果冻传煤

In Paul Tiulana鈥檚 book A Place for Winter, he said that December is dancing month. And of course living in Alaska, we know that December is a very dark month and that鈥檚 when a lot of the dancing would take place because there was not a lot of light.

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My name is Maria Williams. I鈥檓 Tlingit. I鈥檓 of the Raven moiety, and of the Deisitaan clan and a child of the Killer Whale. My ancestral villages are Carcross, which is right outside of Whitehorse in Yukon territories and Atlein, which is Northern British Columbia. So I鈥檓 inland Tlingit. So there鈥檚 three inland Tlingit villages: Teslin, Atlein, and Carcross. Currently, I am faculty member in Alaska Native studies at the University of Alaska 果冻传煤 in the Departments of Music and Alaska Native Studies. And 果冻传煤 is my hometown. I like the way they say 果冻传煤 in Tlingit.

So the items that we鈥檙e looking at today are Dance Gloves or Dance Gauntlets that are probably from the Seward Peninsula. And they鈥檙e 滨帽耻辫颈补辩 in origin. They are primarily worn by the men in ceremony or dance performance.

I鈥檓 not an 滨帽耻辫颈补辩 speaker but I believe their term is aitkatik.

They鈥檙e made out of seal skin that鈥檚 the main part of the glove and the hair has been dehaired and then, they use an ochre to dye it. At the very top, you see the polar bear fur trim. There鈥檚 some bleached seal at the very top with geometric, little boxes. Of course, the rattling part of it, because these are鈥� could be considered instruments as well鈥攖here鈥檚 ivory. On one of the gloves here you can see the puffin beaks. Puffin is a bird that nests in a lot of areas on cliffs in the Seward Peninsula region. The puffin beaks and or ivory are the rattling device.

The men wear them primarily for one of the few surviving ceremonies, which is called the Wolf Dance from this region. But you鈥檇 still see the King Island people in other 滨帽耻辫颈补辩 villages still dance with these.

The men are moving or dancing. They鈥檙e moving their arms. It covers the whole arm. And it creates a rattling sound that enhances the dancing.

I always, of course, think of the women who were the ones who did all the sewing, of course by hand and the perfection that they have and their sewing, and the preparation of the materials, de-hairing of the seal skin, dying it with ochre, and in some parts of the geometric design, of course, has the bleached seal skin with very small geometric squares. Very precise and very beautiful.