Fishhooks
date: label: Accession Date
content: 16 Jul 1921
name: label: Collector
content: Rev. Sheldon Jackson
label: Donor Name
content: Bureau Of American Ethnology
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Barbed ivory point bone & ivory shank. Braided sinew line."
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=336, retrieved 5-15-2014: Fishhooks Traditional fishing methods in the Aleutians were many and varied. Unangan people built stone and wood weirs (dams) across the rivers to block migrating salmon, which they speared or caught there in wicker traps. They used nets made of whale sinew to catch flounder, herring, and salmon, and took other ocean fishes with hook and line. Large wooden hooks, tied to weights so they would float near the bottom, were specifically designed for halibut. Smaller fish hooks like this pair have a barbed point and a shank, carved from bone or ivory and lashed together.They were made in various sizes for catching cod, turbot, flounder, mackerel, and sculpin. Tough, durable fishing lines were produced by drying, oiling, and stretching long strands of kelp seaweed. Fish was a critical food for survival, and had to be stored in large quantities for the winter. People dried and smoked it, avoiding salt which was thought to harm eyesight, and stored the fish in sea lion stomachs.
label: Notes
content: From Elders' discussions of the hat in 2003 (see web page cited above for the full entries) with Mary N. Bourdukofsky, Vlass Shabolin, Maria Turnpaugh and Daria Dirks (Tanadgusix Foundation) at the National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of the American Indian, 4/07/2003-4/11/2003. Also participating: Aron Crowell and Bill Fitzhugh (NMNH) and Suzi Jones (AMHA). Vlass Shabolin: Those are halibut or salmon hooks. Mary Bourdukofsky: Cod? Vlass Shabolin: Yes, black cod. Daria Dirks: Are they ivory hooks? Mary Bourdukofsky: They're ivory. Vlass Shabolin: They must have made a hole here [base of barb on darker colored hook], because this [barb] is ivory and this is bone covered over here [shank]. Daria Dirks: Whale bone? Vlass Shabolin: Yes.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 9 Feb 2016
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: Unalaska Island / Kashega, Unalaska Quad / Aleutian Islands / Fox Islands, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Aleut (Unangax^ ; Unangan; Unangas)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 066880
label: USNM Number
content: E316779-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Fish Hook