As soon as northern Northwest Coast people acquired from Euro-American seamen the custom of smoking tobacco rather than chewing or sucking it, they began to make pipes. Those they made for their own use were usually of wood, with the bowl reinforced or made of metal. Sometimes this metal, which protected the wooden pipe from the heat of the burning tobacco, was merely a lining of copper. The favorite material for pipe bowls, however, was a section of musket barrel. By the early nineteenth century, firearms had come into common use all over the coast, obtained from Euro-American traders. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)

Of all animals, the land otter was the one most firmly associated with shamans' work. It was feared as a manifestation of dangerous supernatural power. Shamans acquired their most powerful supernatural help from otters. Before the economic motivation of the fur trade and before the missionaries' inroads on the power of shamans broke down earlier reluctance, no Tlingits, except for shamans, trapped otters or used their furs. This was due to the belief that otters were really transformed humans who had drowned or become lost, and that they took drowned people and made them into land otters or land otter men. These attitudes about otters have not entirely disappeared. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)

The shell is abalone.

The staff is an emblem of high esteem. Like the crest hat, it was brought out only on occasions of great importance, carried by the bearer of the lineage title, Shakes, or by his speaker or representative. A dynasty of seven consecutive chiefs held the name Shakes, dating back to the capture of the name Weeshakes in a war with the Nishga. This must have been a very long time ago, for when the Nanyaayi moved to the site of present-day Wrangell in 1833 the title was already held by Shakes IV. The seventh and last chief to assume the name of Shakes died in 1944. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)

The seed bead is white.