Kayak Gunnel Board
date: label: Accession Date
content: 8 Feb 1884
name: label: Collector
content: William J. Fisher
label: Donor Name
content: William J. Fisher
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Loan: Crossroads Sep 22 1988. Loan returned: Jan 21 1993. Illus.: Crossroads of Continents catalogue; Fig. 51, p. 51." Illus. Fig. 140, pp. 148-9 in Crowell, Aron, Amy F. Steffian, and Gordon L. Pullar. 2001. Looking both ways: heritage and identity of the Alutiiq people. Fairbanks, Alaska: University of Alaska Press.
label: Notes
content: Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=190, retrieved 9-2-2012: Gunnel board, Sugpiaq (Alutiiq), Koniag. Gunnel boards fit on the front deck of a Sugpiaq kayak, one on each side. Skin cords passed through slots in the boards to tie down harpoons and other equipment. This board is painted with images of sea otters, which the hunters hoped to catch, and with killer whales, which could be summoned to assist in the hunt. Hunters spoke to the whales through a paddle held in the water. The head of a cormorant, possibly another helping spirit, is carved at the end of the board.
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 4 Feb 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Kodiak Island / Orlova (Eagle Harbor), Kodiak Islands, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Alutiiq (Sugpiaq), Koniag
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 014024
label: USNM Number
content: E90420-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Gunnel Board
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 101 cm