Decorated Birch Bark Basket
date: label: Accession Date
content: 30 Dec 1927
name: label: Donor Name
content: Rev. John W. Chapman
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Rim lashing of split spruce roots around willow stave which encircles the rim on the outer side. A similar arrangment for strengthening basket top is placed one inch below the top. Identified as "Ingalik" by Cornelius Osgood, Sept. 1970, solely on the basis of index entry "Tinne, Anvik, Alaska, Reve. J.W. Chapman.""
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=340 , retrieved 8-9-2012: Birchbark basket, Deg Hit'an Athabascan. This Deg Hit'an basket from the lower Yukon River is made of folded birch bark with a double rim made of bent wooden hoops. The basket is stitched with split red willow roots. Birch bark is waterproof, strong, and flexible, and Athabascan women traditionally fashioned it into baskets of many shapes and sizes. These were used to collect water, berries and roots; to hold food and water inside the house; and (with sewn-on covers) to store various foods underground for winter, such as berries, wild onions, fish, oil, bear grease, muskrat, and moose meat.(1) Bark baskets were also used for cooking. The most common method was to fill them with soup or other liquid and add hot stones to bring the contents to a boil.(2) Rough "boiling baskets" made out of extra-thick birch bark could be hung directly over the fire.(3) Although birch bark baskets are no longer used for everyday storage and cooking, many contemporary Athabascan artists produce them as gifts or for sale, using traditional techniques that are similar across the entire region.(4) Bark is peeled in the spring or early summer when it comes off most easily, taking only the outer layer so the tree will not be killed. The bark is cut, warmed to make it flexible, folded into shape, and stitched together with split spruce or willow roots, using an awl to make the holes. To add color to the basket, the stitching roots can be dyed with blueberries (gray-blue), rhubarb (green), or alder (red). Rims and reinforcing strips are made of red willow or cranberry wood. Other decorative materials such as splints of cranberry wood, stems of the mouse berry plant, or porcupine quills can be worked into the design. 1. Carlo 1978:44-45; Clark 1974:133; McKennan 1959:35, 1965:30, 39; Osgood 1936:30, 37; Osgood 1970:133-136; Simeone and VanStone 1986:21; Steinbright 1984:7 2. Clark 1974:133; McKennan 1959:33, 41; McKennan 1965:39; Osgood 1970:42 3. Osgood 1970:142; Steinbright 1984:13 4. Carlo 1978:44-45; Clark 1974:133-134; Madison and Yarber 1981a:61; Osgood 1970:133-136; Simeone and VanStone 1986:21; Steinbright 1984:7-15
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 15 Feb 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Anvik, Yukon River, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Ingalik (Deg Xitʼan, Degexitʼan, Deg Hit'an)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 099725
label: USNM Number
content: E339747-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Basket
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 31 cm