Drum (Tshan-Jak, Kilyaut)

From card: "A shallow rim of wood, over which is stretched a parchment-head. Accompanied by a short stick. Loaned to Renwick 6/3/82; returned 6/1983. Dance Drum, ca. 1870-85. Eskimo, Alaska. wood, skin membrane, string. 1 5/8 x 19 3/4 x 19 3/4 (4.1 x 50.2 x 50.2). The drum was the basic Eskimo instrument, essential for song and dance. This type - a skin stretched over a wooden hoop - was the most common. With a short heavy piece of ivory or a long slender wand, the drummer alternately struck each side of the rim, turning the drum slightly to meet each stroke. Drums came in different sizes with different tones. At times more than one drum might be used simultaneously." Illus. Fig. 189, p. 200 in Crowell, Aron, Amy F. Steffian, and Gordon L. Pullar. 2001. Looking both ways: heritage and identity of the Alutiiq people. Fairbanks, Alaska: University of Alaska Press.

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=163, retrieved 9-6-2012: Drum, Sugpiaq (Alutiiq), Koniag. tramaaq "drum" - Language: Koniag Sugpiaq (Alaska Peninsula dialect) During winter festivals, drummers and singers accompanied dancers whose movements portrayed hunting expeditions and the visits of masked spirits. Songs honored ancestors in the sky world, and during the Feast of the Dead gifts were burned and sent upward to them on the smoke. Shamans used drums during rituals and healing ceremonies.

This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.

Reference: Crowell, Aron. “Postcontact Koniag Ceremonialism on Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula: Evidence from the Fisher Collection.” Arctic Anthropology 29, no. 1 (1992): 18–37. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40316240. Copy of this article is attached to accession record.

11 Feb 2025

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