Sinew-working Tool
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1 Nov 1878
name: label: Donor Name
content: Edward W. Nelson
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "33098-9. SPINDLE USED IN MAKING TWINE FOR NETS AND DEER SINEW." In Anthropology catalogue ledger book, next to a small sketch of the tool, is written:"These implements are planted in the ground, the thread passes through one of the holes and twisted by the fingers."
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=541 , retrieved 8-19-2012: Sinew-working tool Contemporary Elders were not familiar with this tool, collected for the Smithsonian by Edward W. Nelson at the Koyukon village of Nulato in 1878. Nelson recorded it as a "spindle" used in making twine for fish nets (from willow bark or nettles) and for twisting caribou sinew. It was probably stuck into the ground as a "third hand" to hold materials that were being spun into cordage.
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 19 Jan 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Nulato, Yukon River, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Koyukon (Denaakk'e) (?)
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: E33098-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Spindle
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 54 cm