Ermine Cap or Headdress, Beaded
date: label: Accession Date
content: 8 Feb 1884
name: label: Collector
content: William J. Fisher
label: Donor Name
content: William J. Fisher
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "laf-ka-shok. Loan: Crossroads Sep 22 1988. Loan returned: Jan 21 1993. Illus.: Crossroads of Continents catalogue; Fig. 361, p. 265." Identified in Crossroads catalogue caption as a beaded ermine skin dance headdress: Three ermines with beads attached to their jaws, nostrils, and ears project from the brim over an elaborate beaded brow panel. The ermine skins are quilted into a base of cormorant skins, and red wool and grey (human?) hair tassels hang from the sides of the headdress. Beaded pendants "obstruct" the dancer's vision, a necessary requirement for certain dances.
label: Notes
content: Made of three full winter ermine skins with tails and hind feet attached. There is a strip of 3 cormorant skin pieces along the bottom back edge, partially underneath the ermine skins, and two strips of cormorant feathers that run up the back. It has a lower edge trimming of white and brown fur, probably caribou. The ermine heads have the eyes removed but not sewn shut; the center ermine has upper and lower teeth, a single bead hanging from lower lip, and beads attached to ears. Side ermines have no teeth, and slo have nose, lip, and ear beads. Decorative tassels of red yarn over the surface. Beads include late 19th century types - amber, white ceramic tube, small blue and white round beads, dark blue and red bicones, black tube beads. Chin strap of caribou skin. Entire hat is sewn with sinew thread.
label: Notes
content: Photo and description in Fienup-Riordan, Ann. 2007. Yuungnaqpiallerput, The Way We Genuinely Live: Masterworks of Yup'ik Science and Survival. Seattle: University Of Washington Press, p. 266. Nasqurrun Ermine headdress.
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=198, retrieved 9-6-2012: Headdress, Sugpiaq (Alutiiq), Koniag. nacaq "beaded headdress" - Language: Koniag Sugpiaq (Alaska Peninsula dialect)
label: Record Last Modified
content: 7 Jul 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Ugashik, Alaska Peninsula / Ugashik River, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Alutiiq (Sugpiaq), Koniag
label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Yup'ik
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 014024
label: USNM Number
content: E90451-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Headdress
physicalDescription: label: Length
content: 25 cm
label: Width
content: 23 cm
label: Diameter
content: 26 cm
label: Height - Object
content: 38 cm