Innu artist, Coat, 1900-1920. Caribou skin and paint; 39 x 68 in. Denver Art Museum: Native Arts acquisition fund, 1942.240

length: 39 in, 99.0600 cm; width: 68 in, 172.7200 cm

Native Arts

Indigenous Arts of North America

Caribou are crucial to the survival of the Innu (Naskapi) people of Labrador. For hundreds of years life and death hung in the balance as hunters pursued herds for food and clothing—and artists played a critical role in that endeavor. A successful hunt depended upon pleasing the spirits of the caribou through prayers, dreams, and proper treatment, which included proper clothing. Great effort was expended to create coats with elaborately painted designs that represented the hunter’s prayers to the caribou to surrender themselves to be killed.

Dr. Frank Gouldsmith Speck [November 8, 1881 – February 6, 1950], University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, collected around 1920, retained until 1942; Denver Art Museum, 1942.