Made of beaver skin and fur.

Flannery, Regina 1962 Infancy and Childhood among the Indians of the East Coast of James Bay. Anthropos 57:475-482. Page 479 (Verbatim): At about this stage of walking [i.e., at the Walking-Out-Ceremony] a little ring of fur was worn by the child about the wrist. As a woman from Fort George described it: "They take a piece of skin from the 'wrist' of the he-beaver for a little boy and from a she-beaver for the little girl. This is so it will be easy for them to kill beaver when they want it. Papewe (luck) the mother says as she puts it on the child." A woman from Rupert's House, who gave me a specimen of a fur bracelet that had been worn by her grandchild, said it was made from the leg of the otter and added: "We take good care of a bracelet like that. The baby wears it and we wouldn't let it lie about because if we did it would be bad luck for the hunter. The mother sees to it that it would never be thrown away."

Bracelets placed around babies' wrists for protection.
Museum collection.

NMAI catalogue card.

Item to be cited by accession number, collection and institution.

Record created as part of practicum fall 2008.

Contributing Members: Gloria Bell