Woven cedar bark basket. The base is square with a prominent criss-cross pattern across it, emphasized by interlaced light and dark brown cedar. The sides of the basket rise up from four sharp corners into a rounded body, also with interlaced strips of coloured cedar. The rim is lined on the inside with a roll of cedar and held to the basket by cedar stitching.

Woven cedar bark basket. The base is square with a prominent, dark brown ‘x’ pattern of dyed bark across its expanse. The sides of the basket rise up from four sharp corners into a rounded body, also with several dyed and off-set ‘x’ patterns. The rim is lined on the inside with a roll of cedar and held to the basket by cedar stitching.

This mat is paired with 05.588.7348-gambling bag and sticks. The design on the gambling mat is a killer whale identifiable by its blow hole and flukes. When the game is played the sticks are thrown down on the exterior of the mat one by one. The painting style resembles that of the Heiltsuk people, living near Kitkatla where this was collected.

Headdress frontlet with a wooden bear crest, set within a frame, and painted red, green, and black. The back is unpainted. The frame as well as the bear's eyes, teeth, and paws have inlaid sections of carved abalone shell. Long ermine trailers hang down the back and sea lion whiskers stick out from the top. The headdress would have been worn for a Welcome or Peace Dance. The face's thick, heavy, black eyebrows help to corroborate this attribution. A fistful of eagle down feathers would be placed inside the center of the frontlet. As the chief danced and bowed and greeted his audience, the feathers would float out of his headdress symbolizing peace and friendship. In Tshimshian this was known as Am-halait or "power from the Sky." CONDITION: The object is in fair and stable condition. Special care in handling the piece should be taken for it was treated with arsenic in the past.

Collector Dr. Newcomb supplied Brooklyn Museum's curator, Dr. Stewart Culin with several gambling sets. There are few descriptions of how this gambling set would have been played so Dr. Newcomb’s notes are quite valuable. "When bundle of sticks is indicated as holding the trump, the sticks are thrown down on the sloping exterior of the mat one by one, thus showing the content of his hand." These were reported to belong to Chief Shakes. Despite their perfection they were made with no machine tools. Nine of them have abalone shell inlaid whose game function is unknown, the rest are painted. The hide bag container for the sticks was made from an older object, perhaps a tunic or hide armor. The design is hard to make out but might be part of a face. According to Newcombe the painted mat has a design of a killer whale, identifiable by its blow hole and flukes. The panting style is similar to that of Heiltsuk artists, found near Kikatla. Gambling mat is 05.588.7249.

This rattle is called a raven rattle. It depicts a shaman on the back of a raven. The bird has a frog in its mouth, another frog touches tongues with the shaman, and frogs are on his feet. The bottom of the raven figure is carved.

The object, in the shape of a skull, was carved from a single, hollowed out piece of wood. Its lower jaw is missing. With four nails, the skull, without its lower jaw, was attached to a metal disk with a dome-shaped center. The object is in stable and fair condition. There is a repaired crack on the proper left side of the back of the skull as well as a repaired splinter at the proper right side of the lower edge. At the top of the skull on the proper right side, there is a large circular wooden plug.

Wood headpiece representing the head of a Wolf. Painted red, black, and green-blue and inset with copper in mouth.