Fish Hook
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1 Nov 1878
name: label: Donor Name
content: Edward W. Nelson
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "33729-31. 33731 - HERRING HOOK. UNALAKLEET, NORTON SOUND, ALASKA."
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 https://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=68 , retrieved 1-6-2022; see web page for additional information: Fish hook, Inupiaq. The arctic grayling, a large-finned cousin of the trout, is easily taken with a hook. One method is to jig for them through river ice. Iñupiaq people of the Bering Strait region have always relied on a wide variety of fish, which supplement other wild foods including seals, beluga whales, caribou, birds, eggs, arctic hares and berries. In his book People of the Kauwerak, Iñupiaq Elder William Oquilluk wrote that "no matter where the people finally lived, they put their village where they could catch the most fish all seasons" and "always built their houses where they could get tomcod year round." He explained that "they hung [fish] to dry in the summer" and "ate them dry, fresh or frozen in the winter with seal oil." During the late fall, winter, and spring, people fished for tomcod, grayling, trout, lingcod, and other species through holes in the ice, using a rod and line with a hook. They used an ice scoop with a netted bottom to keep the hole clear of slush and ice chunks. Ice fishing was often done by older men, women and children. Ice-fishing hooks for grayling, like the one shown here, were small, with ornamented shanks and single, barbless hooks made of metal or bone. They were lashed together with sinew. This example was identified as a grayling hook by Elders in 2001, although collector Edward Nelson thought it was for herring. However, herring are usually taken with nets.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 6 Jan 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Unalakleet, Norton Sound, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Inupiaq
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 78A00080
label: USNM Number
content: E33731-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Fish Hook
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 15 cm