A Special Gift: The Kutchin Beadwork Tradition

by Duncan, Kate C.

• ISBN13: 9780912006888
• ISBN10: 0912006889
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of Alaska Pr

Summary

Today as in the past Kutchin women use beads in evocative and beautiful patterns to ornament clothing for family and friends, and items to be sold. Beadwork is the form a woman will often choose when a most special gift is called for; the beaded object is love made visible. Among these subarctic Athapaskan people, beadwork today continues a tradition that has been important for well over a century. Both changes and continuities were evident in that tradition when, in 1982, Kate Duncan, an art historian, and Eunice Carney, a Kutchin elder and beadworker, visited Kutchin communities in Alaska and the Yukon Territory, carrying photographs of older beadwork now in museum collections and talking with people about the art. This new edition, with an expanded section of color plates and an updated introduction, brings back into print the product of their effort. The narrative traverses the history of Kutchin beadwork, beginning with early regional differences and work that exists now only in memory, extending to the last decades of the twentieth century. Beadworkers speak throughout. Eunice Carney has a section to herself, in which she talks about her life and shares patterns from her personal design tablet.

Table of Contents

LIST OF PLATES	vii	(1)
LIST OF FIGURES	viii	(3)
PUBLISHER'S NOTE	xi	(1)
FOREWORD TO THE 1997 EDITION	xii	(2)
INTRODUCTION TO THE 1997 EDITION	xiv	(5)
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (1988)	xix
PLATES	1	(14)
INTRODUCTION (1988)	15	(2)
I THE KUTCHIN PEOPLE	17	(4)
Literature	18	(3)
II BEADS AND THE KUTCHIN	21	(5)
Old Style Kutchin Garments	21	(4)
European Influence and Garments	25	(1)
III SEED BEADS AND FLORAL BEAD EMBROIDERY	26	(3)
Floral Beadwork and the Loucheux	26	(1)
Floral Embroidery Among the Western Kutchin	27	(2)
IV KUTCHIN BEADWORK STYLE AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY	29	(4)
Loucheux (Eastern Kutchin) Designs	29	(1)
Western Kutchin Design	30	(1)
Motifs and Motif Names	31	(2)
V BEADWORKING IN THE PAST AND TODAY	33	(13)
Teaching and Learning	33	(3)
Materials	36	(3)
Drawing Designs and Sewing Beads	39	(2)
Sewing	41	(1)
Lining and Finishing	41	(1)
Old Crow Knitting	41	(1)
Individual Preferences and Style	42	(3)
Sale of Beadwork	45	(1)
VI TRADITIONS OLD AND NEW	46	(31)
The English Style Hunting Shirt	46	(1)
Jackets	46	(1)
The "Tin" Hat	47	(3)
Tobacco Pouches	50	(1)
The Toboggan Bag	51	(1)
Shot Pouches	51	(1)
Babiche Bags	52	(1)
Dog Blankets	53	(1)
A Special Woman's Dress	54	(4)
Baby Belts	58	(6)
Footwear	64	(4)
Mittens and Gloves	68	(2)
Special Gifts for the Church	70	(4)
Fashion and Fancy	74	(3)
VII ONE BEADWORKER'S EXPERIENCE: EUNICE CARNEY--REMINISCENCES	77	(7)
My Background	77	(1)
My Mother and Old Ways of Sewing	78	(2)
Tanning Hides	80	(1)
Beadwork	80	(1)
Our Trip	81	(3)
AFTERWORD: A MEMORIAL	84	(2)
EUNICE CARNEY
APPENDICES	86	(9)
I. Beadwork Designs From Eunice Carney's Design Tablet	86	(5)
II. To Make a Pair of Moccasins	91	(2)
III. Kutchin People Interviewed	93	(2)
REFERENCES	95	(4)
INDEX	99