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=690, retrieved 4-24-2012: Berry dish or bowl. Wooden bowls held the fruits of the land - crabapples, cranberries, blueberries, and other foods, dried and mixed with seal or fish oil to preserve them for the winter ceremonial season. Potlatch hosts served berries to their guests in carved wooden bowls, large trays, and even empty canoes. Grooves carved at the corners of this bowl mimic the bent edges of birch-bark baskets that Skeena River people used before making their legendary migration to the coast, led by the great shaman Devoured by Martens. "This is a very simple feast bowl, also called a square or high-end bowl. It is made of alder. Carved "wrinkles" at the corners represent folds on the birch-bark baskets that people used in the interior, before they moved to the coast." - David Boxley (Tsimshian), 2009.