МАЭ № 2520-14

Woven hat

Chugach

first half of 19th century

spruce root, paint, leather, cotton thread

height 14 cm, diameter of the brim 41 cm, diameter of the crown 11.2 cm

The ornamentation on this and the following hat demonstrate the strong influence of Tlingit art. On the front part of the crown there is a painting of the head of a shark with its tail drawn on the other side of the hat and on the brim. A drawing of the head of a shark is a common theme in Tlingit articles. On the other hand the blue background of the brim and the red trim on the edge of the hat are characteristic traits of Alutiiq articles. This very same shade of blue was used to paint the hats of hunters in model kayaks at the Hood Museum of Art of Dartmouth College in Hanover (Thin ice 2007: 27) and in the collection of the National Museum of Finland in Helsinki (Varjola, Averkieva, Liapunova 1990: 244). This hat was published in the Museum’s Tlingit Catalog (Tlingit 2007: 97) as an article whose ethnic attribution is subject to debate.

Ethnography of America