From card: "Of wood, carved to represent a sea offer [sic, should be sea otter, not offer]. Carried to kill fish before taking into canoe." Illus. Fig. 412, p. 295 in Fitzhugh, William W., and Aron Crowell. 1988. Crossroads of continents: cultures of Siberia and Alaska. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. Identified there: Killer Whale Fish Club, Tlingit. "Clubs of hardwood, sometimes elaborately carved as animals or spirit allies, were used to kill halibut and salmon. Seals and sea otter were killed the same way. Very often these carvings took the form of predators like sea lions or killer whales - animals that feed on salmon and seals."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=664, retrieved 3-31-2012: Fish Club. Halibut fishermen used wooden clubs to kill or stun their catch; otherwise a heavy, struggling fish might turn over the canoe. The clubs were often beautifully carved, like this one which bears the image of a sea otter. "They didn't want to spoil the head because they were going to cook it, so they were very careful where they hit it [a halibut]. / Yeah, right here in the nostrils. That stunned it and then you turned it over so the belly side was up and then it didn't fight as much. If you leave it belly side down then it bangs the boat a lot." - Delores Churchill (Haida) / Donald Gregory (Tlingit), 2005.

FROM CARD: 8944 A,B,C,D. NAME: *CHOP STICKS [sic], EATING STICKS. *BERRY SPOONS. REMARKS: CARVED WHALEBONE. 1 AND 2 - ILLUS. IN USNM AR, 1888; PL. 41, FIG. 224; P. 318. ILLUS.: THE SPIRIT SINGS CATALOGUE, GLENBOW-ALBERTA INST., 1987, #N106, P.156. LOAN GLENBOW NOV 13, 1987. LOAN RETURNED NOV 25, 1988."Entry on E8944A - D in Army Medical Museum ledger book for Section 6, Miscellaneous Section, under A.M.M. number 378: Received October 29, 1869, from Bvt. Col. A.H. Hoff, Asst. Surgeon, U.S.A. - "Two pairs of "chop-sticks" [sic] - implements use by the Indians about Sitka in taking their food."Florence Sheakley and Ruth Demmert, both elders, made the following comments during the Tlingit Recovering Voices Community Research Visit, March 13-March 24, 2017. Originally the design on this spoon was used as a filler design, but today people attribute it to Deisheetan clan, who have a bear design. The presence of a finger design suggests this object comes from Kaagwaantaan clan. This is part of a set that includes E8944A-0, E8944B-0, E8944C-0, E8944D-0

FROM CARD: "MASK PROCURED FROM A HAIDA INDIAN ON THE SKEENA RIVER AND SAID TO BE TLINGIT (IF SO FROM THE TONGASS TRIBE BUT BELIEVED BY EMMONS TO BE HAIDA OR TSIMPSHEAN.) IF IT BE A TLINGIT MASK, AS WAS ALLEGED BY THE COLLECTOR, IT REPRESENTS THE SPIRIT OF THE WATER, IUAGUES LIVING UNDER THE SALT WATER. BELLA BELLA - BILL HOLM 3/1983. EXHIBIT HALL 9, 1987. IDENTIFIED IN EXHIBIT LABEL AS BUKWUS, BELLA BELLA. LOAN: R.H. LOWIE MUSEUM 12/31/1964, LOAN RETURNED FEB. 15 1966." FROM G.T. EMMONS LIST IN ACCESSION FILE: "THIS MASK WAS BROUGHT IN BY A HAIDA LIVING ON THE SKEENA RIVER AND WAS SAID BY HIM TO BE A TLINGIT MASK, WHICH REPRESENTED A SPIRIT OF THE WATER QUAGUES, WHICH LIVES UNDER THE SALT WATER. THE NOSE WOULD INDICATE IT TO BE AN EAGLE. IF IT IS A TLINGIT MASK IT MUST HAVE COME FROM THE TONGASS TRIBE BUT I BELIEVE IT IS EITHER A TSIMPSHEAN OR HAIDA MASK."Emmons indicates in letters dated May 27 and May 28, 1902, sent from Victoria, B.C., and filed in the accession file, that the masks in accession 39904 were purchased by him on those dates.Karen Anderson (Nuxalk elder)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. The mask is made of alder. The group questions the Tlingit attribution and thinks it could be from Bella Bella and/or a Nuxalk mask. Some of the group members believe it could depict a bear.

FROM CARD: "BONE."This object is # 44 on list in accession file.

Note: E6560 and E306355 were mixed together in NHB storage. It is unclear if all parts have been sorted out and given their correct numbers. Note also that E6560 is supposed to be a trawl line with small bentwood hooks, but there is also a large halibut hook with that number, which may be incorrect?From card: "Two strand cord or small rope for all uses."

FROM CARD: "WOMAN'S. "GOAT", HANDLED."Provenience note: List in accession file (this object is # 11 on list) appears to attribute this to the Hoonah Tlingit of Gau-da-can (i.e. Hoonah). List identifies this object as a "Woman's awl, ornamentally cut handle of mountain goat and steel pricker."Listed on page 48 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: "67904 LOANED TO C-H. 8/19/81. RETURNED TO NHB 2/15/82." SEE USNM AR 1895, P. 965 - 6, WHERE THIS ARTIFACT IS DESCRIBED: "BOW OR HANDLE. AN ALMOST SQUARE, SLIGHTLY CURVED SPECIMEN, WITH ENGRAVINGS ON ALL SIDES EXCEPTING THE UNDER OR CONCAVE ONE. THE TOP OR CONVEX SURFACE BEARS, AMONG OTHER OBJECTS, A LARGE UMIAK, THE FOUR OCCUPANTS OF WHICH ARE INDICATED BY THE HEADS, ARMS, AND PADDLES ONLY, THE VERTICAL BODY LINE BEING PURPOSELY OMITTED OR FORGOTTEN. SOME CONVENTIONAL TREES ARE USED AS ORNAMENTAL MARKINGS. THE SIDES BEAR SEAL HUNTS,... . EACH SIDE IS ORNAMENTED BY TWO DEEPLY INCISED GROOVES, ONE AT EITHER EDGE OF THE FACES OF THE BOW, AND THE ENGRAVINGS ARE DEEPLY AND FORCIBLY MADE, ALL BEING FILLED IN WITH BLACK. THOUGH MARKED AS FROM 'CHILKAT', THE SPECIMEN HAS THE CHARACTERISTIC APPEARANCE OF THE WORK DONE BY THE NATIVES OF NORTON SOUND."

Provenience note: collection apparently purchased or collected by McLean in Sitka and vicinity circa 1884.