exploring Expedition did not go to Canada, but did reach Oregon Territory in 1841, and carried out a hydrographic survey of the Columbia River from its mouth to the Cascades, as well as doing some surveying inland.They had dealings with Hudson's Bay Company staff during that time, and it is probable that the HBC is the source of a number of the Northwest Coast artifacts collected by the expedition.