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Historic Arctic clothing…

“Father Delande advised me to buy my skins here in Coppermine, for caribou had been rare on King William Land and I might find I had no wardrobe when I reached Gjoa Haven. He sent for Krilamik, the best seamstress in the village, and told her what was wanted.

Limping, grinning, smoking cigarette upon cigarette, the old Eskimo woman walked with me to the Store. There are few sights more engaging than a craftsman practicing his craft, displaying his professional resource upon wood, or marble–or hides. Krilamik bowed over the piles of hides inspired confidence. Half the skins were rejected at a glance, not even touched. Here was one her eye judged possible, but when she rubbed it between her fingers, hefted it in one hand, turned it over to peer at the nether side, it was discarded. One by one, she went over the whole stock, and after two hours a good-sized pile had been set aside. Out of this pile a second selection was made; and finally she straightened up, waved a careless hand to indicate that she had made her choice, and we counted the lot.

There were seventeen full hides, three white bellies, and thirty legs, all of caribou. In addition, one big sealskin for boots, a moose-skin, and, for trimming, a wolverine skin.

My sleeping-bag and other odd pieces would be made for me at Gjoa Haven.

We bought also a packet of caribou sinew that looked to me like a dead flounder and was a common article of stock in the Hudson’s Bay posts. From my flounder, Krilamik would draw out nerves, one by one, and, twisting them with her teeth, would make the strongest possible kind of thread.

All this was carried off to her tent; and without a word to me about measurement she proceeded with her sewing. Not to have been measured for my clothes worried me, and I spoke of it to Father Delande. He laughed and said I need not fret. “She’s had a good look at you. Eskimo seamstresses never go wrong. As tailors, they beat even the Chinese.””

Gontran De Poncins

French aristocrat Gontran De Poncins (1900-1962) was an early 20th century adventurer who went to live among the Inuit for a time. He reached the Arctic in the spring of 1938 seeking the most primitive band of Inuit he could find. He traveled to King William Land but found the natives there “tainted” by proximity to Western trade and influence. He pressed on to more remote interior coastal areas where he found small bands still keeping their distance from Western influence while, at the same time, depending on the fur trade, particularly Arctic fox, for tea by the case and the metal pots to steep it in. Metal implements, particularly harpoon points, knives and other hardware that made life easier were already essentials found in the most remote regions but so too were original native tools collected by De Poncins.

DePoncins wrote the book, “Kabloona” in collaboration with Lewis Galantiere published in 1941 by Reynal & Hitchcock, Inc., New York. The section quoted above is found at pages 14 and 15 of my First Edition.