From card: "Reindeer skin." Coat has two cloth-lined pockets in front.
Anthropology catalogue card and ledger book identify native name for this coat as "kuklanka." This is a misspelling for the Russian Siberian word for a heavy fur coat, kukhlanka. According to Dr.Zinaida Ivanova-Unarova (Arctic Institute of Culture and Arts, Yakutsk, Russia), the fur coat has none of the typical features of traditional Sakha, Evenk, or Even clothing and most closely resembles the Koryak garments from Russian Pacific coast. It is a man's winter working coat with a hood, in relatively good shape, made of doubled reindeer skins and commonly known under Russian Siberian name kukhlanka. It is also remarkably large (105 cm long) for a common Siberian Native man. Since a Koryak man's winter coat normally reaches slightly below a person's knee, it was obviously made for a tall man. An inscription in Roman letters is scratched on the inside of the fur collar (apron): "Lt. G.B. Harber USN." Coat appears to have been made for Giles Bates Harber's use.
Information on coat E153523 was mistakenly entered into the remarks on the catalogue card for E153533: "Yakut. Coat with hood; head of coat of reindeer head skin with ears remaining, with chin flap to protect the coat from runny nose during cold weather. Typical of Koryak and Yakut. Relatively modern.: Data provided 15 Dec. '82 by Dr. Ilja S. Gurvich, Head of Northern and Siberian Peoples Dept., Institute of Ethnography, U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences, Moscow. Recorded by Wm. C. Sturtevant."
Reference: Ivanova-Unarova, Zinaida, 2017. Siberian Collections in the U.S. Museums. Yakutsk. Object is identified there: Coat. Kuklanda. Sangyjakh. 1882 Reindeer hide, hide, sinew. Sewing, applique. L.: 105. A double fur coat with a hood. Combination of white and brown reindeer hide make the coat look festive. The style and character of sewing resemble a Koryak fur garment: the presence of a hood and an apron, loose wide cut, double-layer fur, an opuvan wide leather bar on the hem. Sewn in North Yakutia. There is a piece of leather on the lapel of a breast collar with an inscription that reads 'Lt. G.B. HarberUSN', explained by I.I. Krupnik to mean 'Lieutenant of the United States Navy Giles Bates Harber'.