• top frame 
  • Hard soled boots with a stroud leg section and Delta trim, made about 1930. Canvas is often combined with seal skin soles to produce kamiks for everyday wear.
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Furred caribou boots with white bleached depilated sealskin top band. The top band has decorative cut outs, and the sole is hard and preformed.
Mabel Nigiyok, Holman, 1987
BSM P87.118

Copper Inuit

Copper Inuit: Alaskan Influences

I use soles that are pleated before I sew them to the rest of the kamik. Mabel Nigiyok, Holman, 1987

One of the most notable features of Copper Inuit boots is the stiff, boat like, pleated and preformed soles. It is said that Kemnek, the Alaskan Inupiat wife of a whaler and trader introduced this Alaskan mukluk style to the Copper Inuit at the turn of the century.

These soles, made from seal skin, are moistened before pleating to make the skin soft and pliable. Pleating is usually done by pinching it between the teeth. Once the sole is pleated the seamstress attaches it to the rest of the boot.

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