Pair Boots, Skin
date: label: Accession Date
content: 10 Apr 1888
name: label: Donor Name
content: Mrs. Mildred M. Hazen
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Illus. in BAE 18th AR, pt. 1, Pl. XXI-10, p. 60." Boots are described on p. 42 of that publication.
label: Notes
content: Ivrucik Waterproof Seal Skin Boots. Frank Andrew [from Kwigillingok] said: "Sometimes we took them off, dried them in the sun, and put fresh seal blubber on them, making them waterproof." H. 17 1/2 in.; W. 5 1/4 in., Diameter 12 1/2 in. See http://www.yupikscience.org/3coastspring/3-3.html, retrieved 1-31-2021.
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=238 , retrieved 11-3-2021; see web page for additional information: Waterproof boots, Yup'ik. Yup'ik Elders admired this pair of Iñupiaq boots, which are similar to ones they remember from childhood. Oiled boots with waterproof stitching were needed for walking on the wet tundra in spring, summer, and fall. The maker of this pair used her teeth to soften the bearded sealskin soles and to shape the pleated toes and heels. Smithsonian collector Edward W. Nelson purchased these waterproof sealskin boots at the trading post of St. Michael near the mouth of the Yukon River, but Yup'ik Elders suggested that they were made farther north, in Iñupiaq country. Similar boots were used in the Yup'ik region for walking on soggy tundra during spring, summer, and fall. Elders observed that the maker of these boots used her teeth to shape the pleats, or crimps, on the toes and heels. This type of boot was made of scraped, hairless sealskin or bleached seal throats (esophagi). The uppers were dyed a dark red color with alder bark, coated with seal oil, and sewn onto bearded seal skin soles. They had drawstrings to keep water from leaking in at the top, ankle straps, and cuffs made of bleached white seal skin or throats. If they became soaked with water, the boots were stuffed with grass, dried, and re-oiled. Anthropologist Margaret Lantis, on Nunivak Island in 1939-40, learned: "Around Norton Sound an 'xtay was a person who had been ashamed to go home and had turned into a wandering spirit. Such a person gradually shrank and dried up. His lips became dry so that he could not drink and he was very thirsty all the time. When a person saw one of these spirits-they were either male or female-he should take off his boot and offer the 'xtay a drink from the boot. The spirit in return would send him good fortune. A shaman near Shaktolik once gave one of them a whole water-boot [waterproof sealskin boot] full of water."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 3 Nov 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: St. Michael, Norton Sound, 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: 020458
label: USNM Number
content: E129822-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Boot
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 27 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 15 cm
label: Height - Object
content: 48.5 cm