Materials
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Use
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Making
2010
Materials
Karen Evanoff: It was trimmed with fur, now all the fur is gone and so on the hat and collar and the cuffs.
Aaron Leggett: It is probably from 1880 -90s . . . I have seen items from 1870-1880s and they were still using quills and beads, a measure of both but —
Gladys Evanoff: This is all beads.
Aaron Leggett: This is all beads, not one quill on here.
Gladys Evanoff: So it must have been later in years.
Aaron Leggett: Yeah . . . this is the style that replaced the quill work and the quill wrapping . . . It is clearly in some ways replicating the designs the used in quill work we have examples of, you know.
Gladys Evanoff: They probably used beads because it is easier to work with
Aaron Leggett: Yeah, much easier I’m sure.
Roy Mitchell: I think I’ve seen that same pattern in quill . . .
Aaron Leggett: So, the other thing that is interesting is that there is no ochre on it, most of the ones I’ve ever seen have some ochre on it . . . there is a little bit on the boot [at the top and the ankle], but not much . . .
Helen Dick: Could be where they mark the beads.
Aaron Leggett: Yeah, it could be that . . . they could have put the ochre on first and added the beads later. . .
Roy Mitchell: These particular colors then?
Gladys Evanoff: Are for Tulchina clan, Tulchina is water clan . . .
Roy Mitchell: So blue and white.
Gladys Evanoff: Blue, white, yeah . . . I have never seen something like this. . . they used to make clothing but they used a lot of qunsha [ground squirrel].
Aaron Leggett: Yeah.
Gladys Evanoff: They made a lot of things from qunsha [ground squirrel], mountain squirrels . . . parka and everything out of qunsha [ground squirrel], key is that it is easier to sew and they are tougher than rabbit fur or anything like that.
Use
Gladys Evanoff: Beautiful, a lot of work though. Ceremonial dress, wedding dress maybe, who knows.
Aron Crowell: So it is more difficult to talk about this because it’s been so long since it —
Gladys Evanoff: We don’t know how it was worn, but I’m pretty sure that’s all it’s been worn for, like for ceremonial or wedding dress or something like that maybe.
Helen Dick: Yeah.
Gladys Evanoff: A long time before our time.
Aaron Leggett: There are no picture as far as I know of Dena’ina people in this kind of clothes . . .
Gladys Evanoff: This must have been women’s shoes for ceremony . . .
Helen Dick: Yeah [overlapped by other speaker] you can’t walk around in woods with that.
Gladys Evanoff: Even the gloves are for dancing, ceremony.
Roy Mitchell: They do match the dress.
Gladys Evanoff: Yeah.
Roy Mitchell: For men it was more pointed, I think.
Gladys Evanoff: Yeah, it was like this [connecting tips of her hands, forming a triangle] at the bottom . . . It was only rich people who had money to do that, would wear something like that . . .
Roy Mitchell: Is that because of the number of beads?
Gladys Evanoff: Yeah, they had to trade stuff for beads, you know. A long time ago they didn’t buy it they traded it with, I don’t know where they came from, but they traded it for beads, to get beads to do this,
Helen Dick: Probably Russian, Russians trade lots of stuff.
Gladys Evanoff: They had to, I guess.
Karen Evanoff: So rich people was not just by money.
Gladys Evanoff: No, they were wealthy.
Karen Evanoff: It was about leadership.
Helen Dick: Yeah.
Karen Evanoff: Also material things not just money . . .
Aron Crowell: Would a woman have carried a knife in the sheath?
Gladys Evanoff: I think that’s a man’s sheath, I don’t think women — did women have that kind?
Helen Dick: They probably did, everybody carried.
Gladys Evanoff: Everybody had it.
Making
Aron Crowell: Can you tell us how they used to prepare the skins?
Gladys Evanoff: They’d tan them, but they don’t even smoke tan them they air — dry cold air winter time is when they tan their skins. Like, so caribou is the easiest skin to tan, you clean the fur off and then treat it inside and then just — because caribou skin is thinner than moose — and then they cold dry it in the cold air and it will be soft like that without even putting smoke on it, it’s how they used to do it .
. . .
Aaron Leggett: the other thing that is interesting is looking at the older ones as well as this one they — this is a separate piece [the bead decoration on the shoulders and chest].
Gladys Evanoff: Yeah, it’s just sewn on the upper part.
Aaron Leggett: Yeah, so the idea was that you could, especially a long time ago with quills you wore the dress or tunic out just take that off [the upper decoration] cut along the bottom and you can re-attach it.
Karen Evanoff: Just stitched at the top?
Gladys Evanoff: Yeah . . . and they put those beads on a cloth though, do you see how those beads are hanging on there, it’s on a cloth see, skin.
Aaron Leggett: It’s skin, yeah.
Helen Dick: Skin.
Gladys Evanoff: Skin, then tack it on to skin and sew it onto the dahmak [skirt, dress, frilled dress].
Aaron Leggett: But, it follows through from quill work, when they did this, this piece is always a separate piece [bead ornament on top] . . . This piece doesn’t have that, but a lot of times they use chix [ochre paint] they put it across to kind of cover up the seams so you wouldn’t see it.
Aron Crowell: Is that the red ochre?
Aaron Leggett: Yeah this one doesn’t look like it has any, but the boots do.