Alaska Eskimo Footwear celebrates the incredible beauty and spiritual significance of the shoes and boots worn by Alaska Native peoples. Stunning photography brings the harsh and striking environment of the North alive and demonstrates how essential footwear was to native survival, while Eskimo seamstresses, dancers, and hunters explain the symbolic meaning of their traditional patterns and decorative details. This full-color volume features photographs from museum collections in Canada, the United States, and Russia, as contributors from each major Alaska Eskimo group--Inupiaq, Yup'ik, Alutiiq, and St. Lawrence Islander--discuss skin preparation, boot construction, and decoration. A tribute to exquisite art and the women who practice it, Alaska Eskimo Footwear brings the beauty of the North--and its traditional wares--to life.