Shaman's Bracelets (1 Pair)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 4 Jan 1887
name: label: Collector
content: William J. Fisher
label: Donor Name
content: William J. Fisher
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "talch-li-gat." Illus. Fig. 199, p. 210 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: Part of a set of Sugpiaq shaman's objects E127802 - 7. See remarks for E127804.
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=230 , retrieved 8-30-2012: Bracelets, Sugpiaq (Alutiiq), Koniag tayarnerutak "pair of bracelets" - Language: Koniag Sugpiaq (Alaska Peninsula dialect) Sugpiaq shamans claimed powers to heal the sick, quell storms, read minds, change into animals, fly through the air, and see into the future. These shaman's charm bracelets are made from the noses of land otters, an animal whose spirit shamans summoned to assist in their work. Each otter wears an ivory or bone nose pin. Beach pebbles with natural, water-worn holes are attached to the bracelets.
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027. 1 pair of bracelets (with two stones mounted separately to each bracelet) on loan; 1 small piece with this number is not on loan.
label: Notes
content: Reference: Crowell, Aron. “Postcontact Koniag Ceremonialism on Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula: Evidence from the Fisher Collection.” Arctic Anthropology 29, no. 1 (1992): 18–37. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40316240. Copy of this article is attached to accession record.
label: Notes
content: 1989 analysis of fur by Bonnie Farmer, NMNH Dept. of Vertebrate Zoology: Lutra canadensis / River Otter - muzzles.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 13 Feb 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 5
place: label: Place
content: Ugashik, Alaska Peninsula / Ugashik River, 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: 018490
label: USNM Number
content: E127803-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Bracelet
physicalDescription: label: Diameter - Object
content: 7 cm