Sewing Bag (Ka-Gi-Wik)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 23 Dec 1882
name: label: Collector
content: W.J. Fisher
label: Donor Name
content: William J. Fisher
notes: label: Notes
content: IDENTIFIED BY FRAN REED AS MADE OF THROAT, 2/1999. Illus. Fig. 44, p. 50 in Crowell, Aron, Amy F. Steffian, and Gordon L. Pullar. 2001. Looking both ways: heritage and identity of the Alutiiq people. Fairbanks, Alaska: University of Alaska Press. Identified there as a woman's sewing bag, for storing small sewing items such as needles and twists of sinew thread. Crowell notes that collector William Fisher had originally identified this as a man's hunting pouch, and comments that men carried these bags at sea for emergency kayak repairs.
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=160, retrieved 9-2-2012: Sewing bag, Sugpiaq (Alutiiq), Koniag. kakiwik "sewing bag" - Language: Koniag Sugpiaq (Alaska Peninsula dialect) Entry on similar bag E72497, http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=161, notes: Women carried roll-up pouches to hold their sewing supplies, and a nicely made kakiwik demonstrated the owner's artistry. A sinew cord wraps around the bag when rolled. The pouch would have held needles-traditionally made of split bird bone, ivory, or copper-as well as scraps of fur and thread made from whale or caribou sinew.
label: Notes
content: 1989 analysis of fur by Bonnie Farmer, NMNH Dept. of Vertebrate Zoology: Phoca vitulina / Harbor (Common) Seal: Forms fringes of short, blackish and gold hairs encircling outer perimeter and/or along edges of leather. Rangifer tarandus / Caribou/Reindeer: Used to create white stitching and trim on leather and around edges. Unknowns/Tentative Identifications: Short strands of pale blond hair sewn into seams over the Phoca appear to belong to the genus Ursus and closely resemble both U. arctos (Grizzly/Alaskan Brown Bear) and U. maritimus (American Black Bear).
label: Record Last Modified
content: 13 Feb 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Katmai, Alaska Peninsula, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Alutiiq (Sugpiaq), Koniag
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 012209
label: USNM Number
content: E72496-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Bag
physicalDescription: label: Height - Object
content: 39.5 cm