From card: "Introduced by Makah 70 years ago. [i.e. about 70 years prior to 1917]. Bright colors; design apparently the arrow conventionalized in a band."

This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027. 1 bow and 1 blunt-tipped arrow (of 2) included on loan.From card: "Bow illus. in USNM AR, 1888; Pl. 26, fig. 114; p. 286."Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on bow and 1 blunt-tipped arrow http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=619 , retrieved 5-21-2012: Bow and arrow, Haida. Hunters shot ducks and geese with blunt-tipped wooden arrows, and they continued to use the bow and arrow on some occasions even after firearms were introduced. Haida bows were made of yew wood and relatively broad in the middle, tapering to the tips. Men carried their arrows in quivers made of seal or sea otter skin.

From tag in Swan's hand with the artifact: "Image of mythical being supposed to have some remote connection with the phallic worship of the Aztecs [sic], Sitka, Alaska, Aug. 1881. J. G. Swan."

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=634 , retrieved 6-24-2012: Spoon Open-work figures carved from pieces of black mountain goat horn and inlaid with abalone shell cover the handle of this elaborate ceremonial ladle. The bowl was carved, steamed, and molded from a single mountain sheep horn. Haida artists excelled in this style, even though the raw materials had to be obtained from the Tsimshian, who could hunt sheep and goats in their mainland territories. Large horn ladles were used at feasts and passed to guests for eating preserved berries from wooden bowls. Feast spoons were owned by clans rather than individuals. "Amongst the Haida, certain shapes were for certain foods, even our horn spoons. The little black horn spoons were used for eating seaweed, but the white ones were for halibut…When a chief came to our meal, my mother took out a fancy spoon with carving, and he used it. We were never allowed to touch it, just him." - Delores Churchill (Haida), 2005

FROM CARD: "AFTER AN EXTENSIVE SURVEY OF THE TOTEM POLES IN THE USNM COLLECTIONS, IT SEEMS LIKELY THAT THIS SPECIMEN IS THE INTERIOR HOUSE POLE STORED IN THE E-WING BASEMENT. IT WAS APPARENTLY COLLECTED FOR THE PHILADELPHIA EXPOSITION OF 1876 AND CAN BE NOTED IN PHOTOS OF THAT EXHIBIT. IT WAS ORIGINALLY ACCESSIONED AS A HAIDA SPECIMEN BUT THIS IS PROBABLY AN ERROR. BOAZ, 1895 REPORT ON THE KWAKIUTL, PL. 36, CLEARLY SHOWS A SIMILAR INTERIOR HOUSE POST (DANCE HOUSE) AND THE TREATMENT OF THE SPECIMEN IS CONSISTENT WITH KWAKIUTL WORK. 6/6/68. APPARENTLY IN 1898 IT WAS NOTED THAT THIS SPECIMEN WAS NOT NUMBERED AND PRESUMABLY UNCATALOGED. ACCORDINGLY #178982 WAS ASSIGNED (DUPLICATIVE) WITHOUT DATA."Identified Nov. 1988 as an interior house post by Susan Rowley, Curator, Arctic & Public Archaeology, Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.This pole or house post appears to be the one on the right in engraving shown on p. 100 and captioned "The Indian Department, in the United States Government Building", in Norton, Frank H., and Frank Leslie. 1877. Frank Leslie's historical register of the United States Centennial Exposition, 1876. Embellished with nearly eight hundred illustrations drawn expressly for this work by the most eminent artists in America. Including illustrations and descriptions of all previous International exhibitions. New York: Frank Leslie's Pub. House. The pole on the left in the same engraving is E54298. On p. 106 of the publication, in the section on "Indian Curiosities", the text identifies both "totem posts" in the illustration as belonging to the "Mukah" (i.e. Makah) Indians. Note that the Library of Congress has a copy of this engraving and a thumbnail image is shown on their website here: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005689180/ . E54298 had been identified in the records as Haida, but it is probable that E54301 is Makah. If it is Makah, it is also possible its catalogue number originally was E20901, rather than E54301, and it would have come as part of Accession 4730. (It is also possible this pole was catalogued twice; once when it first came into the collections, and then again later in 1882 with a group of other previously uncatalogued poles.) Swan identifies E20901 as a large Makah carved image. Swan's invoice notation (in accession papers for Acc. 4730) for the cost of the large shipping box used to ship E20901 notes that the box made to ship that artifact, along with 2 paddles, a bird spear, and a cane, was 11 feet long.This interior house post is similar in style to the ones depicted in a drawing/watercolor done by James G. Swan of a Makah house interior titled "Colchote's Lodge. Neah Bay", dating to March 20, 1861; see the one on the left with the striped face which appears to match this house post. This drawing is illustrated on p. 81 of Miles, George A., James Gilchrist Swan, Franz Stenzel, and Kathryn M. Stenzel. 2003. James Swan, cha-tic of the Northwest Coast: drawings and watercolors from the Franz & Kathryn Stenzel collection of western American art. New Haven, Conn: Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University. The drawing and interior house posts are also discussed on pp. 23-24 of this publication, which notes that the one on the left in the drawing was shaped by a Ditidaht/Nitinaht artist from Vancouver Island.Aaron Glass, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the Bard Graduate Center, 2012, doubts the Haida or Kwakiutl attributions that had been applied to this object. Robin Wright, Emerita Curator of Native American Art, Burke Museum, 2013, also does not think this is Haida or Kwakiutl: "Based on it's style alone, it would either be Nuu-chah-nulth [Nootka] or Makah. The face has a long sloping under brow plane and the eye is flat on the cheek plane, which are characteristics shared by the Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth. So, [definitely] not Kwakwaka'wakw [Kwakiutl] or Haida. If Swan collected it, then Makah would be a likely source, although they in turn may have received it from a Nuu-chah-nulth carver." Wright in 2018 also noted that she believes this house post is the one shown in the drawing/watercolor done by James G. Swan of a Makah house interior titled "Colchote's Lodge. Neah Bay", dating to March 20, 1861 (see above).