Seal Drag
date: label: Accession Date
content: 23 Nov 1883
name: label: Collector
content: Lt P.H. Ray
label: Collector
content: John Murdoch
label: Collector
content: Middleton Smith
label: Donor Name
content: U.S. Signal Service
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "56624-7. 56625: ILLUS.: HNDBK. N. AMER. IND., VOL. 5, ARCTIC, FIG. 4D, PG. 325. ...MADE OF 3 PIECES OF IVORY CARVED TO REPRESENT MITTENS WITH A SEAL BETWEEN THEM. WIDTH OF HANDLE: 7.5 CM. ."
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
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=123 , retrieved 11-25-2021; see web page for additional information: Seal drag, Inupiaq. This walrus ivory handle and strap were used for hauling seals across the ocean ice back to the village. The hunter cut a slit through the animal's lip or beneath its jaw then pushed the loop through the slit and back over the handle. He attached a longer line that either he or his dogs could pull. The ivory handle is also a hunting charm, carved to represent two mittens joined end-to-end with a seal's head in the center. Hunters used drag handles to pull seals over snow and ice, particularly when the surface was too rough for a sled. They carved the handles out of walrus ivory, wood, bone and antler, often in the form of seals, beluga whales, or polar bears, and attached a short loop of seal or walrus skin. To fasten the drag to a seal, a hunter cut a slit through the animal's lip or beneath its jaw, then pushed the loop through the slit and back over the handle. He pulled the handle to secure the strap and then attached a longer line around it, which he could either pull himself or attach to a dog sled. Lt. P. H. Ray-in the Barrow area from 1881 to1883-noted that "each hunter must be supplied with at least one of these drags, as it is not considered proper to fasten to a seal with a line that is used for any other purpose; when they get near shore the drag is removed and a few drops of fresh water is poured into the mouth of each seal before it is taken from the ice to the land. . . . the bones of seals are carefully preserved unbroken and returned to the sea, if possible, either by being left in a crack in the ice, far out from the land, or dropped through some open hole in the ice. By so doing they believe that good fortune will follow them in pursuit of seal, which is their main dependence, for from its skin they make their summer boots and soles for their winter boots; its blubber supplies the oil for their lamps during the long night, and with any surplus they may have they purchase deer-skins for clothing from the natives from the interior, and its flesh when cooked is an excellent article of food." The drag handle pictured here-collected by Ray from Point Barrow in 1883- is carved in three separate pieces, two mittens joined end-to-end and a small seal head. "The mittens are ornamented on the back with a blackened incised pattern, and the seal has blue glass beads for eyes and blackened incised spots on the back." There is a hole in each piece through which the drag line passes. The loop is secured below the handle with sinew.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 2 Feb 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Point Barrow, 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: 013712
label: USNM Number
content: E56625-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Drag / Drag Handle
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 15 cm