Pair Snowshoes
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1879
name: label: Collector
content: Edward W. Nelson
label: Donor Name
content: Edward W. Nelson
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM 19TH OR EARLY 20TH CENTURY EXHIBIT LABEL WITH CARD: "SNOW-SHOES.---ROUND FRAME; THE NETTING OF DEER SINEWS TWISTED INTO TWINE AND ROVE THROUGH FRAME; ROUND TOE, STRONGLY CURVED UP; POINTED HEEL. RIGHT AND LEFT, A SLIGHT DIFFERENCE BEING MADE IN THE CURVES OF THE FRAMES. TWO SHORT LOOPS OVER TOES AND A LONG ONE AROUND FOOT ABOVE HEEL SECURE THEM TO FEET. LENGTH, 51 1/2 INS. GREATEST BREADTH, 12 1/4 INS. LAKE ILIAMNA, ALASKA, 1879. 38,874. COLLECTED BY E. W. NELSON. USED BY KENAI (INGALIK) INDIANS."
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=566, retrieved 8-13-2012: Snowshoes, Dena'ina. Upper Tanana people ascribed the invention of snowshoes to the far-traveling ancient hero Tsa-o-sha. Large, round-toed traveling shoes with tailed heels may be as long as a man is tall and provide maximum flotation in deep snow. Trimble Gilbert called this type laii vik'ii itree (meaning "a dog cries after someone") in Gwich'in, because dogs sink in soft snow and can't keep up with a man who is wearing them. On crusted snow a hunter on snowshoes and his dogs could easily run down a moose, which breaks through to its belly with every step. This pair is from the Dena'ina people.
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
label: Notes
content: Illus. p. 297 in Jones, Suzi, James A. Fall, and Aaron Leggett. 2013. Dena'inaq' huch'ulyeshi: the Dena'ina way of living.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 30 Jan 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: Iliamna Lake, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Tanaina (Dena'ina)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 008133
label: USNM Number
content: E38874-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Snowshoe
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 130.8 cm
label: Maximum Width - Object
content: 31.12 cm
label: Length - Object
content: 132 cm