Hat Of Seal Intestine
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1869
name: label: Collector
content: Dr. Thomas T. Minor
label: Donor Name
content: Dr. Thomas T. Minor
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "7956-7. INVENTORIED 1977." FROM 19TH OR EARLY 20TH CENTURY EXHIBIT LABEL WITH CARD: "HEAD-DRESS.--CIRCULAR CAP, MADE OF PIECES OF SEAL INTESTINE SEWED TOGETHER, EACH SEAM BEING ORNAMENTED WITH RED AND BLACK STRIPS OR TUFTS OF COLORED YARN, AND THE RIM WITH LONG WHITE SEAL--HAIRS. ON TOP IS A CROSS OF RED AND BLACK SKIN. UNALASHKWANS, UNALASHKA ISLAND.DIAM. OF TOP, 8 INS. SIZE, 7 (I.E., 7 INS. DIAM.) ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, 1868. 7,957.COLLECTED BY DR. T. T. MINOR."
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
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=27, retrieved 5-8-2014: Hat Mary Bourdukovsky (St. Paul), Vlass Shabolin (St. Paul), and Maria Turnpaugh (Unalaska) identified this as a woman's ceremonial hat, worn for dancing during celebrations at the end of fur seal harvest in the Pribilof Islands and at other special occasions such as weddings. This style of round, embroidered cap made of sea mammal intestine first became popular in the early 19th century, and is based on the shape of a Russian sailor's hat. Decorated intestine caps were sometimes worn as waterproof hat covers, with cloth caps underneath. In the original pre-Russian winter hunting ceremonies, Unangan dancers wore other styles of head coverings. These were embroidered, fringed, and feathered hats made of bird or seal skins, some tall and peaked, others flat or shaped like birds with bobbing heads and tails. Sewing was done with fine needles made of bird and fish bone. The decorative strips on the top of this intestine cap are made of red and black-painted seal esophagus. The white stitching is probably caribou hair, although mountain goat, sheep, and human hair were also used by Unangan seamstresses. From Elders' discussions of the hat in 2003 (see web page cited above for the full entries) with Mary N. Bourdukofsky, Vlass Shabolin, Maria Turnpaugh and Daria Dirks (Tanadgusix Foundation) at the National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of the American Indian, 4/07/2003-4/11/2003. Also participating: Aron Crowell and Bill Fitzhugh (NMNH) and Suzi Jones (AMHA). Mary Bourdukofsky: That's women's ceremonial hat. Aron Crowell: How can you tell it's a woman's hat? Mary Bourdukofsky: Because as I was growing up, I saw pictures. The men always had their hunting hats all decorated when they do their ceremonial things, and the women wore something on their heads like this. They dance around wearing these. Daria Dirks: Are we going to call this one Aleut slapkun [women's fancy hat - comes from the Russian word shápka [cap, hat]]? Maria Turnpaugh: That sounds Russian. Mary Bourdukofsky: Saleeg^uu. [Hat - can refer to any kind of hat, including a hunting hat, hunting visor, stocking hat or baseball cap.] Daria Dirks: Is this a Russian style hat or Aleut design?
label: Notes
content: Maria Turnpaugh: It looks like a Russian style. Mary Bourdukofsky: Yes, Russian. I made a similar one from felt. The Aleuts wore these, [made from] gut and esophagus of the seal. Daria Dirks: Was it that on top? Mary Bourdukofsky: It looks like feathers. It's too stiff for feathers. It could be hair. Vlass Shabolin: Reindeer hair or something like that. Maria Turnpaugh: It's kind of stiff. Mary Bourdukofsky: Where it's from? Various: Unalaska. Mary Bourdukofsky: Unalaska don't have reindeer. Maria Turnpaugh: Maybe it's fox. Maria Turnpaugh: Now that [along narrow strips at top] is a kind of stitch I've seen a lot of, like a buttonhole stitch. Mary Bourdukofsky: And that trim again. It seems like they put that ribbon inside and then went over with the last stitch. See, right here [side]? I remember mom put ribbon in her sewing to make it colored. She had red, black and white ribbon. Maria Turnpaugh: But how could they get ribbon that narrow? Mary Bourdukofsky: You fold it, and you fold it again. That's what mom used to do.
label: Notes
content: Maria Turnpaugh: A French seam they call it. Look at this trim [along wide strips at top]. Mary Bourdukofsky: Chain stitch. Maria Turnpaugh: Yes, it's got little tiny chain stitch through there. This bottom stitch here is what gets me [stitching at brim]. Look at how fine that white little chain stitch is. The needles they must have had were very small, because that is hard to sew. So fragile. Aron Crowell: What did you learn or what did you hear, growing up, about the ceremonies that people used to have? Mary Bourdukofsky: I think my dad said, after a big hunt, when the season's over, that's what they celebrate. The government let them slaughter so many seals, and the season was over after two months in August. Then after it's packed and ready to go to the Lower-48, then they have a big celebration. Their hard work is done. Maria Turnpaugh: But we don't have that in our times. I've heard of after weddings, big occasions like that. They'd celebrate weddings for three days. Mary Bourdukofsky: On St. Paul they do. Aron Crowell: Do you remember hearing about the kinds of ceremonies the people had before the Russians came, with masks and drumming? Mary Bourdukofsky: We call it Masscarrata [masquerade]. Two days after Christmas, our Orthodox Christmas [January 9th], it was a custom then that the masking begins. Not really the masking the first day, they call it the Assqeenogthen [beggars]. They covered themselves with blankets, and they went around with a pot or a sack from house to house. That represents when they were looking for baby Jesus, and they did that for a couple of days. Then they dressed up imitating people, masquerading, until Christchuniya [Epiphany]. Maria Turnpaugh: On the nineteenth, yes, Christchuniya. And they have masquerading three days before that, dressing up in different kind of costumes. They say they're trying to find the devil or something. [In the Russian Orthodox religion, Christchuniya [Epiphany] is on January 19th and celebrates the day that Jesus was baptized.] Aron Crowell: Does this hat connect to Assqeenogthen or any of those ceremonies? Mary Bourdukofsky: I think it might connect to the celebration before the nineteenth. Aron Crowell: And maybe also with the hunting.
label: Notes
content: Mary Bourdukofsky: End of seasons, yes.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 11 Jan 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Unalaska Island, Aleutian Islands / Fox Islands, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Aleut (Unangax^ ; Unangan; Unangas)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 001499
label: USNM Number
content: E7957-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Hat
physicalDescription: label: Diameter - Top
content: 18 cm
label: Length - Object
content: 21.5 cm