Snowshoes, 2 Pairs
date: label: Accession Date
content: 31 Jan 1887
name: label: Donor Name
content: U. S. Department of the Navy
notes: label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027; pair 1 of 2 only is on loan; pair 2 of 2 is still in the collections. Measurements for pair 1 of 2: Length 129 cm., Width 24 cm., Height 13.5 cm.
label: Notes
content: Source of the information below on snowshoes pair 1 of 2: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact https://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=235 , retrieved 12-27-2021; see web page for additional information: Snowshoes, Inupiaq. Long snowshoes like this pair were best for soft snow, especially in brushy areas on the tundra where deep drifts accumulate. The frames were made from spruce or larch, bent into shape when the wood was green. Leather thongs supported the feet and fine sinew thread was interlaced to fill the heel and toe portions. Short shoes with tough leather lacings were used for walking on rough sea ice. Snowshoes were used throughout Northwest Alaska for easier and safer walking on land and sea ice. Men wore them more often than women, for seal, walrus and caribou hunting, checking nets and traps, and other subsistence pursuits. A hunter slung his snowshoes on his back or dragged them behind, to be put on when needed. Short snowshoes with coarse netting were designed for frozen snow or sea ice. This type kept the foot from slipping into cracks and allowed safe passage over weak places in newly-formed ice. On land, large snowshoes with fine netting were ideal for walking on deep, soft snow. With the right equipment, snow-covered winter tundra is easier to cross than in summer when it is wet and boggy. This pair of shoes from the Kobuk River, collected in 1887, is the long, fine-meshed type for deep snow. From his travels in this area in 1884, John Cantwell wrote: "The snowshoes of the Natives of this region are much longer and of finer workmanship than any I have ever observed at other places in Alaska. They range from three to five and a half feet in length by five to ten inches in width. The frame is made of one piece of spruce or larch bent into shape when green. The forward end is rounded and the two ends of the piece of wood forming the frame are brought together and lashed with a stout thong of [caribou] sinew. The front is now turned up a distance equal to about half the width of the shoe. Two pieces of wood are inserted transversely between the sides of the frame about three-quarters of the distance from the rear to the forward end and securely lashed. Stout thongs of [seal] skin or other strong material are passed around these cross-pieces to make a foot-rest, and the spaces to the rear and in front of the foot-rest are filled up with a very fine but strong netting made of twisted [caribou] sinew. The method of securing this thread to the frame so as to prevent its being chafed through by contact with the snow is very ingenious. The shoe is attached to the foot by broad toe-straps fastened to the front cross-piece."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 8 Feb 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 4
place: label: Place
content: Putnam River (Kobuk River), 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: 018616
label: USNM Number
content: E127941-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Snowshoe
physicalDescription: label: Length - Pair 1 Of 2
content: 129 cm
label: Width - Pair 1 Of 2
content: 24 cm
label: Height - Pair 1 Of 2
content: 13.5 cm