What do you think this is?

Where do you think it was made?

Who would have used it?

This is a sewing needle carved from ivory! Ivory is a material taken from the tusks and teeth of animals, and the word "ivory" itself derives from the Ancient Egyptian word âbu ("elephant"). This needle was carved in Alaska sometime in the early 20th Century, and was donated to the Karshner Center in 1938.

In the indigenous society where this artifact came from, women were in charge of the sewing, and so this sewing hook would have been used by women to sew animal hides together, usually using sinew of whale or deer.

For more information, visit:

• This artifact in the Karshner Digital Collections
• Artifact Worksheets you can use in your classroom or for homeschool
• Alaska Native Arts & Crafts
• Alaska Native Cultures
• Alaska Native Peoples