From card: "A slightly concave section of ivory at the top which is carved all over with figures, a face in the center and the left end with four comb teeth. Suspended from this are 17 separate carved ivory figures of various kinds... "Used in medicine dances" [according to] Swan"According to conservation condition reports (and the catalog card) the main amulet necklace was loaned to the Whitney Museum of American Art on Sept. 10, 1971, and returned on Feb. 9, 1972. Both the main piece and the other 3 separate amulets were loaned to the Glenbow Museum in 1987 for "The Spirit Sings" exhibition, and returned in 1988.4 pieces: shaman's necklace - a piece of carved ivory with 17 carved ivory amulets attached, and 3 additional amulets. The catalog describes the main piece with the 17 amulets, but it does not mention the additional 3 amulets. So either the amulets are misnumbered or the card is incorrect or incomplete.Shaman's necklace is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027. Only the large carved necklace piece with seventeen attached pendant amulets is on loan; the 3 additional amulets with this number are not on loan.Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on the large necklace piece with 17 attached amulets http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=628 , retrieved 5-9-2012: Shaman's necklace, Haida. Haida shamans, both men and women, wore images of the helping spirits that came to them in dreams and visions. On this finely carved bone amulet, the heads of birds flank a human face; heron, land otter, and dog salmon, all recorded as spirit assistants in oral tradition, can be identified among the figures suspended below. Amulets worn from the neck were sometimes called head-scratchers, suggesting the purpose of the sharp points on the left side of this piece. A shaman never cut, combed, or washed his or her hair, because it was a source of spiritual strength.Listed on page 46 in "The Exhibits of the Smithsonian Institution at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California, 1915", in section "Arts of the Northwest Coast Tribes (Tools)".

From card: "Raven, bear, and killer whale motifs."

Original label attached to artifact says "Frank Natkong [presumably the maker or original owner?], Jackson, Alaska." Jackson is an alternate name for Howkan, Alaska, which is a Haida town. Natkong is a Haida name.

From card: "Painted and carved."Written on object itself: "Potlatch Club Haida Indians 4.75". This object may have been purchased from Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, Seattle, Washington. The handwriting on the inscription on this object looks like that used on other pieces in the Evans collection; see tags with E360298 and E360434 and label on E360304. You can also see examples of tags/labels in Duncan, Kate C. 2000. 1001 curious things: Ye Olde Curiosity Shop and Native American art. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

This amulet marked with (incorrect?) number 9819

The accession record lists a group of Sitka carvings as part of this accession. This object may be one of those pieces, possibly the one described as "man standing on whales back", and thus possibly Tlingit rather than Haida?