From card: "Totem post for house."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=635 , retrieved 2-2-2022: House (model) Haida houses were monumental constructions - massive posts and beams, walls planked with cedar, roofs made of bark slabs, and sleeping platforms that ranged in tiers around a deeply sunken central hearth. A smoke hole in the roof gave ventilation and light. On many houses the entryway passed through the base of a pole that displayed clan crests. Crests shown on the model include, from top to bottom, Grizzly Bear, Raven stealing the moon, Beaver, and Mountain Goat. Artists made miniatures of actual houses for museum collectors, and this one may represent Grizzly Bear House at Skidegate.This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.Listed on page 43 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: "Beaver, bear, and raven motifs."

FROM CARD: "SHELL, A HOOP, ITS JOINT SCARFED AND LASHED ONE HEAD STRETCHED OVER HOOP AND NAILED. THE HANDLE IS A DOUBLE THONG PASSED THROUGH OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE HOOP." FROM OLD 19TH OR EARLY 20TH CENTURY EXHIBIT LABEL WITH CARD: "HAND DRUM OF THE TLINKITS, KOLUSCHAN FAMILY. SHELL, A HOOP OF WOOD; HEAD, OF SKIN, SOAKED, STRETCHED ACROSS THE HOOP AND NAILED. THONGS ACROSS THE BACK FORM A HANDLE. DIAMETER, 18 1/2 INCHES. SITKA, ALASKA. 20,733. COLLECTED, 1875, BY JAMES G. SWAN."

FROM CARD: "LOAN: THE TEXTILE MUSEUM, 4/30/65. 20574 LOANED TO RENWICK 4/29/82. RETURNED 6/1983. FRONTLET WITH TRAILER, CA. 1850-75. HAIDA, OR POSSIBLY TSIMSHIAN INDIANS; FORT SIMPSON, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA. WOOD, ABALONE INLAY; RED, BLACK, AND GREEN PAINT; SEA-LION WHISKERS; ERMINE SKINS; RED AND WHITE CLOTH; BROWN FELT, SINEW; THREAD; BALEEN STRIPS 51 X 13 1/4 X 7 1/2 (129.5 X 33.7 X 19.1) THE FRONTLET SHOWS A CREST FIGURE THOUGHT TO BE A RAVEN. THE CROWNS OF FRONTLETS WERE FILLED WITH EAGLE DOWN, THE SYMBOL OF THE MANIFESTATION OF SPIRIT POWER IN THE HUMAN WORLD. AS THE DANCER MOVED AND TURNED, THE DOWN FLOATED OUT OF THE HEADPIECE, FILLING THE AIR WITH THE PRESENCE OF SPIRITUAL BENEDICTION." FROM 19TH OR EARLY 20TH CENTURY EXHIBIT LABEL WITH CARD: 'HEAD-DRESS - CAP OF FELT, TO WHICH IS ATTACHED IN FRONT A WOODEN MASK CARVED, PAINTED, AND INLAID WITH ABALONE SHELL, AND BEHIND A ROW OF SMALL SKINS OF WHITE ERMINE, PUTORIUS ERMINEA, AND A PENDANT BAND OF COTTON SHEETING LINED WITH ROWS OF ERMINE SKINS. AROUND EDGE OF CAP IS A ROW OF LONG SPINES OR WHISKERS OF SEA-LION. WORN IN DANCING BY NASSE [Nass] INDIANS, FT. SIMPSON. MASKE, 8 1/4 INS. LONG AND 6 1/2 INS. WIDE. LENGTH OF DRESS BEHIND, 40 INS. BRITISH COLUMBIA, 1876. COLLECTED BY J.G. SWAN. THE MASK REPRESENTS YEHL, THE RAVEN, ONE OF THE FOUR TOTEMS INTO WHICH THE KOLOSH OR THLINKET STOCK OF INDIANS DIVIDE THEMSELVES. - DALL'S ALASKA AND ITS RESOURCES."

FROM CARD: "26823-24. USED IN KILLING WHALES."

FROM 19TH OR EARLY 20TH CENTURY EXHIBIT LABEL WITH CARD: "BASKET STRAP.---WOVEN OF YARN AND RAGS OF VARIOUS COLORS. A PLAITED ROPE ATTACHED TO EACH END OF THE STRAP. USED TO FACILITATE THE CARRYING OF HEAVILY LADEN BASKETS. THE ROPES ARE FASTENED TO THE BASKET, WHICH IS HELD UPON THE BACK BY THE STRAP, EXTENDING OVER FOREHEAD OF THE CARRIER. WIDTH, 6 INCHES. CLALLAM INDIANS (SALISHAN STOCK), WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 23,470. COLLECTED BY JAMES G. SWAN. 1876."E23472, ET14189, and E23470 are visible in a display case at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York, 1901, as part of the Smithsonian Institution and United States National Museum exhibits in the United States Government Building, featuring "American Aboriginal Handicraft Types of Weaving" presented by Department of Anthropology. USNM Neg. No. 13764. Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 62A, Folder 12, Image No. SIA_000095_B62A_F12_003. https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_401053 .

Evelyn Windsor (Heiltsuk elder) of the delegation from Bella Bella, Bella Coola and Rivers Inlet communities of British Columbia made the following comments during the Recovering Voices Community Research Visit May 20th - 24th, 2013. These are story poles or talking sticks. We keep them as stories of who we are and ancestral beginnings. These objects were banned for a time by Europeans and missionaries.Brendan Maloney via RRN, 5/23/21: "Captain Carpenter IMO [in my opinion]. Salmon Trout Head Ovoids light and thin; reminiscent of many of his old paddle designs." Christopher Smith via RRN, 5/31/21: " I agree with Brendan that the formline base is by Captain Carpenter, but the pole (not pictured) is by another Heiltsuk artist, Robert Bell (1859 – 1904). I spent a lot of time with this base and the pole it is matched with (as well as the other poles collected by Swan at the same time) when I was at SIMA in 2019, and the base is clearly by a different artist than the pole and was added as an afterthought. The base looks to have originally been a panel of a box or dish, but was definitely different than the bases of the other poles (also by Bell), as they were mostly figural and were obviously originally matched to the poles themselves. Just wanted to clarify. I've linked to info from the MOA about Bell [http://collection-online.moa.ubc.ca/search/person?person=4287&tab=biography]."