Chilkat Tlingit Bowl
This bowl in the form of a brown bear, which dates to the mid-nineteenth century, is made of alder wood and inlaid with snail shells. The brown bear is a Tlingit clan totem. Animal-form bowls like this one, which express an affinity with nonhuman creatures, are a common feature of the Tlingit culture of the Pacific Northwest. National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution.