Glossary


 

Aged skin
A skin, usually seal or caribou, from which the hair and epidermis have been removed by rotting or ageing in water or fat.
Alder barked skin
A skin, usually seal or caribou, which has been dyed a dark red with alder bark.
Ahiarmuit
A group of Caribou Inuit who occupied the southwestern area of the Keewatin.
Aivilingmiut
A southern group of Iglulik Inuit who occupied the northwestern Hudson Bay area.
Amauti
A women's parka with a pouch on the back to hold a baby, a style made in the eastern and central Canadian Arctic.
Ankle straps
Leather or cloth straps sewn to a mukluk, to tie around the ankle to secure the mukluk to the wearer's foot.
Applique
A cutout decoration fastened to a larger piece of material.

Apron
An oval- or shield-shaped section on the forepart of the upper (Webber 1989).
Arctic boots
Kamiks with either a hard or soft pleated sole (Webber 1989).
Arctic snow boots
Kamiks with either a soft vamp or a flat sole (Webber 1989).
Bleached skin
A depilated skin that has been frozen and bleached white by the sun and the driven snow; sometimes referred to as "freeze dried skin."
Blubber
The fat of seals, whales, and walrus.

Boot leg
The part of the kamik that extends above the ankle (Webber 1989). Referred to in this text as the leg section.
Boot stretcher
A simple upright post or board used to stretch and soften dried kamiks.
Bottom
The under-part of a shoe consisting of one or more of the following sections: sole, insole, welt, heel, and other parts (Webber 1989). Referred to in this text as the sole.


Bottom unit
A single piece of material that covers the bottom and upturned side of the foot (Webber 1989). Referred to in this text as the sole.
Bow drill
An Eskimoan hand-held drill consisting of three parts: a drill shaft with a metal or stone point; a wooden or bone bow with a bow string; and a bone, wood, or ivory socket that is held between the user's teeth.
Bunting bag
An outer bag-shaped garment worn by babies. It is made without legs and sometimes without arms.
Casing
A layer of material folded in half and stitched to the top of the leg section of kamik. A drawstring is usually threaded through the casing.
Collar
A band of material sewn to the top of a boot and folded over.
Crow boot
A style of mukluk with a beaded or embroidered vamp. named after the Gwich'in community of Old Crow in the Yukon, worn in the western Canadian Arctic.
Delta trim
A decorative geometric trim, made from small pieces of coloured bias tape or skin, often used on parkas in the western Canadian Arctic. Named after the Mackenzie Delta.
Dene
A group of Indian peoples who inhabit the boreal forests and the forest tundra of the Northwest Territories, as well as parts of the Yukon and Alaska.
Depilated skin
A skin which from the hair or fur has been removed, usually by means of a shaving or ageing process.
Dermis
The sensitive, vascularized inner layer of the skin.

Diffused pleats
Pleats made so that the folded portion of each pleat seems to flatten and disappear.
Double-bun chignon
A women's hair style with a double knot of hair worn at the back of the head.
Duffle
A loosely woven wool blanket-like material, or stockings made from this material.
Epidermis
The outer, non-sensitive and nonvascular layer of the skin.
Eskimoan people
A collective term used to refer to the Inuit of Canada; the Inuhuit and Greenlanders of Greenland; the Yuit, Inupiat and Aleut of Alaska; and the Siberian Yuit of Alaska and Russia
Fascia
A sheet of connective tissue that lies between the dermis and the muscles.
Flat-felled seam
Adouble-stitched seam that has no raw edges and lies flat.
Flat sole
A skin boot sole that is sewn to a side strip or vamp without the use of pleats.
Forbs
Small, flowering, herbaceous plants.

Gwich'in
The northernmost group of Dene who are the closest neighbours to the Inuvialuit.
Haired skin
A seal skin with the hair intact.
Handspan
One hand span equals the distance between the thumb-tip (first digit) and the tip of the outstretched middle finger (third digit), a common unit of measurement employed by Inuit seamstresses in the eastern Canadian Arctic.
Igloo
The Inuktitut word for house; however, often in English and in this text, it refers only to the Inuit snow house.
Iglulingmiut
The name used by Inuit from Igloolik to refer to themselves.
Inner slipper
A slipper that is worn inside a kamik for added insulation.
Inuhuit
Eskimoan peoples inhabiting the eastern and central Canadian Arctic.
Inuktitut
The language spoken by the Inuit.
Inupiat
Eskimoan people inhabiting northern and northwestern Alaska.
Inuvialuit
Eskimoan people inhabiting the western Canadian Arctic.

