Gut Parka
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1880
name: label: Donor Name
content: Edward W. Nelson
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "WATERPROOF, ORNAMENTED. INVENTORIED 1976."
label: Notes
content: Illus. Fig. 8, a-b, in Reed, Fran, "Embellishments of the Alaska Native Gut Parka" (2008). Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings. Paper 283. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf/283 . Identified there: "This is a very unique gut garment from Golovnin ... It has a variety of construction techniques as well as materials that seem to come from many parts of Alaska. Collected in 1880 the garment has horizontal panels with auklet feathers, cormorant feather strips on the shoulders and hood, yarn tufts, dyed esophagus strips in the shoulder seams and top over-stitch using black sinew. Although the hood is similar to those from St. Lawrence Island, the stitching is very much like the Aleuts and the sleeve construction is similar to Yupik or Inupiat."
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=96 , retrieved 12-17-2021; see web page for additional information: Gut parka, Inupiaq. Hooded parkas made from seal intestines (gut) were ideal outer garments for wet weather and ocean travel. They were sewn with fine sinew thread and a special watertight stitch. This fine gut parka from Golovin Bay is decorated with red wool yarn, feathers, and strips of bird skin. Gut parkas-light-weight, knee-length, hooded pullovers made from seal or walrus intestines-were worn as waterproof outer coats by both men and women, and as fancy dress for ceremonial and festive occasions. This garment is also called a rain parka, gutskin parka, intestine parka, rain shirt or kamleika, a name of Russian origin. Men wore gut parkas when hunting on land in rainy weather, and at sea in their kayaks. To keep dry, a kayaker tightened the drawstrings of his parka's sleeves and hood. He tied the bottom of the parka around the raised rim of the boat's cockpit, to keep rain and splash from getting inside. Women sewed gut parkas from long strips of dried and split intestines, using sinew thread. They reinforced and made the seams waterproof by joining the strips with folds and stitching that did not entirely pierce through the material. The strips were usually sewn together horizontally but could also be vertically arranged. When moist and pliable, a gut parka could be rolled up into a small bundle. The intestine strips, approximately three inches wide, were kept in rolls until used. Gut parkas were often decorated. Women sewed feathers, seal fur, auklet beaks, dyed strips of tanned skin, beads and colored fabric into the seams. During a festival at Unalakleet in December of 1867, William H. Dall observed women wearing "long shirts made of intestines of seals . . . translucent, embroidered with bits of colored worsted [wool], and ornamented with short pendent strings of beads." Edward Nelson-in the Norton Sound area from 1877 to 1881-reported that women's gut parkas were "cut up on each side to produce flaps similar to those of the ordinary frock [parka]." Strips of seal intestine were made into other kinds of waterproof items as well, including full body suits for setting salmon nets in high water. Sheets of seal intestine (or walrus) were used as windows over the smoke holes of traditional semi-subterranean houses. Larger sheets served as tents when traveling or in open camps.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 17 Dec 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Golovnin Bay, Norton Sound, 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: 80A00050
label: USNM Number
content: E43335-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Parka