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Image

Native North American Innu

Hunter's Coat, late 1800s

Description

Maker

  • Unknown

Culture

Native North American

Title

Hunter's Coat

Year

late 1800s

Medium

Caribou hide with paint; mended

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • pigment,
  • caribou skin

Dimensions

97.8 cm (38 1/2 inches) (length)

Type

  • Fashion,
  • Costume

Credit

Museum Works of Art Fund

Object Number

44.593

Collection

From the Heye Foundation

Projects & Publications

Publications

A World of Costume and Textiles

A Handbook of the Collection

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Repair and Design Futures

October 5, 2018 - June 30, 2019

The Innu (Naskapi) shirt, replete with subtle mends, was painted by a female artist in collaboration with a hunter engaged in the holy task of pursuing caribou. The coat’s designs, reflecting the hunter’s dreams, symbolize reciprocity between humans and animals. The silhouettes of both the coat and the Eastern Dakota child’s jacket reflect how European presence was integrated and remixed to create new indigenous expressions. [See also 1988.112.10]

Form, Pattern, and Function

December 4, 1992 - January 24, 1993

Naskapi hunters have worn painted coats since at least the 17th century, when they were first recorded by Champlain. The coat, made and painted for a hunter by his wife according to designs that he had dreamed would give him power during the hunt, was symbolic of the deep dependence of the hunters of the North on the caribou and of a desire to treat the caribou well so that good hunts might continue. Like all of the extant coats, this one echoes the shape of European fashion of its date, but the triangular gusset in the back represents the Magic Mountain where the Lord of the caribou lived and whence he sent forth the caribou to be caught by the hunter, and is the source of the coat's power. The coat was collected by the famous ethnologist Frank G. Speck.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Hunter's Coat with the accession number of 44.593. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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