Unangan hunting headgear are wooden hats associated with the Unangan or Unangas, the Indigenous peoples of what are currently known as the Aleutian Islands.
Also known as bentwood hats, and hunting hats, the headgear take the form as either closed crown conical hats, with long frontal bills; open crown hats, with long bills; or visors with short bills. Closed crown conical hats were historically worn by chiefs, whalers, and high-ranking sea hunters, while open crown hats and visors were worn by regular and lower-rank sea hunters.
These hats are recognized by their distinctive shape, elaborately painted designs and artistry, as well as their ornamentation with bone carvings and sea lion whiskers. Russian and European explorers collected many Unangan wooden hats in the late 18th and 19th century. These hats are now part of many museum collections around the world.
Since the 1980s, contemporary Alaska Native artists have spawned a resurgence creating this customary headgear.
Types
The hats can be categorized into three types:
Qayaatx̂ux̂ (eastern Aleut dialect): meaning “chief’s hat, decorated, closed top, long wooden hat”. This was a closed crown, conical hat with long-billed front; it has also been classified as “classic Aleut” by some ethnographers. Chagudax̂: (eastern Aleut dialect) meaning “wooden hat without a crown”. This is an open crown (no closed top) hat, with long-billed front. Chagudax̂ (eastern Aleut dialect): meaning “wooden hat without a crown”. Similar to type 2, this is an open crown visor, but with a short billed front instead of a long-billed front. These were more common and worn by all seahunters.
Origins and history
Development in the Kodiak Island region
Lydia T. Black states that Unanagan wooden headgear trace their origins to the Kodiak Island region. The headgear of this area, belonging to the Kodiak Alutiiq, developed through a combination of influences and adaptations from neighbouring Indigenous peoples including the Yup’ik (in the north-west of Alaska), the Tlingit and the Haida (in the north-west coast of Alaska and British Columbia).
The Kodiak Islanders adopted a similar hat shape to the Yup’ik, whose headgear were characterized by the closed crown hats. The style of peaked tops found in closed crown hats were influenced by the Tlingit, whose grass woven hats with split cylindrical tops indicated high-rank and privilege, and were reserved for chiefs. Stylized zoomorphic features on Kodiak hats were influenced by Haida headmasks, which featured carved animal heads.
By the mid 18th century when explorers had arrived in the Kodiak region, they remarked on seeing wooden headgear worn by the Indigenous peoples. They noted their use during festivals, times at sea, and also during trade with other peoples.
Introduction into the Aleutian Islands
With close regional proximity to Kodiak Island, the spread of headgear made its way its way into the eastern and central Aleutian Islands. This introduction was a slow movement; while visors were reported by explorers in the Shumagin Islands in 1741, the closed crown hats in the Aluetians were rare. The price of one chief's hat was the equivalent to 1 to 3 slaves, which was more than a baidarka (kayak).
Further spread into the Aleutian region is likely due to the whaling hunt, which was a widespread practice among the Kodiak Alutiiq and Sugpiat. For the Kodiak Alutiiq and Sugpiat, whaling was a highly spiritual and ritualistic practice; whalers were both avoided and revered for going on such dangerous missions. From the time prior to the hunt to the time after the hunt and cleansing, whalers were eschewed; however outside of the hunt they were respected within the community for their ability to capture such a large sea mammal that contributed to survival of the community.
Lydia T. Black notes that whaling was introduced to two islands, Four Mountain Island and Unalaska Island (via Krenitzen Island). On Unalaska Island, the first record of a closed crown hat was noted by Carl Heinrich Merck in 1778 when Unangans were seen capturing a whale. Black notes that a few years later headgear were seen at Atka Island, where some Kodiak Alutiiq had settled. Similar to the Kodiak Alutiiq, whaling for the Unangan people was highly valued within the community, as the kill was shared amongst members. Unangan hunters and whalers who participated in the practice were highly regarded; they often answered to the chiefs, as chiefs decided when whalers would go out on the waters.