Pair Of Boots, Skin Of Mountain Sheep (Ku-M-Mun)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 23 Nov 1883
name: label: Collector
content: Lt P.H. Ray
label: Collector
content: John Murdoch
label: Collector
content: Middleton Smith
label: Donor Name
content: U.S. Signal Service
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Brought from the east. Illus. in BAE 9th AR, fig. 79, p. 133 also in USNM AR, 1894; fig. 51; p. 338."
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 https://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=188 , retrieved 1-7-2022; see web page for additional information: Boots, Inupiaq. Wild mountain sheep are available in the Brooks Range of northern Alaska, but not along the arctic coast. Inland Iñupiaq people traded sheepskin clothing and hides for the products of coastal villages. In the Barrow area, mountain sheep skin from the interior was sometimes used to make winter dress boots. According to John Murdoch, this pair of dress boots-collected by Lt. P. H. Ray in 1883-was brought back "from the east" (possibly the community at Demarcation Point) by a Barrow trading party. Elders who examined the boots in 2002 identified the design as typical of the Nunamiut, or interior Iñupiaq. The finely pleated soles of these boots are bordered along their top edges with black and white bands of sealskin. The edging that runs down the vertical seams of the uppers is made of strips of mountain sheep and dark brown caribou, with tags of red worsted wool. The soles are high enough to stay in place on the foot without the ties seen on other boots.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 7 Jan 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: Point Barrow, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Inupiaq
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 013712
label: USNM Number
content: E89834-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Boot
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 61 cm