From card: "'This piece is very peculiar since it is in the form of a Tlingit shaman's basketry hat but it is done in wrapped twining technique in cedar bark and grass - all typically Nootka.' - Bill Holm 11/19/(19)76. Illus. Fig. 121, p. 114 in A Guide to Weft Twining by David W. Fraser, Philadelphia: University of Penn. Press, 1989."

HAS CATALOG CARD.

Catalog number 88960 [part numbers E88960-0 through E88960-3] are four hats of a similar style. One of the four hats is illustrated (small) as Hat 112, p. 221 in Glinsmann, Dawn. 2006. Northern Northwest Coast spruce root hats. Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006.

TIGHTLY WOVEN, SINGLE-PAIR WRAPPED TWINE CONICAL HAT, PROBABLY MADE OF SPRUCE ROOT. THE LOWER HALF OF THE HAT IS DECORATED WITH A WOVEN DESIGN BY WEFT ON ONE AND TWO WARPS. THERE IS A CAP WOVEN ON THE INTERIOR OF THE HAT FOR A CLOSER FIT. THIS PEALE NUMBER HAS BEEN ARBITRARILY ASSIGNED TO THIS CATALOGUE NUMBER FOR PURPOSES OF IDENTIFICATION.Provenience note, in 1841 Oregon Territory encompassed the land from Russian Alaska to Spanish California and from the Pacific to the Continental Divide. The U.S. Exploring Expedition did not go to Canada, but did reach Oregon Territory in 1841, and carried out a hydrographic survey of the Columbia River from its mouth to the Cascades, as well as doing some surveying inland.They had dealings with Hudson's Bay Company staff during that time, and it is probable that the HBC is the source of a number of the Northwest Coast artifacts collected by the expedition.For small illustration see Hat 109, p. 221 in Glinsmann, Dawn. 2006. Northern Northwest Coast spruce root hats. Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. A detail showing four-strand embedded braid is also illustrated Fig. 60, p. 91. Glinsmann identifies as Haida style of manufacture.

Original tag attached to artifact labels it in ink as "Eiderdown Cap, Artic [sic]." A different hand has written on the tag in pencil what appears to be "Yakutat".

At one time, the hat brim for this basketry hat had been given # 316947 and the hat crown was separately numbered as 316957. Subsequently, both parts of the hat have been reunited under number E316947.