OLD JAMES G. SWAN TAG WITH ARTIFACT STATES: "NO. 33 HAIDA WOMANS HEADDRESS, SKIDEGATE, QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. B.C. $3.00; JAMES G. SWAN PORT TOWNSEND W.T. SEPT. 23 1882." NEG. #34720 IS A PHOTO THAT INCLUDES ONE OF THE COMBS THAT ARE PART OF THIS HEADDRESS. - F. PICKERING 6-29-1999

Object has two catalogue cards. From older card: "Button Blanket, Dancing Shirt of "Bear Skin." Design - the totem of the bear. Very fine. Made of red wool, with design outlined in small white buttons." From newer card: "Appliqued tunic. Collector's tag: 'Dancing shirt of 'Bear Skin', a Skidegate chief of Haida Indians, Queen Charlotte Islands. July 1888. The design is the totem of the bear and is a fine specimen of Indian work. The effect when worn at night with torch or lamp light is very fine. Difficult to obtain. $25.00.' Red wool applique on dark blue blanket cloth with shell button outlining."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 the artifact http://www.alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=645, retrieved 5-6-2012: Tunic, Haida. This late nineteenth-century dance tunic is made of red wool appliqué on black wool cloth and shows a bear crest design outlined in small shell buttons. The sleeves are red cotton with lace ruffles at the cuffs. Collector James Swan purchased it from Bear Skin, a Skidegate chief. Haida artists invented appliqué dance blankets and tunics around 1850, ornamenting them with dentalium shells, mother of pearl buttons, and squares of abalone shell. Florence Davidson said that they were first made in Masset after a missionary forbade the raising of totem poles; the blankets and tunics were an alternative way for people to show their clan crests.

From card: "This specimen belonged to Soodatl, daughter of Ellswarsh. 'Trimmed with ermine. The carved face is a correct likeness of Soodatl at 12 years old.' - Swan. Object is illus.: Plate X, facing p. 66 in Emmons, George T. 'Portraiture among the North Pacific Coast Tribes,' American Anthropologist, 16(1), 1914. Object is identified there as 'mask, which is attached to the ceremonial head-dress, presents the face of a young girl, named Soodatl, the daughter of a Skidegate chief. The face is ornamentally inlaid with small rectangles of the much-prized blue-green haliotis shell in imitation of the old custom, which prevailed among the higher classes, of sticking on the face, with spruce-gum, such small sections of this shell.' - p. 66. Additional Info in Lab Acc. file." Formerly on exhibit in NHB Hall 9, case 29. Exhibit label identified this as a headdress with wooden frontlet inlaid with haliotis shell; headdress is ornamented with upright sea lion whiskers, flicker feathers, and pendant white weasel skins.Per the entry on E89186 in the website http://alaska.si.edu/, "Ellswarsh" may refer to Daniel Eldjiwus, a chief and builder of the House of Contentment at Skidegate.Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact http://www.alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=636, retrieved 5-6-2012: Headdress, Haida. During potlatch and spirit-possession ceremonies, a high-ranking Haida woman or man would wear a magnificent headdress with a carved wooden frontlet, a crown of sea lion whiskers, and a floor-length train of white ermine pelts. Before a dance the whisker crown was filled with swan or eagle down, which drifted out during the performance and fell on the spectators like snow. This late 19th century headdress is a portrait of Soodatl, the twelve-year-old daughter of Chief Daniel Eldjiwus of Skidegate. Pieces of abalone on the girl's forehead and cheeks represent the custom of sticking pieces of the shell to the face with spruce pitch.This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.See Heather Pringle, "The Girl with the Shimmering Eyes," Hakai Magazine, May 27, 2015, accessed August 6, 2015, https://hakaimagazine.com/article-short/girl-shimmering-eyes/ , where Soodatl is identified as Suudaahl, who was also known later in life as Josephine Gladstone, daughter of Chief Daniel Elljuuwas.

FROM CARD: "DESCRIPTION AND LEGEND ON REVERSE. COLLECTOR'S DESCRIPTION: "CARVED COLUMN LIKE......ERECTED IN FRONT OF CHIEF RESIDENCES QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS, B.C. LEGEND. THE LOWER FIGURE IS THE GRIZZLY BEAR HOORTS. ON HIS HEAD IS THE CODFISH (MYTHOLOGICAL) KAHATTA INDICATED BY THE TEETH AND SCALES. THE UPPER FIGURE IS THE BEAVER TSING. HIS HEAD IS SURMOUNTED BY THE HAT WORN BY CHIEF TO INDICATE THEIR RANK. IT IS COMPOSED OF BASKET WORK AND THE NUMBER OF THESE INDICATES THE DEGREE OF RANK ATTAINED BY THE OWNER OF THE HOUSE IN FRONT OF WHICH THE COLUMN IS SET UP. IT IS HEARALDIC AND INDICATES THE TOTEM OR FAMILY CONNECTIONS. JAMES G. SWAN, PORT TOWNSEND, W. T. JULY 6TH, 1882." IDENTIFIED AS MODEL OF CARVED COLUMN IN FRONT OF CHIEF'S HOUSE SKIDEGATE IN LEDGER BOOK AND SWAN'S LIST IN ACCESSION RECORD. - F. PICKERING 6-25-1999

This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.From card: "Paper labels inside dish read: "No 47 Paint dish, Haida, Skidigate $1 Sep 1883 J. G. Swan. No 47. This very fine specimen was purchased at Skidigate Queen Charlotte Island Sep 1883 for $1.00 J. G. Swan"."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=629 , retrieved 5-21-2012: Paint Dish, Haida. This stone dish from Skidegate was used for blending oil-based colors to apply to the body and face, or for mixing paints to use on hats, masks, boxes, and other work. For the latter purpose, crushed salmon eggs were added as a fixative. Charcoal, roasted tree fungus, ocher, cinnabar, and berry juices were among the common coloring materials. The bottom of the dish is carved with a Sea Bear and Killer Whale, both crests of the Raven moiety.

From card: "Bear, man, and raven motifs."

From card: "See U.S.N.M. [Annual] Report 1888, pl. LIV, fig. 288 [after p.324] .... Niblack. See pl. LIII, [after] p. 324 [for a similar rattle]. Representing the raven. [The card information that follows is from the second/copy of the Anthropology catalogue ledger book entry on this artifact, where it has been added in a different hand from the main ledger page entries:] The lower part of the bird represents the thunder bird. The tail is turned up and carried so as to represent a [blank]. The bird carries on his back a reclining figure which holds its knees. It represents the land otter."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=632 , retrieved 6-24-2012: Rattle This rattle shows Raven carrying the sun in his beak. On Raven's back, a human-Ulala (Cannibal) figure extends its tongue into the beak of a crested bird, symbolizing the exchange of spiritual power between the two beings. A sparrow hawk design covers Raven's belly. Shamans, who used these rattles in healing ceremonies, believed that healing and clairvoyant powers came from birds and animals. Chiefs carried raven rattles during ceremonies of the Haida secret societies. "The humanoid is being transformed when its tongue goes into the frog or bird; the rattle is showing a transformation that is used for healing. This type of rattle was not used for evil; it was used for good. I think we have to really emphasize that this is a healing rattle." - Delores Churchill (Haida), 2005Listed on page 42 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".

FROM CARD: "EX. LEIDEN MUS. MAY, '99 (1899)."Group of small ornaments in the form of copper "shields".