Boat Mat
date: label: Accession Date
content: 3 Mar 1894
label: Collection Date
content: 1892
name: label: Collector
content: Captain Zera L. Tanner
label: Collector
content: USS Albatross
label: Donor Name
content: U.S. Commission of Fish & Fisheries
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "IN BOAT NO. 76280." Boat no. 76280 is Catalogue No. E398277. Detailed description of kayak and its associated artifacts is in Collins Ms., pp. 771-772.
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=264, retrieved 5-14-2014: Grass Mat Open-weave grass mats were used as seating pads inside kayaks, with an old seal skin placed underneath for greater comfort. I. G. Voznesenskii, who visited Unalaska in 1843, recorded that the name for these mats was "ixsxagi-x." When on a long voyage or visiting another village, travelers constructed overnight shelters using their overturned kayaks, paddles, piled grass, and the grass mats they carried inside the boats.
label: Notes
content: From Elders' discussions of the mat in 2003 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). Aron Crowell: These mats, you mentioned a couple of uses—sleeping mats, house dividers—any other? Mary Bourdukofsky: Burial. [She later identified this as a kayak mat or a floor mat.] Vlass Shabolin: Burial. Maria Turnpaugh: But I think those burial mats were the ornate ones. Daria Dirks: This could be a room divider. Mary Bourdukofsky: Kind of small for a room divider.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 30 Jul 2020
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Unalaska Island / Unalaska, 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: 028022
label: USNM Number
content: E168522-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Kayak Mat