Work-Bag Of Intestine Of Sea Lion
date: label: Accession Date
content: 7 Apr 1882
name: label: Collector
content: Lucien M. Turner
label: Donor Name
content: Lucien M. Turner
notes: 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=144, retrieved 5-7-2014: Bag Women created beautiful small bags from the intestines of sea lions and the gullets of seals. David Samwell, who visited Unalaska Island in 1778 with Captain James Cook, noticed small bags that "they ornament very pretty with their needles." Elders said that this bag is made from sea lion intestine stitched together with sinew thread, and was probably used to hold sewing materials. The decorative stitching was done with embroidery thread. Older bags were decorated with caribou or mountain goat hair, seal fur, bird feathers, and strips of black or colored esophagus. Before Russian fur merchants brought iron needles in the 18th century, Unangan women sewed with bird or fish bone needles that had notches instead of eyes to hold the thread. From Elders' discussions of the bag 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: I figure they put their tools in there. This gut is really strong when it's brand new. It's not fragile the way it is now. It could hold heavy things, maybe their sewing kits or knives or scrapers. The one my mom made had a string like that. When they're new you could just gather them up [by drawstring at top], but right now it's brittle. Maria Turnpaugh: I think they might have a different thing for their sewing, smaller. That's a missuuka [bag]. [The word missuuka [bag] comes from the Russian word meshók [bag, sack].] Mary Bourdukofsky: Yes. Aron Crowell: Does that have the same kind of decoration [as E65270]? Mary Bourdukofsky: Yes, the same style stitching. Maria Turnpaugh: Probably the same person made them. Aron Crowell: Was it only women who sewed traditionally or today? Maria Turnpaugh: I've never heard of men sewing, but I know some did.
label: Notes
content: Mary Bourdukofsky: I know my dad used to make his own packsacks like they're using now. Vlass Shabolin: For hunting we used a heavy twine and canvas to make a packsack, straps and all. And a little bag similar to that but out of canvas with a strap on it for your ammunition. The men did all the hunting and the womenfolk were indoors where they did all the preparing. If they needed esophagus or something, the menfolk would get it, and then the women would clean them up and then dry them up. Aron Crowell: Did you learn sewing from your mom? Mary Bourdukofsky: Yes. Aron Crowell: When did you start? Mary Bourdukofsky: Eight or ten years old, after school and in the evening. After school she let us play outside for a while, and then after supper, how to do things as girl - to do as a woman's supposed to do. That was her way of telling us about embroidery, sewing, weaving, you name it. But weaving I had no interest in, it was just too much for me I think. Daria Dirks: Skin sewing is faster [laughs]. Mary Bourdukofsky: Yes, I love skin sewing. But, later on in years - why did I think was too hard - I learned [laughs]. ... Aron Crowell: Vlass, what did the boys have to learn? You grew up learning how to hunt sea lions, which is part of this bag. Vlass Shabolin: At the age of nine, when my dad started taking me out hunting with him, he just started teaching me how to hunt some ducks. If he got six or seven of them, while he's still hunting, I'd take them back to the house, which is about maybe a mile away from where we hunt ducks, and then I'd give them to my mom. My mom and my sisters would clean the birds, and then she'd start cooking. So by the time my dad came back with me from hunting, dinner would be ready for us. When my dad killed a sea lion, then every part of the sea lion meat that he was taking, he explained to me what part of the animal it was in Aleut [Unangam Tunuu], and we'd take it home. When the sea lion was big, I'd get the meat off the bones, and then we'd put it in the pack sack and it was much lighter that way. Then after we take all 'that home, from the breast part of the sea lion we made what we call uulaug^athan [dried seal meat] - beef jerky-like. Everything we learned, I learned from my dad. I have lived with it all my life. It came in handy as I grew up to be a man. Then I taught my kids, my boys, how to do the hunting. So now my oldest son, he lives with the Aleut tradition now. He's a hunter. So like I said earlier, home teaching was very, very important to us Native boys. We learned everything we could as we got older. And I'm glad I learned everything in my language while I was young. So, that's the way we were taught.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 16 May 2024
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Atka Island, Atka Quad / Aleutian 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: 82A00013
label: USNM Number
content: E65270-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Bag
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 29.5 cm