Alutiiq Sewing and Beading

The Collector

THE COLLECTOR

 

William Fisher In 1879, William Fisher, a U.S. tidal recorder living in Kodiak, was commissioned by the federal government to collect items representing Alaska for the national museum. Purchased from Russian in 1867, Alaska was a new U.S. territory and American museums sought to expand their collections to reflect the region.

Trained in conchology (the study of shellfish), the Smithsonian commissioned Fisher to collect natural history specimens - plants, animals, and minerals. However, after observing many beautiful cultural objects he convinced the curators to let him purchase, commission and trade for objects of Alutiiq manufacture. In the 1880s, he obtained about 400 objects from Alutiiq communities in Prince William Sound, the Kodiak Archipelago and the Alaska Peninsula.

Fisher's collection represents one of a few major assemblages of Alutiiq objects in the world, and with his careful notes, it provides a unique view of traditional life ways at a turning point in Alutiiq history. Under American influence, many Alutiiq traditions were replaced or reshaped. Western goods were more accessible and people participated more heavily in the cash economy - working for wages. This decreased reliance on subsistence resources and lead to the production of fewer traditional crafts.

Items from Fisher's collection visited Kodiak in 2001 as part of the Looking Both Ways exhibition, a collaborative project between the Smithsonian's Arctic Studies Center and the Alutiiq Museum. In addition to inspiring viewers, the objects gained the attention of Alutiiq artists, who wished to learn more about traditional arts by recreating them. Two artists had this chance over the summers of 2002 and 2003.

To learn more about Fisher's collection, visit the Looking Both Ways exhibition web site.

The Artists

THE ARTISTS

The Nikoforov Ladies Fisher may have purchased the nineteenth century dance ornaments from traders who visited the Ugashik community, or he may have commissioned the items from Kodiak artists. According to one historic source,

Fisher has quite a large collections of curios . . . hats, necklaces, bracelets and earrings of Nushagak and Ugashik [designs] which were made for him by Nikoforov's wife and daughter . . . these are quite pretty.
-Stafeev, 1881

The contemporary beaded pieces recreated for the Alutiiq Museum and displayed here were recreated by two talents contemporary artists.

 

Leona Haakanson Crow - Beader
Born and raised in the Alutiiq community of Old Harbor, Leona is an experienced beader, who learned the art from June Pardue. She has been beading for many years, making headdress for many special occasions and helping Alutiiq friends complete their regalia. She is also well known for her beaded spirit pouches - her unique handcrafted versions of the traditional protective necklaces worn by Alutiiq children. Leona shares her love of beading with others through her participating in Alutiiq week celebrations in Kodiak's rural schools. She created the beaded headdress for this project. She edicates this outstanding work to her parents, Sven and Mary Haakanson.

 

Susan Malutin - Skin Sewer
Born in Kodiak, Susan comes from an Alutiiq family with roots in Afognak and Chirikof Island villages. She started working with animal skins 19 years ago, when her husband Roger brought home a sea otter pelt. She successfully made a hat from the skin and her sewing career began. With few skin sewers left in the Kodiak area, Susan learned the art by talking to Elders who remembered watching their mothers and grandmother sew, studying historic pictures and texts, taking apart garments, consulting furriers, and making friends with skinw sewers across Alaska.

I hope to emphasize to students that though they may not continue the skin sewing tradition; I would hope they take the determination, pride and resourcefulness our ancestors used in producing such fine garments and apply these principles in their daily lives, which will be their part in continuing the pride of our Alutiiq culture.
-Susan Malutin

Susan is known both for her beautiful garments and for her teaching skills. She generously shares her knowledge of skin sewing as is regular participant in heritage festivals and spirit camps.

The Garments

THE GARMENTS

 

Nacaq - Headdress (AM460) Young Alutiiq women wore beaded headdresses for dancing. Headdresses were made of hundreds of glass beads strung on sinew. Strands of small beads were tied into a tight fitting cap with many dangling lengths attached to the sides and the back. These attachments often featured larger, heavier beads that swayed, glittered, and jingled as the wearer moved. Sometimes feathers colored with cranberry or blueberry juice were also attached. Similar headdresses were worn across southern Alaska by Yup'ik, Athapaskan and Tlingit people.

