Alaska Native Collections – Sharing Knowledge

2001

Frances Charles: Ivġusiik.

(Water boots/waterproof boots.)

Oscar Koutchak: My grandpa used to wear these. And I’ve seen her [Theresa Nanouk] grandpa use this kind.

Anna Etageak: They call those water boots.

Theresa Nanouk: Waterproof boots. They sew these things with binding something, so they won’t leak.

Oscar Koutchak: Yes, tuŋniq [strip of skin].(1)

Theresa Nanouk: Naaga tarra ilaaqsimagaa tarruna suli [she even patched it through there], nice. And they had good stitching.

Aron Crowell: And what kind of skin?

Theresa Nanouk: Sealskin, huh?

Oscar Koutchak: Yes, sealskin without the fur.

Art Ivanoff: What were they used for?

Oscar Koutchak: Water boots.

Aron Crowell: So for going duck hunting or something?

Theresa Nanouk: Yes, duck hunting.

[From discussion with Frances Charles, Anna Etageak, Art Ivanoff (Native Village of Unalakleet), Oscar Koutchak, Theresa Nanouk and Branson Tungiyan (Kawerak, Inc.) at the National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of the American Indian, 5/07/2001-5/11/2001. Also participating: Aron Crowell, Bill Fitzhugh and Stephen Loring (NMNH) and Suzi Jones (AMHA).]

1. According to Frances Charles, tuŋniq [strip of skin] is a narrow strip of skin about a half inch wide was used like bias tape [seam binding] on the seams of a boot sole [mukluks, waterproof boots, etc.] and boot upper [for waterproof boot] to make the seam waterproof.

Waterproof boots were designed for wet ground, rainy summer weather, and boating. Some were short, while others (like this pair) reached the knee.(1) Some were hip-length to wear in deeper water while hunting or fishing.(2) “Black” seal skin, often used for the upper parts of waterproof boots (including this pair), was tanned so as not to remove the epidermis and natural oils, leaving the skin dark and water-repellant.(3)

Thornton, who lived in Wales from 1890 to 1893, compared Iñupiaq waterproof summer boots to rubber boots and found the Native-made ones superior: “They do not weigh one-tenth so much and do not produce that uncomfortable perspiration of the feet that is the great drawback to the use of rubber footwear. Besides, sealskin is much less easily torn or broken than rubber.”(4)

1. Michael 1967:110; Murdoch 1892:111, 128, 130, 134, 135; Nelson 1899:42: Oquilluk 1973:239; Ray 1966:40; Simpson 1875:243; Thornton 1931:18, 32

2. Nelson 1899:42

3. Murdoch 1892:110-111, 130; Ray 1966:39, 108

4. Thornton 1931:18