Bow & Arrows
date: label: Accession Date
content: 9 Feb 1882
name: label: Collector
content: Edward W. Nelson
label: Donor Name
content: Edward W. Nelson
notes: label: Notes
content: WRITTEN ON BOW: "HAN KUTCHIN YUKON (R.)" FROM CARD: "49139-40. BOW FOUND IN COLLECTION 1/27/1997 FOR 49139."
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=587, retrieved 8-19-2012: Athabascan longbows were made from birch, willow, or spruce wood, with strings of twisted caribou back sinew. The wooden projection on this Gwich'in or Hän bow caught the string and prevented it from lashing the bowman's wrist. Before guns were available, hunters used bows and arrows to kill large animals such as caribou, bear, moose, and mountain sheep and also to take small furbearers such as rabbit, lynx, fox, wolverine, and muskrat. In the fall, migrating caribou were driven into corrals at the end of converging brush fences, where the animals were snared or shot with arrows.
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027. Only bow on loan.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 2 Feb 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Tanana River, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Han (Han Hwech'in) (?)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 82A00003
label: USNM Number
content: E49140-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Bow
physicalDescription: label: Length - Bow
content: 169.5 cm