The Universe of Disco


Sun, 10 Sep 2023

The Killer Whale Dagger

Last month Toph and I went on vacation to Juneau, Alaska. I walked up to look at the glacier, but mostly we just enjoyed the view and the cool weather. But there were some surprises.

The Killer Whale dagger against
a black background.  It is shiny steel with copper overlay and leather
wrapping about the grip area. The blade is a long, tapered triangular
form with three prominent flutes down the center of its length. The
integral steel pommel is relief-formed into the image of two orca
whale heads looking outward with a single dorsal fin extending upward
from the whale heads. A single cut hole pierces the dorsal fin. The
pommel is flat on the reverse side

One day we took a cab downtown, and our driver, Edwell John, asked where we were visiting from, as cab drivers do. We said we were from Philadelphia, and he told us he had visited Philadelphia himself.

“I was repatriating Native artifacts,” he said.

Specifically, he had gone to the University of Pennsyvania Museum, to take back the Killer Whale Dagger named Keet Gwalaa. This is a two foot long dagger that was forged by Tlingit people in the 18th century from meteorite steel.

This picture comes from the Penn Museum. (I think this isn't the actual dagger, but a reproduction they had made after M. John took back the original.)

This was very exciting! I asked “where is the dagger now?” expecting that it had been moved to a museum in Angoon or something.

“Oh, I have it,” he said.

I was amazed. “What, like on you?”

“No, at my house. I'm the clan leader of the Killer Whale clan.”

Then he took out his phone and showed us a photo of himself in his clan leader garb, carrying the dagger.

Here's an article about M. John visiting the Smithsonian to have them 3-D scan the Killer Whale hat. Then the Smithsonian had a replica hat made from the scan.



[Other articles in category /art] permanent link