Mourning Arm Bands
name: label: Collector
content: Dr. William H. Dall
label: Donor Name
content: Accession Number Unknown
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM 19TH OR EARLY 20TH CENTURY EXHIBIT LABEL WITH CARD: "ARMLET (4).-STRIPS OF CEDAR, 5/6 INCH WIDE, SMOOTHLY CUT AND CARVED ON EXTERIOR; BENT IN CIRCLET; ENDS LASHED TOGETHER WITH LACING OF HIDE AND ORNAMENTED WITH PENDANT STRINGS OF OPAQUE, RED, WHITE, AND BLUE VITREOUS OR PORCELAIN BEADS AND REINDEER'S TEETH [sic, should be caribou teeth]. WORN IN MOURNING BY KOYUKON INDIANS OF UPPER YUKON RIVER. ALASKA, 1868. 8,809. COLLECTED BY WM. H. DALL." This object consists of 2 pairs of mourning armbands with incised decoration. Per Judy Thompson, 2008, one of the armbands in pair 1 of 2 has an incised caribou motif on it (the armband with attached caribou jaw). Note re photos, color digital neg. # 2008-2461 is photo of 2 armbands (pair 1 of 2); color digital neg. # 2008-2462 is detail of one of the two armbands in pair 1 of 2, showing incised caribou motif. Color digital neg. # 2008-2460 and 2008-6718 are photos of the other 2 armbands (pair 2 of 2.)
label: Notes
content: Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on E8809, pair 2 of 2, http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=505, retrieved 8-22-2012: Mourning arm bands “Hoops of birch wood around the neck and wrists, with various patterns and figures cut on them” were Koyukon emblems of mourning for the dead, according the Smithsonian collector, William H. Dall, who purchased this pair along the Yukon River in 1868. The hoops are engraved with images of caribou and decorated with Russian-period trade beads. A set of caribou teeth hangs from one of the hoops.
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027. Pair 2 of 2 only is on loan.
label: Notes
content: 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)".
label: Record Last Modified
content: 12 Jan 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 4
place: label: Place
content: Yukon River (Upper), Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Koyukon (Denaakk'e)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 000000
label: USNM Number
content: E8809-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Armband
physicalDescription: label: Length - Pair 2 Of 2
content: 13 cm