Baby Belt
date: label: Accession Date
content: 5 May 1906
name: label: Collector
content: Edward A. Preble
label: Donor Name
content: Bureau of Biological Survey
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Smoke tanned caribou skin faced with black velvet beaded and fringed. Loop one end and tying cords at the other. Used as a shoulder strap for sustaining the baby in the blanket. The bead designs seem to be floral."
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=307 , retrieved 8-19-2012: Baby Belt, Gwich'in. Beautifully beaded baby carrying straps are an important traditional and contemporary form in Athabascan art.(1) Gwich'in straps, like this one, have square ends and short ties. The belt it is done in the "old style," on black velvet in an open floral pattern.(2) The beads are strung on sinew and tied down with thread. Beaded red wool tassels hang from the belt, which is backed with smoked moose hide. Belt has square ends and short ties. A baby rides on her mother's back, supported from underneath by the strap. For warmth the child rides underneath her mother's parka or is wrapped in a blanket or shawl. Beaded straps are made and used across western Canada and eastern Alaska, including the Gwich'in, Ahtna, and Tanana regions.(3) Gwich'in artist Dixie Hutchinson wrote, “When a baby is born, friends of the family would do beadwork for the baby like baby boots, slippers, hats, and mittens. Beaded baby straps were made mostly by the grandmothers. It was like saying, 'Welcome into our rich culture,' to give a baby beadwork."(4) 1. Duncan and Carney 1997:58-63; Steinbright 1984:101-103 2. Duncan 1989:97 3. Delaguna and McClellan 1981:649; Duncan 1989:97-101; Duncan and Carney 1997:58-63; McKennan 1959:88, 1965:47; Osgood 1936:40, 1940:282; Simeone and VanStone 1986:25 4. Steinbright 1984:101
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 12 Feb 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories, Canada, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Kutchin (Gwich'in, Dihjii Zhuh), Loucheux
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 045922
label: USNM Number
content: E238534-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Baby Belt
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 54 cm