Grass Socks
date: label: Accession Date
content: 27 Jan 1910
name: label: Donor Name
content: U.S. Department Of Interior
notes: label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
label: Notes
content: From card: "Grass. Woven."
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=318 , retrieved 10-26-2021; see web page for additional information: Grass socks, Yup'ik. Men and women wore warm grass socks and foot pads inside their skin boots, and at the end of each day hung them up to dry over the seal oil lamp. Tall cotton grass, which grows around ponds and in wet tundra areas, is used for making socks. It is softer than the coarse beach grass used for baskets and can be wetted and dried over and over without breaking. In the past, women gathered large quantities of cotton grass in the fall, using large uluat (women's knives) to cut the stems. Inside their skin boots, Yup'ik people traditionally wore soft, warm socks woven from grass. They put extra pads of folded grass below their feet for cushioning and to soak up moisture. Zagoskin observed in the Kuskokwim River region in 1842-44 that skin boots with grass socks and padding kept his feet warm even at 30 degrees F. below zero. At the end of each day, grass socks and pads were hung over a seal oil lamp to dry. The material used for weaving socks is tall cotton grass (Eriophorum augustifolium), which grows around ponds and in wet tundra areas. It is softer than the coarse beach rye grass used for baskets (Elymus sp.) and can be wet and dried repeatedly without breaking. In the past, women gathered large quantities of cotton grass in the fall to make socks and boot pads, using large uluat [women's semi-lunar knives] to cut the stems. Boot pads had to be replaced every few days, so that each person might require 30 lbs of grass per winter for this purpose alone. A traditional and continuing Yup'ik subsistence practice is to gather cotton grass roots and below-ground parts of the stems for food. Voles (small tundra rodents) also eat the roots and store them in their burrows as a winter food supply. In fall, people probe grassy mounds to find and raid stores of this "mouse food". It can be eaten raw, added to akutaq ["Eskimo ice cream" -a mixture of berries, sugar, seal oil, shortening, fish, meat, etc.], or cooked with seal meat or tom cod livers.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 12 Feb 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: Yukon River (Lower), Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Yup'ik
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 051115
label: USNM Number
content: E260721-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Sock
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 33 cm