Armor (Skin)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 10 Oct 1913
name: label: Collector
content: Riley D. Moore
label: Donor Name
content: U.S. National Museum
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Information for this catalog number was left off of the ledger and no card was originally made for it. This card was created 3/11/85 with the approval of Dr. Bill Merrill. Loan: Crossroads Sep 22 1988, Loan returned. Illus.: Crossroads of Continents catalogue; Fig. 302, p. 227." Identified in Crossroads catalogue as "collapsible lower body armor of sealskin hoops [which] could be tied up around the waist to free the legs for running."
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 https://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=681 , retrieved 7-17-2018: Armor skirt. Siberian raiders attacked St. Lawrence Island in spring and summer, trying to take valuables as well as prisoners. Yupik elder Roger Silook wrote that when enemy boats appeared, defenders "would make it rain with arrows" to repel them. This armor skirt, worn to protect the lower body, is made of six telescoping hoops of doubled bearded seal hide, alternating between dark (scraped) and light (aged) skin. The hoops were lifted and secured at the waist to enable the fighter to run or walk freely. On top is a hide chest protector with shoulder straps.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 12 Feb 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: St. Lawrence Island, Bering Sea, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Yupik, St. Lawrence Island
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 055962
label: USNM Number
content: E280200-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Armor
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 85 cm