Bucket Handle
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1880
name: label: Donor Name
content: Edward W. Nelson
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "4 RIGHT WHALES. WESTERN ESKIMO. ALASKA. THE GRAPHIC ART OF THE ESKIMOS. BY W. J. HOFFMAN, 1895, REPORT OF THE U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. PLATE 55., FIG. 3; P. 840."
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 https://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=102 , retrieved 1-5-2022; see web page for additional information: Bucket handle, Inupiaq. The wife of an umialik [boat captain] brought water to the whale and sang a greeting song, welcoming it to the community. This is the handle for a bucket used in the ceremony. Sea mammals were believed to have special and very powerful spirits, which were highly respected. It was believed that the spirits of dead mammals would return to their own kind to report on how they had been treated in the village where they had been killed. If they had been treated well, other animals would be willing to give themselves to hunters of that village. - Margaret Seegana (Iñupiaq, King Island) Carved and engraved bowhead whales decorate this carrying handle for a ceremonial bucket. It is carved from dark, mineral-stained walrus tusk or mammoth ivory. The handle would have been attached to a wooden or baleen pail that served a special purpose-to bring fresh water to quench the thirst of a newly-killed bowhead whale. A boat captain's wife made this hospitable gesture to welcome and honor the whale, so that its human-like iñua [spirit] would be pleased.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 5 Jan 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Sledge Island, Norton Sound, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Inupiaq
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 80A00050
label: USNM Number
content: E44690-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Bucket Handle
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 30 cm