From card: "Tlingit? or Haida? Southeastern Alaska? Canada, B.C.? Wood, spruce root. One hook is illus. in Fig. 184, p. 154 of Crossroads of Continents by William Fitzhugh and Aron Crowell, Smithsonian Press, 1988. One hook in storage is tagged: "Niblack p. 291". This presumably refers to "The Coast Indians of Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia" by Ensign Albert P. Niblack in USNM Annual Report for 1888, though object does not seem to be illustrated there."I suspect these hooks may be either Cat. # E89204 or 89205 (or both), as these fishing lines are missing their hooks and the T numbered hooks resemble the ledger drawing of hook # 89204. If this is the case then they are Haida, collected by James G. Swan in 1883. - F. Pickering 11-30-1988

From card: "A slightly concave section of ivory at the top which is carved all over with figures, a face in the center and the left end with four comb teeth. Suspended from this are 17 separate carved ivory figures of various kinds... "Used in medicine dances" [according to] Swan"According to conservation condition reports (and the catalog card) the main amulet necklace was loaned to the Whitney Museum of American Art on Sept. 10, 1971, and returned on Feb. 9, 1972. Both the main piece and the other 3 separate amulets were loaned to the Glenbow Museum in 1987 for "The Spirit Sings" exhibition, and returned in 1988.4 pieces: shaman's necklace - a piece of carved ivory with 17 carved ivory amulets attached, and 3 additional amulets. The catalog describes the main piece with the 17 amulets, but it does not mention the additional 3 amulets. So either the amulets are misnumbered or the card is incorrect or incomplete.Shaman's necklace is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027. Only the large carved necklace piece with seventeen attached pendant amulets is on loan; the 3 additional amulets with this number are not on loan.Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on the large necklace piece with 17 attached amulets http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=628 , retrieved 5-9-2012: Shaman's necklace, Haida. Haida shamans, both men and women, wore images of the helping spirits that came to them in dreams and visions. On this finely carved bone amulet, the heads of birds flank a human face; heron, land otter, and dog salmon, all recorded as spirit assistants in oral tradition, can be identified among the figures suspended below. Amulets worn from the neck were sometimes called head-scratchers, suggesting the purpose of the sharp points on the left side of this piece. A shaman never cut, combed, or washed his or her hair, because it was a source of spiritual strength.Listed on page 46 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)".

From card: "Raven, bear, and killer whale motifs."

FROM CARD: "THUNDER BIRD ORNAMENT. ??? ILLUS. IN USNM AR, 1888; PL. 28, FIG. 132, P. 286. LOAN: CROSSROADS SEP 22 1988. ILLUS.: CROSSROADS OF CONTINENTS CATALOGUE; FIG. 313, P. 234. LOAN RETURNED: JAN 21 1993." Crossroads catalogue caption identifies as "War Club, Tsimshian? Few weapons rival the elegance of this fine wooden club, with the raven's beak for a striking point. The form was probably derived from the antler club of the Athapaskans .... Two frogs crouch flanking the grip and another, topped with a reclining human figure, caps the club. Between his folded wings, the raven grasps another, inverted human. Abalone shell once glittered in the wing feathers. Such clubs were once true weapons, and later were used as emblems of chiefly rank. It is said they were sometimes used to kill slaves on ceremonial occasions."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=46, retrieved 3-31-2012: Ceremonial War Club, Tsimshian. Designs carved on this polished wooden club include Raven and three Frogs. Although recorded by collector James Swan as an “ancient war club,” it was probably a ceremonial weapon used during initiation rituals of the Tsimshian Destroyer society, called Wi'-nanal (meaning "strong breath"). Novices underwent a ritual of possession by the protector spirit of the cult. While possessed they destroyed canoes, boxes, and other property using wooden clubs decorated with crest designs. The Tsimshian apparently adopted the Destroyer cult and other secret societies from the Bella Bella. "This is an amazing carving…These are probably potlatch rings above Raven's head. Below is a human figure between his wings. You see a lot of this kind of design on shamans' things, where they are riding in a canoe, going to the spirit world. Maybe Raven is that canoe." - David Boxley (Tsimshian), 2009.

Provenience note: locality recorded on the catalogue card is Sitka, however "Admiralty Is." is written on artifact itself by museum cataloguer.

FROM CARD: "SAPPORO MUS. 1/26/95."Note, object was catalogued as Port Townsend, Washington, which is where collector Swan was based at that time. The accession record lists "Specimens of table mats from Sitka." as part of this accession. This object may be one of those pieces, and thus possibly Tlingit?A list in Smithsonian Institution Archives Record Unit 186, Box 11, Distribution 5103, indicates a mat and three baskets catalogue number 13111 were sent as part of an exchange to the Annecy Museum, Haute-Savoie, France, March 1887.