FROM CARD: "20576-8. ILLUS. IN BAE 3RD AR, PL. XIII, FIG. 21, P. 171." Description of mask in the publication cited above is on p. 116: "A well-carved modern mask, collected by J.G. Swan for the National Museum at Bellabella, British Columbia, near Milbank Sound; history wanting. It is carved of Alaska cedar, rather thick and heavy. The ears, nostrils, lips, upper forehead, bands around the face and across the cheeks are colored red; the eyebrows and irides are black. The remainder of the portions dark-shaded in the figure are blue, powdered while wet with triturated mica, which adhered when the paint had hardened. The surface of the wood is bare in some of the lighter-shaded portions. The eyes are not perforated, the wearer peeping through the nostril holes. This mask was held on by cords passing through its ears and around the nasal septum. The interior is soiled with red paint, which appears to have been rubbed off the painted face of the wearer. This is also evidently a festival mask, not used in connection with, or, at least, not symbolic of, ... totemic ritual."Illus. Fig. 25, p. 36 in King, J. C. H. 1979. Portrait masks from the Northwest Coast of America. [New York]: Thames and Hudson. Identified there as: "Northern Kwakiutl human face mask. A heavily carved mask painted black, red and blue, of unknown significance. The eyes are not pierced so that the wearer would have looked through the nostrils. It was collected in the 1870s by J.G. Swan at Bella Bella, British Columbia, c. 1850-1875.Clyde Tallio (Nuxalk) and Ian Reid (Heiltsuk) 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 mask has eye orbs the same as the classic Nuxalk style.

FROM CARD: "4/18/67: LOANED TO VANCOUVER ART GALL. CAT. NO. 9097: ATTRIBUTED TO TLINGIT BY DUFF, HOLM & REID IN ARTS OF THE RAVEN - THE VANCOUVER ART GALLERY ITEM 28. JUNE - SEPTEMBER 1967."

FROM CARD: "DESTROYED. JUNE 7, 1973 THIS MASK WAS NUMBERED T-656 FOR SEVERAL YEARS DURING WHICH TIME IT HAS BEEN CONCLUDED THAT THIS IS THE DESTROYED WILKES MASK. THE MASK EXHIBITS THE EFFECTS OF THE 1865 FIRE IN THE SMITHSONIAN BUILDING. SOME FARSIGHTED EMPLOYEE APPARENTLY CHOSE NOT TO DISCARD IT DESPITE ITS CONDITION."Attributed to U.S. Exploring Expedition/Wilkes collection on the catalogue card, however Jane Walsh doubts that attribution.

MASK NWC?

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.

This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.Has movable parts.Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on artfact http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=613 , retrieved 6-24-2012: Mask Pulling the strings on this Sparrow Hawk mask makes the eyes move, the beak open, and the tongue rise and fall. Haida dance masks were worn during winter "secret society" ceremonies for the acquisition of supernatural power, and often represented ravens, hawks, puffins, oystercatchers, and other birds. The mask is brightened with strips of copper.

FROM CARD: "18944-5. THESE ARE PART OF A CHILCAT SHAMAN'S SET. ALAN R. SAWYER 2/1982."

FROM CARD: "MASK PROCURED FROM A HAIDA INDIAN ON THE SKEENA RIVER AND SAID TO BE TLINGIT (IF SO FROM THE TONGASS TRIBE BUT BELIEVED BY EMMONS TO BE HAIDA OR TSIMPSHEAN.) IF IT BE A TLINGIT MASK, AS WAS ALLEGED BY THE COLLECTOR, IT REPRESENTS THE SPIRIT OF THE WATER, IUAGUES LIVING UNDER THE SALT WATER. BELLA BELLA - BILL HOLM 3/1983. EXHIBIT HALL 9, 1987. IDENTIFIED IN EXHIBIT LABEL AS BUKWUS, BELLA BELLA. LOAN: R.H. LOWIE MUSEUM 12/31/1964, LOAN RETURNED FEB. 15 1966." FROM G.T. EMMONS LIST IN ACCESSION FILE: "THIS MASK WAS BROUGHT IN BY A HAIDA LIVING ON THE SKEENA RIVER AND WAS SAID BY HIM TO BE A TLINGIT MASK, WHICH REPRESENTED A SPIRIT OF THE WATER QUAGUES, WHICH LIVES UNDER THE SALT WATER. THE NOSE WOULD INDICATE IT TO BE AN EAGLE. IF IT IS A TLINGIT MASK IT MUST HAVE COME FROM THE TONGASS TRIBE BUT I BELIEVE IT IS EITHER A TSIMPSHEAN OR HAIDA MASK."Emmons indicates in letters dated May 27 and May 28, 1902, sent from Victoria, B.C., and filed in the accession file, that the masks in accession 39904 were purchased by him on those dates.Karen Anderson (Nuxalk 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. The mask is made of alder. The group questions the Tlingit attribution and thinks it could be from Bella Bella and/or a Nuxalk mask. Some of the group members believe it could depict a bear.