Shoes Item Number: 1128/15 a-b from the MOA: University of British Columbia

Description

Ankle-high reindeer fur shoes (part a-b) with up-turned toes and multicoloured laces. The shoes are made of white fur with brown fur soles. The foot opening is edged with brown skin. The six loops on each tongue are also made with brown skin. Criss-crossed through the tongue loops is a long multicoloured string. The string is made up of red, yellow-green and blue strands. On the ends there are square tassels in red, yellow and green.

History Of Use

Woman's shoes. Shoes are normally made by women, and are worn without stockings or any inner covering for the foot. Dried grass (carex vesicaria), which is harvested and prepared for the purpose, is put inside the boot to cover the whole foot, in order to provide insulation and to keep the feet dry. An extra coil of grass is carried to replace the grass if it becomes damp.