Armor Set

Name and ID#: Armor Set, 1980-0586

Donor: Dennis Corrington

Region: Kukulik, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, Arctic North America

Culture: St. Lawrence Island Yupik

Description: 5 pcs. as found. L 27-11.5 cm; W 3.3-1.5 cm; T .5-.7 cm. Bound together by fishing line.

The Bone Armor was found at an archeological excavation site named the Kukulik Site located on St. Lawrence Island. From 1934 to 1935, German-American archeologist Otto W. Geist, adopted into a Yupik clan on St. Lawrence Island in 1927, led an expedition to dig out the mounds at the site (Keim 1963). Geist would go on to unearth many Yupik artifacts from the site, ranging from arrows and armor to bowls and forks.

The bone armor consists of four strips of bone, most likely elk or moose antler, linked together with sinew. The armor plates would have been connected to a larger chest piece that would be worn to protect the wearer against arrows. Other parts of Alaskan armor would be made using this plating method, with strips of leather or bone strung together with sinew. Among the artifacts found by Geist at the Kukulik Site, armor plates made of whalebone, antler, and brass were discovered with the same sinew stringing tactic that exists throughout the region (Geist 1936, 111).

The primary source of food on the Island was walrus and whale. The meat and oils from these animals would be harvested, while the bones and ivory would be used for bowls, forks, arrows, and armor. Every part of the animal would be used to benefit the community. The use of the whole animal is a key facet of the Indigenous belief system, as connection and ethical treatment of the animal was a way to preserve and thank its spirit even after the physical body was killed (Kovach 2021, 67). By using every aspect of the animal, including their bones for armor, respect is shown to the animal's spirit and peace can be found between the living and the spiritual realms.

Communities on St. Lawrence Island relied on trade between Siberia and mainland Alaska. From 1800 to 1850, the Uηazik trade route connected St. Lawrence Island to the East coast of Siberia (Burch 2005, 217-218). Through this route, trade with the Russian-American Company saw increased demand for walrus ivory in exchange for alcohol, iron tools, and other Western goods. The trade resulted in a large influx of valuable goods on the Island. The Island's wealth led to outside Indigenous raiding parties coming in on boats to take valuables and people.

St. Lawrence Island held twenty-two communities before the 1880s. However, these communities began to decrease due to the influx of European diseases through trade contact and famine brought on by winds and poor hunting conditions (Crowell et al. 2008, 47-55). The inability to gather food due to the hunting conditions left the communities of St. Lawrence Island weakened and malnourished and, in turn, more susceptible to the diseases brought to the communities by European traders. As disease and malnourishment spread, many communities had to relocate, leaving behind once-powerful trading villages like the Kukulik Site.

The armor piece represents the impact of trade on the people of St. Lawrence Island. The communities of St. Lawrence Island saw an influx of wealth through trade, resulting in the need to protect their communities from those who sought to obtain that wealth for themselves. However, trade would also negatively impact communities such as Kukulik, as exposure to European diseases and unfavorable subsistence conditions caused a population decline.

 Eastern Siberian Armor Skirt  in the collection of the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution: Worn by Siberians that raided St. Lawrence Island in an attempt to steal valuables on the Island. It is made with strips of seal skin wound together with sinew.

Burch, Ernest S. (2005)  Alliance and Conflict: The World System of the Iñupiaq Eskimos. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Crowell, Aron L., Estelle Oozevaseuk, James Clifford, and William Schneider (2008) The St. Lawrence Island Famine and Epidemic, 1878–80: A Yupik Narrative in Cultural and Historical Context. In Living with Stories: Telling, Re-telling, and Remembering, Pp. 36-73. University of Colorado Press. Accessed May 3, 2023.  https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt4cgqdg.5 

Geist, Otto William (1936) Archeological Excavations at Kukulik, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska: Preliminary Report. Washington DC: US Department of the Interior. Accessed May 3, 2023.  https://archive.org/details/archaeologicalex0000geis/page/n5/mode/2up .

Keim, Charles J. (1963) Otto W. Giest: A Legend In His Own Lifetime. UA News Release, August 6, 1963. University of Alaska. Accessed May 3, 2023.  https://www.alaska.edu/uajourney/notable-people/fairbanks/otto-geist/ 

Kovach, Margaret (2021) Epistemology and Research: Centering Indigenous Knowledges. In Indigenous Methodologies: Characteristics, Conversations, and Contexts, Pp. 42-63. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Smithsonian Institute (n/d) Armor Skirt. Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center. Accessed April 27, 2023.  https://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=681 .

University of Missouri (n/d) General Collection Object Data Form. Museum of Anthropology. Accessed April 27, 2023.  https://as-file.col.missouri.edu/fmi/webd/General Collection .