From card: "Very fine. Loan: Crossroads Sep 22 1988. Loan returned: Jan 21, .1993. Illus.: Crossroads of Continents catalogue; Fig. 433, p. 305. Illus.: Fig. 8.23, p. 146 in Northern Athapaskan Art, by Kate Duncan, Univ. of Washington Press, 1989." Crossroads caption identifies as "Beaded shirt, Ingalik. By the mid-19th century quill-embroidered geometric designs on Athapaskan buckskin clothing were being replaced by beaded designs, and European cuts were becoming popular. Both fringes, a native tradition also prevalent among Siberian groups, and the use of decorated panels were carried over into the newer styles. The floral design of tendrils, leaves and flowers, derived ultimately from European folk patterns via eastern North America, reached Alaska through a chain of Indian-White and native trade contacts spanning the North American subarctic." Northern Athapaskan Art by Kate Duncan on p. 145 identifies this Yukon River object as of the type modeled on an English hunting shirt. "The English-style hunting shirts in collections are cut with straight set-in sleeves gathered slightly into a cuff, shoulder epaulets, a narrow standing collar above a half-oval bib, and a straight hem." Figure 8.23 caption on p. 146 notes also: "Beadwork on hide is unusual for the hunting shirt. Lightly smoked hide, seed beads (blue, white, lavender) on unsmoked hide."
Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=239, retrieved 8-23-2012: Shirt, Koyukon Athabascan.
