Part of Clothing Set: Moccasin Pants or Trousers
date: label: Accession Date
content: 9 Feb 1882
name: label: Donor Name
content: Edward W. Nelson
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "PEOPLE: NOT GIVEN ATHABASKAN* (INGALIK). REMARKS: REPLACEMENT CARD: INFORMATION COPIED FROM LEDGER, AUGUST, 1983. IDENTIFIED BY SPECIALIST DR. WILLIAM STURTEVANT. SEE "INUA", PL. 286, P. 238 FOR MAN WEARING THESE TROUSERS, IDENTIFIED AS INGALIK [i.e. Deg Hit'an]. LENT TO ALASKA STATE MUSEUM 3/31/83. LOAN RETURNED 09 23 87."
label: Notes
content: 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=142 , and also record for matching tunic http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=141 , retrieved 9-21-2011: Moccasin pants or moccasin trousers. This pair of summer moccasin trousers - pants with moccasin feet attached - is made of moose hide and decorated with bands of yellow, blue, white, and red trade beads. The trousers were purchased along with a matching tunic (# E64278-0) and mittens (# E64280-0) by Smithsonian collector Edward W. Nelson, who photographed the outfit as worn by its owner, a Gwich'in (Kutchin) man from Fort Yukon. The glass plate image was probably taken at the fur trade settlement of St. Michael near the mouth of the Yukon River, where Nelson was stationed between 1877-1881. However, museum records list "Innoko River" (in Deg Hit'an/Ingalik country) as the location where the clothing set was collected, and Nelson did visit that region by dogsled in the winter of 1880. In the past, men and women of all Alaskan Athabascan groups wore similar moccasin trousers and tunics. Along the Yukon River and its tributaries these garments were made by the Gwich'in (1), Koyukon (2), Upper Tanana (3), and Deg Hit'an.(4) In southern Alaska, both the Dena'ina and Ahtna wore this type of clothing.(5) Moccasin trousers often had tanned caribou skin leggings and moose hide soles.(6) Hair was left on the caribou skins when making winter trousers, and turned to the inside. Upper Tanana people wore winter trousers made of mountain sheep skins and put rabbit fur inside to insulate their feet.(7) Moccasin trousers were originally decorated with porcupine quill embroidery and later with glass trade beads.(8) This type of garment went out of style among most Athabascans by the mid to late 19th century, replaced by pants and unattached moccasins.(9) However, some in the Upper Tanana region were still wearing moccasin trousers in 1930, and the Gwich'in were making them for children at that time.(10) It has been proposed that moccasin trousers were invented for use with snowshoes.(11) One advantage would be that even deep snow could not come inside as it might with shorter boots or moccasins. One Gwich'in Elder suggested that having moccasins and pants together in one piece was an advantage during times of war because people slept in them and could escape quickly if attacked at night.(12) 1. Mackenzie 1801:48; McKennan 1965:45; Murray 1910:84; Osgood 1936:39-40; Richardson 1851 Vol. 1:380 2. Dall 1870:82-83; Michael 1976:244-46 3. McKennan 1959:78-80 4. Osgood 1970:262; Michael 1976:244-46 5. Allen 1887:131, Osgood 1937:46 6. McKennan 1959:78, 1965:45; Osgood 1936:39 7. McKennan 1959:78 8. VanStone 1981:11-16 9. Simeone and VanStone 1986:7 10. Duncan and Carney 1997:24: McKennan 1959:45, 79 11. McKennan 1959:81 12. Duncan and Carney 1997:24-25
label: Notes
content: Illus. Fig. 4.21b p. 161 in Thompson, Judy. 2013. Women's work, women's art: nineteenth-century northern Athapaskan clothing. Gatineau: Canadian Museum of Civilization. Identified as moccasin-trousers, part of a man's summer outfit (with E64278), Deg Hit'an, tanned, smoked moose hide, glass beads.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 25 May 2023
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Innoko River, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Kutchin (Gwich'in, Dihjii Zhuh)
label: Culture
content: Ingalik (Deg Xitʼan, Degexitʼan, Deg Hit'an)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 82A00003
label: USNM Number
content: E64279-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Moccasin Trousers
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 118 cm