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Parkas are part of a living tradition in southwest Alaska. Some are ornamented with tassels, beads, and elaborate stitching; others are simpler fur or birdskin garments. Although fewer fancy parkas are sewn today, many people still wear those made for them by their mothers and other relatives. \"Parka-making\" conversations touch on every aspect of Yup'ik life-child rearing, marriage partnerships, ceremonies and masked dances, traditional oral instructions, and much more. In The Flying Parka , more than fifty Yup'ik men and women share sewing techniques and \"parka stories,\" speaking about the significance of different styles, the details of family designs, and the variety of materials used in creating these functional and culturally important garments. Based on nearly two decades of conversations with Yup'ik sewing groups and visits to the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Museum of Natural History, this volume documents the social importance of parkas, the intricacies of their construction, and their exceptional beauty. It features over 170 historical and contemporary images, full bilingual versions of six parka stories, and a glossary in Yup'ik and English.

A unique collaboration celebrating the importance of parkas in Yup'ik material cultureParkas are part of a living tradition in southwest Alaska. Some are ornamented with tassels, beads, and elaborate stitching; others are simpler fur or birdskin garments. Although fewer fancy parkas are sewn today, many people still wear those made for them by their mothers and other relatives.\"Parka-making\" conversations touch on every aspect of Yup'ik life-child rearing, marriage partnerships, ceremonies and masked dances, traditional oral instructions, and much more. In The Flying Parka, more than fifty Yup'ik men and women share sewing techniques and \"parka stories,\" speaking about the significance of different styles, the details of family designs, and the variety of materials used in creating these functional and culturally important garments. Based on nearly two decades of conversations with Yup'ik sewing groups and visits to the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Museum of Natural History, this volume documents the social importance of parkas, the intricacies of their construction, and their exceptional beauty. It features over 170 historical and contemporary images, full bilingual versions of six parka stories, and a glossary in Yup'ik and English.

This paper presents a low-cost conservation project from the Polar Museum, Cambridge, in which two Inuit gut parkas from the museum's collection were prepared for display and analysed to identify their material components. The project relied on cultivating professional networks and adapting inexpensive mounting methods to get maximum value from a very small budget. The parkas were analysed with a range of techniques including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX), attenuated reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and a novel low-cost and non-destructive protein analysis technique to identify species. The results of the analysis are presented along with an explanation of the inexpensive mounting system which was devised to display the parkas as they were originally worn. The advantages and limitations of using a networking approach to analysis are also discussed.Keywords: object conservation, sustainability, mount, gut parka, Inuit, protein analysis, network

Materials are presented on the hibernation of three species of squirrel with a body temperature below zero at relatively low temperatures of the environment (down to −10 to −12°C). DS-1922 L temperature loggers were implanted in the body cavity of parka squirrels, long-tailed ground squirrels, and black-capped marmots before the period of hibernation, in August. After the implantation, the temperature loggers were kept in the body cavity of the animals during their winter hibernation and removed at the end of April. During the period of hypothermia, a body temperature below zero was recorded: in parka squirrels it was observed during 5 months, the minimum temperature was −2°C; in long-tailed ground squirrels it was observed during 6 months and the minimum temperature was −2°C; and in black-capped marmots it was observed during 4 months and the minimum temperature was −1°C.

Zooarchaeological data from sites 49-KTZ-299 and 49-KTZ-300 at Deering, Alaska, and ethnographic and oral historical information from Inupiat, Yupiit, Inuit, and other northern Indigenous communities are brought together to examine Ipiutak and Western Thule reliance on birds. Cut-mark, elemental-representation, and aging data from bird bones suggest that Ipiutak and Western Thule living at Deering between ca. AD 700 and 1200 utilized birds not only as food, but also as raw materials for making needles and sewing garments. Bird-skin clothing manufacture is a gendered and spiritually charged activity for northern Indigenous peoples, and the antiquity of these associations is explored. Although circumpolar bird subsistence encompasses intertwining economic, sociocultural, spiritual, and symbolic components, the dynamism and multidimensionality of these practices have been underrecognized in academic discourse on subsistence.