A kamleika is an

Aleut The Aleuts ( ; russian: Алеуты, Aleuty) are the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, which are located between the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Both the Aleut people and the islands are politically divided between the ...

robe made from sea mammal (mostly sea otter) intestine, which was light and waterproof. They also sometimes had robes to protect against threats such as heavy

wind Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few ...

and

rain Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...

. They were sewn with grass, and each took around a month to make. Another type of kamleikas were made as ceremonial robes, and were much more decorative than the hunting kind. These did not have hoods, and had beads all over the robe. After contact with

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

ns and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

ans, they were given as gifts. The Russians called traditional

gut garments kamleikas; this word has been borrowed into Yup'ik from the Russian as ''kamliikaq'',Jacobson, Steven A. (2012)
Yup'ik Eskimo Dictionary, 2nd edition
Alaska Native Language Center. and that word has been used generally for any gut garment. Reed, Fran (2008).
Embellishments of the Alaska Native gut parka
. ''Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings'', Paper 127.

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=April 2020 Robes and cloaks Aleut culture Inuit clothing

See also

References