This knife is not made of metal. What do you think it was used for?

Who would have used it? When do you think it was made?

The blade of this knife was made from bone. It was used to scrape fat from the hides of animals which were hunted by the native inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands, a subarctic chain of islands stretching between Alaska and Russia. Skins of sea lions or seals prepared in this way were then worn as clothing or stretched over kayaks to make them water-tight.

This knife was made and used by Aleutian Unangan people. It was donated to the Karshner collections in 1938, and is believed to have been made in the decade prior to that.

For more information, visit:

• This artifact in the Karshner Digital Collections
• Artifact Worksheets you can use in your classroom or for homeschool
• Aleut [Wiki]
• The Difference Between Aleut and Inuit
• Aleut Culture