Kablunangajuit
A term referring to the Labrador Settlers, individuals of European and Inuit descent.
Kamik
An Inuktitut word from the central and eastern Canadian Arctic meaning boot. Also the brand name of a type of commercially manufactured boot. Kamiik means one pair of boots. Kamiit means many boots. In this book, the English plural form, kamiks, is used.
Labret
An ivory or bone ornament worn in a perforation of the lip.
Leg section
The upper portion of a kamik which wraps around the leg.
Leg skin boots
Boots made from the skins of an animal's legs, usually caribou, dog, or wolf.
Loggan boots
Brand name of commercially manufactured boots with a rubber bottom and leather leg section.
Miqquligiak
An Inuktitut term used in the southern Baffin region for haired seal skin boots.
Miqquliik
An Inuktitut term used in the southern Baffin region for caribou leg skin boots.
Moccasin
Footwear in which the soft sole and the upper or part of upper are continuous (Webber 1989).
Mother Hubbard
A style of women's parka with a long hemline, often worn in the western Canadian Arctic.
Mukluk
An Inuktitut term from the western Arctic meaning boot, but also used by twentieth-century North American Indians.
Muktak
The skin of a whale with some of the underlying blubber attached.
Nuluak
An Inuktitut term used in the southern Baffin region to refer to delipated seal skin boots.
Nunavut
The Inuit land claim region of the eastern and central Canadian Arctic.
Outer boots
Shin-high skin boots worn over kamiks for additional insulation.

Overcast stitch
A slanting stitch used around cut edges or open parts.
Paallirmiut
The tern used by coastal Caribou Inuit in the southern portion of the Keewatin District to refer to themselves.
Qulittaq
An Inuktitut term for a man's caribou skin parka.
Radius
The anterior, thicker and shorter bone of the forearm of a mammal or bird.
Sanirarmiut
A term used to refer to Inuit inhabiting northern Baffin Island.
Scraper
A hand-held tool with either a sharp or a dull edge, used for different steps in skin preparation.
Scraping platform
A smooth surfaced platform, often made of wood, on which skins are scraped.
Seam allowance
The width of material beyond the seam line, not including the garment material.
Shaved skin
A seal skin on which the hair, but not the black epidermis, has been shaved off with an ulu.
Side strip
A piece of delipated skin sewn between the sole and vamp of a kamik.
Sinew
Dried animal tendons used as sewing thread.
Skin stretching frame
A rectangular frame made of wooden poles or boards lashed or nailed together. A skin that has been scraped free of fat and fascia is lashed and stretched on a frame until it dries.
Smoked skin
A delipated skin, often caribou, moose, or seal, which has been cured by smoking.
Sole
Referred to as part of the bottom or bottom unit (Webber 1989).
Stroud
A coarse, tightly woven woolen cloth.
Tibia
The larger of the two bones of the vertebrate hind limb between the femur and tarsus.
Topstitching
A line of sewing done with small, even, short passes of the needle through two pieces of material to join them together.
Ulna
The inner of the two bones of the forelimb of a mammal or bird.
Ulu
A crescent-shaped knife used by women throughout the Eskimoan range.
Umiak
A large Eskimoan boat with a wooden frame, usually covered with walrus or bearded seals skins.
Upper
The part that includes the apron (vamp), the boot leg (leg section), and the upper part of the bottom unit (sole) (Webber 1989).
Vamp
The front section of a shoe upper.
Waders
Tall waterproof boots that extend up to the thigh or chest.
Waterproof stitch
A type of flat felled seam; the two rows of parallel stitches pass only partly through the material, making the seam waterproof.
Yuit
Eskimoan people inhabiting western and southwestern Alaska.