(See object on bottom of photograph) Central & Northern Plains Sioux people made awl cases by winding or wrapping beads around a tubular shaft, made originally of rawhide and later sometimes of cardboard. Few cases in collections have bone or steel awls in them. Some have pointed wooden sticks, which may have been used as hair-part painters. Depending on size, and evidence of paint remains, some of these may be paint stick holders. These cases were hung on women's belts long after the use of the awl had diminished a vestigial representation of women’s traditional gear. and traditional role. The small, faceted dark red translucent tube beads were very popular in the 1830-1870 period. The use of the Cornaline d’Aleppo beads, red with a yellow interior, makes this piece especially fine. Great as household object. The white beads are unusual.

Gift of J.L. Greason

Object itself is marked: "Toolboard, Awl and Wax."Source of the information below: Inuvialuit Pitqusiit Inuuniarutait: Inuvialuit Living History, The MacFarlane Collection website, by the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre (ICRC), Inuvik, N.W.T., Canada (website credits here http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/posts/12 ), entry on this artifact http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/items/126 , retrieved 1-28-2020: A toolkit used for making arrows. It consists of a wood cutting board with a small skin pouch and a bone or antler implement used for setting feathers attached to it with sinew thongs. More information here: http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/item_types/5: Toolkits, consisting of a small cutting board and knife for splitting and trimming feathers and small pouches containing red ochre and wax or spruce gum that the ochre was mixed with, were used for making and repairing arrows. Hunting implements often were stained with red ochre in the belief that it gave them added power.

Ulnaawl, well-worn and complete. "45-SJ-24 0007237 SAJH 24358" on one side, smeared. Highly polished, with scratches (approximately 54 mm) along side.

Awl is made from a mammal ulna and is ground. Bag stated: "Lopez Island, Wash," "from tip of sand spit off Fisherman's Bay," "where gill-netters used to set." (S. Iles 5/5/2004)

FROM CARD: "WOMAN'S. "GOAT", HANDLED."Provenience note: List in accession file (this object is # 11 on list) appears to attribute this to the Hoonah Tlingit of Gau-da-can (i.e. Hoonah). List identifies this object as a "Woman's awl, ornamentally cut handle of mountain goat and steel pricker."Listed on page 48 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)".

November 9, 1881 list in accession file lists 2 awls in the collection (called "punches"), one from Hoonia and one from Sitka. E60133 and E60134 appear to be those awls, but it is unclear which one is the one from Hoonia and which one is the one from Sitka.Illus. Fig. 40 p. 52 of Chaussonnet, Valerie. 1995. Crossroads Alaska: native cultures of Alaska and Siberia. Washington, D.C.: Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.