Fish Skin Bag
kellarvik “storage bag or container,” qemaggvik “storage bag or container”
26.5cm long x 11cm wide in diameter (in current state)
Processed fish skins, dyed and undyed caribou leather, sinew, post-contact materials
Lower Yukon, Alaska (Yup’ik), c. 1879
Collector: E. W. Nelson
Museum ID number: NEL.C1.dfqx.0177
Fish skin bags like this one were probably made from the skin of the Broad Whitefish (a species whose health is now being affected by warming waters in the Arctic region) and used for storing and carrying various items. When properly prepared, fish skins were durable and waterproof, making them very useful: the average person carried one with them at all times. The bag’s maker used dyed and undyed strips of caribou leather to create a decorative striped pattern. The stitching around the opening was created with sinew while the lower stitching in the decoration was created with what appears to be post-contact materials. The contrast could have been used to make the bag more special or unique and to diversify the decoration.