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The Preparation of Skins and Clothing in the Eastern Canadian Arctic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

T. H.  and
E. W. Manning
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Extract

During the eight years I spent in the Arctic, I have experimented with a variety of clothing, but in neither winter nor summer have I found any more suitable than that worn by the present-day Eskimos in districts where caribou are still plentiful. From 1938 to 1941 we prepared all our own skins, and my wife made all the skin clothing excepting the seal-skin boots. The descriptions are primarily intended to give practical information on clothing to travellers in Arctic regions. For this reason we have made no attempt to discuss women's clothing. My wife adopted men's clothing because of its superior convenience, and because it requires less material. Women's clothing is made with a view both of being different from the men's and of accommodating the baby, always carried on the back. Except as otherwise indicated, both the clothing and the methods of preparation here described are those of the Eskimos of Baffin Island, Melville Peninsula, Southampton Island, and the coastal region from Repulse Bay to Chesterfield Inlet; and where mention is made of “the Eskimos”, the reference is to those of these regions only.

Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 4 , Issue 28 , July 1944 , pp. 156 - 169
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1944

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References

page 159 note 1 T. H. Manning. Some Notes on Southampton Island. Geog. Journ., Vol. 88, 1936, pp. 232–42.Google Scholar

page 160 note 1 We are uncertain of the origin of this word. It is commonly used by white residents in the Eastern Canadian Arctic for a duffle or other heavy cloth garment with a hood and without any front opening. Similar garments of seal skin may be called "dickies", but those of caribou skin are usually referred to by their Eskimo names atigi and kulituk. The light, windproof covering often worn over the dicky is known as an outer dicky, a dicky cover, or by the Eskimo term silapuk. The Eskimo word for dicky is yupa.

page 162 note 1 This is a flat piece of any kind of skin sewn on to the outside of the boot bottom as an additional sole. One piece of skin may be used to cover the whole sole, but with seal skin it is more often sewn on in two pieces, the division coming at the instep.

page 167 note 1 Braid must be sewn along all edges of caribou-skin garments to prevent their rolling up and stretching. Sinew or thread will to some extent serve the same purpose.