From old James G. Swan label glued onto artifact: "Indian wedge made of elk horn. Plowed up by Judge Albert Briggs Feb. 2_ [25? 29?] 1873 on his farm Port Townsend, W.T."

FROM CARD: "EX. CANTERBURY MUS, JUNE 1900. ILLUS. IN USNM REPT., 1902; FIGS. 138-9; P. 410. NEG. #86-6978 & 86-6979."

FROM CARD: "75CTS." FROM ACCESSION RECORD: :"'YALCH' OR INDIAN DEVIL. THIS REPRESENTS A SHAMAN OR DOCTOR DRESSED FOR A MASQUERADE TO REPRESENT AN EVIL SPIRIT."

The object name for catalog numbers e20736-20742 was previously recorded as: "Carving Wooden Dish Frog". This is due to the fact that the objects within this range share a single catalog card, where the description (carving wooden dish frog) only corresponds to the first object (e20734) in the series. When the catalog information was entered into the database, the object name was recorded as the same for each, despite the fact that each catalog number is representative of different, separate objects. At some point, a new catalog card was created for E20742. The other records were updated when digital images were attached to the catalog records.

From card: "Carved wood. Design: The raven with the prostrate figure of Ka-ka-hete, (The whistling demon) on its back and the king fisher plucking out his tongue. The upper half of the head is missing."From card: [taken from p. 192 of exhibit catalogue: Smithsonian Institution. 1982. Celebration, a world of art and ritual. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.] "Raven Rattle, ca. 1850-83; Haida Indians; Masset, Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, Canada; wood, red, black, and blue paint; 6 1/4 x 13 1/3 x 4 3/8 (15.9 x 33.8 x 11.1). Chiefs and high-ranking members of the community used raven rattles like this to punctuate their speech and gestures in formal contexts. Most dancers of northern groups (Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian) held their rattles upside down, with the raven's breast up, lest they come to life and fly away, as a legendary raven rattle once did. The rattle itself is a powerful icon of spiritual transformation. Raven carries on his back a dead man toward the afterlife. The man's vital force, seen as a red bridge similar to a tongue, has been captured by Frog, a symbol of life, which is itself being captured by Kingfisher, a symbol of death. In Raven's beak is a small red object representing both the sun, which was Raven's gift to mankind, and the man's soul, which is man's reciprocal gift to the spirits. On the belly of Raven is the face of the shared soul of Raven and mankind, its beak recurved into its own mouth as symbol of the cycle of reincarnation. In its ritual use, the raven rattle reaffirmed mankind's covenant with Raven and, through its intertwined images of life, death, and rebirth, it channeled these powerful forces in a specific cycle of spiritual transformations."James G. Swan list in accession file of collections from Masset, under # 75, identifies the carving on this rattle as representing raven, kingfisher, and wood demon."Ka-ka-hete" is Olala/Oolala/Ulala per Albert P. Niblack; see p. 324 in Niblack, Albert. 1890. The Coast Indians of Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia. Based on the Collections in the U.S. National Museum, and on the Personal Observation of the Writer in Connection with the Survey of Alaska in the Seasons of 1885, 1886 and 1887 (pp. 225-386 in U.S. National Museum Annual Report for the year 1888).

FROM CARD: "REPLACEMENT CARD: INFORMATION COPIED FROM LEDGER, AUGUST, 1983. HAT OF WOOD PAINTED DARK BLUE W/4 BROAD BANDS OF GRAY. HEAD FORMS SHAPE OF ANIMAL W/SNOUT, FANGS. COPPER STRIPS ON LIPS, NOSTRILS. LARGE, METAL COVERED EYES (METAL MISSING FROM ONE EYE.)" Hat also has a column of blue painted cylindrical basketry hat rings (sometimes called potlatch rings) stored with it, which was at one time attached to top of hat.Object has been stored withTsimshian, based on Fort Simpson collection location. Note however that Bella Bella is written inside the hat.Ian Reid (Heiltsuk), Evelyn Windsor (Heiltsuk elder) and Clyde Tallio (Nuxalk) 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. This is made of spruce root, completely woven. Each of these rings represent how many times the person has potlatched. It may be of Tsimshian or Tlingit origin and it appears that it could be a sea creature.