Naqugun - Woman's Dance Belt (AM488) Like beaded headdresses, belts were worn by women for dancing. In addition to illustrating the wealth and beauty of the wearer, such belts may have been thought to have healing powers, a use in keeping with the role of women as midwives and herbalists.

Beader Leona Haakanson Crow recreated this headdress using glass and bone beads, strips of leather and beading thread. Skin Sewer Susan Malutin manufactured this three and a half foot garment from brain-tanned caribou hide and artificial sinew. It is decorated with glass beads and brass riffle cartridges. The wide strips of undecorated leather are for tying the belt around the wearer's waist.

The Materials

THE MATERIALS

 

Traditional beaded garments, like those from the Fisher collection were made of three basic materials - strips of animal hides, sinew, thread and decorative beads.

Animal Skins Accumulating materials was the first step in manufacturing clothing. Alutiiq garments often contained a variety of hides harvested over many hunts. Alutiiq people tanned mammal skins with urine collected in large wooden tubs stationed outside their houses. Hides soaked in these tubs were cleansed by the ammonia in the urine, which broke down any remaining fat. Urine was also used to remove the hair from hides. Hides were soaked in urine and then rolled and left in a warm place to sit for several days until the hair could be easily scraped away.

Working with Sinew To make thread, a seamstress twisted sinew - bits of animal tendon - into strips with small wooden implements. Then, with her fingernails, she separated the strips into thin fibers, moistened them, rolled them between their palms, and wrapped the resulting thread around a wooden bobbin.

 

With a thimble made from a thick piece of hide, a sharply pointed bone awl and a slender needle, she began to sew. First, she used her awl to pierce a hole in her hide. Then she used a slender bird bone or ivory needle to pull a length of sinew thread through the hole. Some needles had tiny eyes. Others had a small knob for attaching the thread. Still others were unmodified. A sewer simply wrapped strands of sinew around these needles.
Seamstresses stored their tools in beautifully decorated bags or kakiwik.

Beads Before Western conquest, Alutiiqs manufactured beads from bone, slate, ivory, shell, coal, amber, clay and even halibut vertebrae. Glass beads became common during the early decades of Russian rule. Trading companies imported these beads from European factories in Prague and Venice. The beads used to recreate the garments displayed here are accurate replicas of historic specimens.

Learn More

LEARN MORE

To make your own garments click below to view instructions for sewing a simple Alutiiq style headdress or belt. Each set of instructions includes a list of the materials you will need. These materials are widely available at crafts stores.

• Children's Headdress Kit

• Children's Belt Kit

• Sewing Exhibit Brochure

Research Skin Sewing

INVESTIGATE ALUTIIQ SKIN SEWING

These publications have additional information on Alutiiq sewing techniques and sewn objects. They are available at the Alutiiq Museum or ask your librarian for assistancein finding a copy

Birket Smith, Kaj

1941 Early Collections from the Pacific Eskimo. Nationalmuseets Skrifter, Etnografisk Raekke 1:121-163. Copenhagen.

1953 Chugach Eskimo. Nationalmuseets Skrifter, Etnografisk Raekke 6. Copenhagen.

Crowell, Aron L., Amy F. Steffian & Gordon L. Pullar (editors)

2001 Looking Both Ways: Heritage and Identity of the Alutiiq People. University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks

Hunt, Dolores Cecelia

2000 The Ethnohistory of Alutiiq Clothing: Comparative Analysis of the Smithsonian's Fisher Collection. MA Thesis, San Francisco State University.

Krech, Shepard III

1989 A Victorian Earl in the Arctic. University of Washington Press, Seattle.

Merck, Carl Heinrich

1989 Siberia and Northwestern America 1788-1792. Edited by Richard A. Pierce. Limestone Press, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Varjola, Pirjo

1990 The Etholén Collection. National Museum of Finland, Helsinki.

 

Visit the Fisher Collection On Line

Items from the Fisher collection can be viewed on the following web sites by clicking on the links below.

• Looking Both Ways Exhibition Web Site
• Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Web Site - Alutiiq Dance page