One of the main uses of the hides is for winter clothing. The Windy
River residents have their garments made by Eskimo women of the upper
Kazan, whose tanning process leaves the fur intact. Early autumn hides,
with new, comparatively short fur, are the ones in demand. The season
for securing such hides is said to extend to mid-September. At that
season the larvae of the warble fly have not developed far enough to
have injured the hide appreciably. The long winter fur is much less
suitable for clothing. In moderately cold weather a single coat
(_attigi_), with the fur inside (fig. 16), is worn by the Eskimos. This
coat, when made for a man, extends very little farther downward at the
rear than at the front; but a woman’s coat is considerably longer at the
rear. The bottom is generally provided with a fringe consisting of small
strips of caribou skin, perhaps 4 inches long and 1/16 inch wide. In
mid-winter another coat, with the fur outside (fig. 15), is slipped on
over the other. Both are provided with hoods. Trousers, with the fur
outside, are cut rather short at the bottom; some such material as rope
is passed around the waist, without belt loops, to hold the trousers up.
Boots (_komik_) of tanned caribou skin (fig. 16), reaching nearly to the
knees, with the fur inside, make exceptionally warm footgear in winter.
An extra piece is sewed on the sole, with the fur outside, but the hairs
soon wear off. The seams are sewed with sinew. Another sort of boot, for
summer use, is made of untanned skin, without the fur, and is more or
less waterproof. Mittens (_pahloot_) have the fur outside; the thumb
piece, of a length suitable for a short Eskimo thumb, does not properly
fit a white man.
In the autumn of 1947 the migrating Caribou did not reach the territory
of the Chipewyans about the south end of Nueltin Lake till about
November 1--by which time the fur had grown so long that it was not
suitable for clothing. When I inquired of Charles Schweder how these
natives managed under such circumstances, he replied that nowadays they
use very little skin clothing--just manufactured clothing. Certainly the
latter type was being worn by three men of this tribe that visited the
Windy River post in late October. In this connection it is interesting
to note that in November Charles brought to Windy River a bundle of fawn
skins that he had secured from an Eskimo on the upper Kazan. Presently
he traded them to a Cree halfbreed from the Putahow River, who was to
have them made into a coat for himself. In years gone by the
above-mentioned Chipewyans must have found some means of securing
caribou skins for themselves in August or September; they could have
accomplished this by moving to the northern part of Nueltin Lake,
provided the animals had not reached the southern part at the proper
season.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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