The sheath is made of a folded piece of rawhide with quill work embroidery along the edge in alternating lengths of red, blue, black and yellow. A piece of soft buckskin is wrapped around the top as a panel or cuff. The added piece is decorated with quillwork; a white field with alternating triangles of blue and black, underlined with orange (formerly red?) arranged in rows. The top and bottom of this cuff are decorated with narrow borders composed of red and white triangles. The entire pattern is outlined with a thin blue line. The narrow borders continue part way around to the back of the sheath, but the quill work pattern does not. Tin cones dangle from the top two corners of the sheath from hide thongs wrapped with red and blue quills and from the bottom of the cuff on thongs wrapped with red quills. These thongs are threaded through the tin cones to form decorative loops that protect their ends. There is a native repair on the reverse side of the sheath.

Sheath for a large knife of rawhide partly painted red with beaded decoration in white, orchid, blues, red and yellow. The sheath is also studded with a few nails along the edge. A triangle is cut out from the hide on one side. This is part of the group purchased as belonging to Red Cloud.

Originally catalogued as "Canadian Indians," From card: "Buckskin-fringed and quilled. Long looped suspension cord. Object is illus.: Fig. 26, p. 128 "Yukon River Athapaskan Costume in the 1860's" by Kate Duncan in Faces, Voices & Dreams; Division of Alaska State Museums; 1987. Object is identified there as Athabaskan knife case."

FROM CARD: "LOAN: CROSSROADS SEP 22 1988. [Dagger] ILLUS.: CROSSROADS OF CONTINENTS CATALOGUE; FIG. 311, P.232. LOAN RETURNED: JAN 21 1993." FROM 19TH OR EARLY 20TH CENTURY EXHIBIT LABEL WITH CARD: "DOUBLE-BLADED DAGGER AND SHEATHS.--BLADES MADE OF STEEL. THE HANDLE, WHICH IS MOUNTED WITH COPPER AND WRAPPED IN LEATHER, IS SET BETWEEN THE TWO BLADES. THE BLADE ABOVE THE HANDLE IS MUCH SHORTER THAN THE ONE BELOW. ATTACHED TO THE HANDLE IS A LEATHER STRIP WITH A HOLE CUT NEAR THE END TO LET IN THE MIDDLE FINGER. THE STRIP IS THEN TWISTED ABOUT THE WRIST TO SECURE THE WEAPON FIRMLY IN THE HAND SO THAT THE WARRIOR NEVER PARTS WITH HIS WEAPON UNTIL DEATH. SHEATHS FOR BOTH BLADES MADE OF LEATHER. LENGTH OF UPPER BLADE, 4 3/4 INCHES; LENGTH OF LOWER BLADE, 12 3/4 INCHES. INDIANS OF ALASKA. 9,288. COLLECTED BY DR. A. H. HOFF, U. S. A."2-part sheath.This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027. War knife and sheath (2 parts) both on loan. See E9288-1 for knife/dagger.Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on dagger and sheath http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=506 , retrieved 1-5-2012: Dagger, Tlingit Tlingit warriors possessed iron-bladed knives long before Western contact, crafted from metal found on Asian ships that drifted across the Pacific. Sophisticated indigenous iron-working techniques produced honed and tempered blades, often with ground-on flutes. The double-ended war dagger was worn around the neck in a leather sheath and used in hand-to-hand combat. George Ramos said that a warrior tied his knife to his wrist before going into battle so that it would not be lost.

NORTHWEST COAST-KNIFE SHEATH OF BROWN TWEED WITH RED WOOL BORDERS AND FLAP.

As of 2009, E67979 consists of a dagger and two sheaths, and E67980, E67981, E67983, and E67984 consist of 1 dagger, each, though originally catalogued as including sheaths. It is possible that one of the sheaths currently numbered E67979 may actually belong with the dagger E67980, E67981, E67983 or E67984?Provenience note: Anthropology catalogue ledger book lists a locality of Alaska for E67931 - 68019. Catalogue cards list a locality of Sitka. Alaska. It is unclear which is correct, though it is probable that the collection was purchased in Sitka.