Halibut Hook
date: label: Accession Date
content: 14 Sep 1898
name: label: Collector
content: Emile Granier
label: Donor Name
content: Emile Granier
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "HEAVY HOOK OF WOOD; CARVED SHANK; BARB OF IRON LASHED ON WITH PINE ROOT." Identified as a halibut hook, probably Kodiak Island, by Aron Crowell. Illus. Fig. 172, p. 177 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=286, retrieved 8-28-2012: Halibut hook, Sugpiaq (Alutiiq), Koniag; Kodiak Island, Alaska. iqsak "fishhook" - Language: Koniag Sugpiaq (Kodiak Island dialect) Halibut was a staple food, eaten fresh, dried, or smoked. The large fish were taken using V-shaped wooden hooks that floated a short distance above the sea floor, held down by a stone sinker. This hook is carved with animal faces which faced downward so that bottom-dwelling halibut could see and be attracted to them. A strong line made of twisted kelp, sinew, or baleen extended up to an inflated animal stomach buoy on the surface.
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
label: Notes
content: Listed on page 49 in "The Exhibits of the Smithsonian Institution at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California, 1915", in section "Arts of the Northwest Coast Tribes (Tools)".
label: Record Last Modified
content: 10 Feb 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Kodiak Island (not certain), Kodiak Islands (not certain), Alaska (not certain), United States (not certain), North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo
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: 034005
label: USNM Number
content: E200831-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Fish Hook
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 25 cm