Fish Skin Bag
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1879
name: label: Collector
content: Edward W. Nelson
label: Donor Name
content: Edward W. Nelson
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "ILLUS. IN BAE 18TH AR, PT. 1; FIG. 7; P. 43. 1/83 SITES INUA LOAN. RUSSET-COLOURED FISHSKIN (SALMON); WHITE PARCHMENT. SEAL THROAT; SINEW, GRASS?; CARIBOU HAIR?; HIDE OF ?; SPRUCE ROOT OR WILLOW ROOT; P. 43 NELSON 18TH. INVENTORIED 1977."
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=79 , retrieved 10-24-2018; see web page for additional information: Storage Bag, Yup'ik "Qemagvissugmek wani-wa. Una tua wani-wa wiinga makucingqellruama. Mecungyuglalriit yukutarcessqumanrilrenka wavet eklaranka. Espickangqerquma wavet eksugngaluku. Imat imkut puyurkat. (This is a storage bag. This one right here, I had this kind. When I didn't want something to get damp, I would put it in this. If I had matches, I would put them in here, also bullets or gunpowder.)" - John Phillip Sr., 2002 Salmon skins were used to make boots, mittens, and bags, especially along the lower Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers where these fish are abundant. When properly prepared, fish skins are durable and waterproof. According to elders Neva Rivers and Virginia Minock, the skins used for this bag were silver salmon and king salmon. It is stitched with sinew and ornamented with bands of red-dyed fish skin, white strips of bleached seal esophagus, and caribou hair. A rawhide drawstring encircles the top. Elder Annie Blue of Togiak said that a similar salmon skin sack in the collection of the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin was used to hold sewing materials. She called it a kellarvik [storage bag], and said, "As women, we always had materials like these for sewing back in those days. And we always owned bags like these. If someone asked and said, 'Do you have something?' I'd reply, 'Aren [Oh my], I do have some. It's in my kellarvik.'" - Meade and Fienup-Riordan 2005:143.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 20 Jan 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Nushugak, Bristol Bay, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Yup'ik
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 008133
label: USNM Number
content: E37401-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Bag
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 36 cm