Notes

Source of the information below: Inuvialuit Pitqusiit Inuuniarutait: Inuvialuit Living History, The MacFarlane Collection website, by the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre (ICRC), Inuvik, N.W.T., Canada (website credits here http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/posts/12 ), entry on this artifact http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/items/22 , retrieved 1-28-2020: Needle case, strap and belt hook. The needle case is a hollow ivory tube with eight split beads embedded in shallow drilled holes and cemented in place. The beads are a small, opaque blue variety. One end of a hide strap passes through the needle case and is attached with a wrapping of sinew to a cap that seals that end of the needle case when the strap is drawn tight. The cap has a split blue bead embedded in it. Attached to the strap is a small length of sinew with three small white beads attached. The other end of the strap is doubled back on itself and knotted to form a loop, and attached to an ivory implement of a type that has variously been identified as a belt hook or holder for skin thimbles. This object is a flattened piece of ivory with a hole at one end where it attaches to the strap. A curved slit runs from one side almost to the other end, and terminates at a drilled hole, probably to prevent it from splitting. More information here: http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/item_types/42: Sewing needles were kept in a tube-like case with a skin strap running through the centre. The needles were stuck into the strap, and then pulled into the case. Hooks for fastening the case to a belt, or holders for thimbles made from skin, were often attached to one end of the leather straps.