CATALOGUE IDENTIFIES AS SEAL GUT BUT FRAN REED THINKS IT COULD BE BEAR GUT, 2/1999.Provenience note: Anthropology catalogue ledger book lists a locality of Alaska for E67931 - 68019. Catalogue cards list a locality of Sitka. Alaska. It is unclear which is correct, though it is probable that the collection was purchased in Sitka.

From card: "For fighting bear. Double ended knife, grip wrapped with rawhide; blades corrugated, of steel and copper. Heirloom in the bear family Tag way ta, of the Hootz ah tai Kwan. Through many generations. In wooden case. Scabbard of hide. Illus. in The Far North catalog, Nat. Gall. of Art, 1973, p. 261. Loaned to the National Gallery of Art October 20, 1972. Returned 5-29-73. Loan: Crossroads Sep 22 1988. Loan returned Jan 21 1993. Illus.: Crossroads of Continents catalogue; Fig. 311, p. 232." Crossroads of Continents photo caption identifies: "The sculptured pommel ... is a split profile image of a sea-grizzly, inlaid with abalone shell."Per Repatriation Office research, as reported in the Tlingit case report (Hollinger et al. 2005), in 1903 Emmons purchased this dagger from a member of the Teikweidi clan in Killisnoo or Angoon, Alaska, with Angoon the more likely provenance. In a letter dated August 20, 1903 in the accession file, Emmons talks about this knife and says that it "... had come into the hands of a nephew of an old chief upon the death of the latter." He identifies it as ornamented to represent the bear, which he says is the totemic emb[lem] of the Teikweidi "family" (i.e. clan) of the Hootz ah tai Kwan/Hootz-[ah-tai]-qwan (i.e. Hutsnuwu Tlingit), living on Admiralty Island. The Admiralty Island location gives credence to the probable Angoon attribution.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=297 , retrieved 2-13-2022: Dagger, Tlingit.

FROM CARD: "ONE (1) EXCHANGE: MR. GEORGE G. HEYE, 52 BROADWAY, N.Y.C. 11/12/1908. MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN CAT. NO. 2/376."Provenience note: Anthropology catalogue ledger book lists a locality of Alaska for E67931 - 68019. Catalogue cards list a locality of Sitka. Alaska. It is unclear which is correct, though it is probable that the collection was purchased in Sitka.

From card: "Like 274419. A sea otter canoe. Fred. de Laguna, 1963".

From Card: "Masts and poles (5) transferred back to Division of Ethnology from the Division of Engineering, Jan 25, 1934 [Canoe model is out on] Loan: Museo Nacional de Antropologia [Museo Nacional de las Culturas, Mexico City], May 18, 1964." Loan returned 2012.

FROM CARD: "ILLUS. IN NAT. MUS. REPT 1884, PL. VII, FIG. 11, P. 306. ALSO USNM AR 1888; FIG. 189, P. 316; AND REPT, 1902; FIG. 137; P. 409. & PL. 71; P. 548."

FROM CARD: "ANIMAL-FORM BOWL. LOANED RENWICK GA. 11-7-73. LOAN RETURNED 8-24-76."FROM CARD: "FROM: PAGE 47, BOXES AND BOWLS CATALOG; RENWICK GALLERY; SMITHSONIAN PRESS; 1974. OBJECT ILLUS. ON SAME PAGE. 21.ANIMAL-FORM BOWL WOOD; CARVED IN RELIEF LENGTH: 13 1/2 (TLINGIT), SITKA, ALASKA. COLLECTED BY JAMES G. SWAN. CATALOGED SEPTEMBER 28, 1875."

Shgen George, weaver, Florence Sheakley, elder, and Shirley Kendall, elder, made the following comments during the Tlingit Recovering Voices Community Research Visit, March 13-March 24, 2017. This blanket features a diving whale design, and once had fur, such as mink or sea otter, along the top. The eyebrows look like Tsimshian design eyebrows because they are thin and pointed at the top.Lines of dark thread at the bottom right and left corners of the blanket along the edge's braiding represents the weaver's signature. Information recieved by Chilkoot Indian Association visit 8/29/2024.