The Gwich’in Traditional Caribou Skin Clothing Project: Repatriating Traditional Knowledge and Skills

• Main Authors: Ingrid Kritsch, Karen Wright-fraser
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Inuvik; Northwest Territories; Yukon; Arctic; Gwich’in; Mackenzie Basin; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.534.278; http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic55-2-205.pdf

I believe it is very important that the Gwich’in people, especially the younger children, see how the Gwich’in used to wear clothes a long time ago and also realize all the work involved in completing an outfit. Hopefully this would make them proud of who they are as Gwich’in. I would very much like to be able to help out with this very worthy project. I have many years of experience in sewing with beads, [on items] such as baby belts, slippers, barrettes, change purses, [and] handbags, and beading on a loom. I have been sewing for the past 40 years for my family, making mukluks, parkas, and mitts. I also do embroidery work. I am able to commit to this project for four months and also look forward to the quillwork [part of the] project. (Lillian Wright, Inuvik, 8 November 2000) T HE GWICH’IN are the most northerly of theAthapaskan peoples occupying parts of the YukonRiver drainage in Alaska and the Yukon Territory, and the northern Mackenzie Basin of the Northwest Terri-tories. The project described here was sponsored by the Gwich’in who reside in the Northwest Territories. Traditionally their lands extended from the interior of the Yukon into the Mackenzie Basin and included the