FROM CARD: "SUBSTITUTE SAND PAPER. INVENTORIED 1980."Provenience note: List in accession file (this object is # 4 on list) appears to attribute this to the Sitka Tlingit of Sitka. List also identifies object as "Piece of the skin of the dog fish ... from the work box of a Tlingit ... used as a substitute for sand paper in working down and polishing horn spoons, dishes and wood and bone carvings."

From card: "Colored bands."Original label attached to artifact says "Eliza Billy [?, last name not very legible; presumably the maker or original owner?], Jackson, Alaska." Jackson is an alternate name for Howkan, Alaska, which is a Haida town.

From card: "Tlingit? or Haida? Southeastern Alaska? Canada, B.C.? Wood, spruce root. One hook is illus. in Fig. 184, p. 154 of Crossroads of Continents by William Fitzhugh and Aron Crowell, Smithsonian Press, 1988. One hook in storage is tagged: "Niblack p. 291". This presumably refers to "The Coast Indians of Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia" by Ensign Albert P. Niblack in USNM Annual Report for 1888, though object does not seem to be illustrated there."I suspect these hooks may be either Cat. # E89204 or 89205 (or both), as these fishing lines are missing their hooks and the T numbered hooks resemble the ledger drawing of hook # 89204. If this is the case then they are Haida, collected by James G. Swan in 1883. - F. Pickering 11-30-1988

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.

Provenience note: collection apparently purchased or collected by McLean in Sitka and vicinity circa 1884.From card: "[1] Trocadero/July, 1885. Illus. in USNM AR, 1888; fig. 1, p. 535; also in Proceedings USNM, vol. 73, Art. 14; fig. 1; p. 10." From old 19th or early 20th century typed exhibit label stored with artifact: "Fire drill and tinder of cedar, Thuja gigantea, slightly charred, in order to repel moisture. Tinder of frayed cedar bark. Lower piece [hearth] shows three cavities, in which the spindle works, with their accompanying furrows for collecting the dust in which the spark appears. Length of lower piece and spindles 23 i[nches]. Tlingit Inds., Sitka, Alaska. Two spindles are often kept with the set on account, perhaps, of the difficulty in procuring a round seasoned stick on an emergency."In 2023, Paz Nunez-Regueiro, Head of the Americas collection at the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac confirmed that object that went to the Trocadero is still there at Branly, now as catalog number 71.1885.78.71.

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.

Per Anthropology catalogue ledger book and Dall's field catalogue, filed under Accession No. 3258, entry under # 604, collector is [Captain] A. [Amos] T. Whitford and object is from Sitka Tlingit.

FROM CARD: "9267-70. #9270-TLINGIT TOBACCO PIPE-ILLUS. IN USNM AR, 1888; P. 48, FIG. 268; P. 322."Florence Sheakley, Ruth Demmert, and Virginia Oliver during the Tlingit Recovering Voices Community Research Visit, March 13-March 24, 2017. This pipe is made from metal and wood, and has a metal inset.

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?