From card: "Point missing. ... missing point [barb] is probably # 360401. GEP."

Identified as Haida style of manufacture by Deborah Ann Head, 6-3-2009.

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.

Listed on page 45 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)".

Provenience note: collection apparently purchased or collected by McLean in Sitka and vicinity circa 1884.Listed on page 49 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)".

Listed on page 50 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)".

E229550 is a wooden copy of this artifact made for exhibit purposes. E229550 was illus. Fig. 72 p. 71 in Chaussonnet, Valerie. 1995. Crossroads Alaska: native cultures of Alaska and Siberia. Washington, D.C.: Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Identified there as killer whale amulet.

FROM CARD: "FOUND IN PILE OF BLANKETS IN TRADERS ROOM. SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN PLACED THERE BY INDIANS TO WORK INJURY TO THE TRADER. 4/17/67: LOAN DATA-HAS BEEN BROKEN & REPAIRED. 4/18/67:LOANED TO VANCOUVER ART GALL. ILLUSTRATED AS #234 IN ARTS OF THE RAVEN BY DUFF, HOLM AND REID - THE VANCOUVER ART GALLERY, JUNE-SEPTEMBER 1967. 12/13/67: RETURNED BY VANCOUVER. LOAN: CROSSROADS SEP 22 1988. ILLUS.; CROSSROADS OF CONTINENTS CATALOGUE; FIG. 451, P.312. LOAN RETURNED; JAN 21 1993." From photo caption in the Crossroads of Continents catalogue: "Soul Catcher, Tsimshian. Like most soul catchers, this one ... has large, toothed, wolflike heads at each end and a humanoid face in the middle .... It resembles the Kwakiutl supernatural being, Sisiutl, whose usual form is a serpent with a head at each end of his body and a humanoid face in the center (Holm 1983:55-57). Serpent figures were also used as motifs on ceremonial clothing .... "