Caribou can’t help being drawn to this coat. It’s made precisely for them—and of them. In the 1700s, in the far reaches of Northern Labrador in Canada, Innu (Naskapi) men adorned themselves with elegant, tailored hunting coats like this one. Wearing this coat was all about attraction—not of beautiful women, but Caribou! The lush, creamy white hide was designed to please Papakassik, a holy Innu being, and to mesmerize the animal. Lured in by the divine, the Caribou would eventually yield its life to the hunter.
The lines, shapes, and forms of the coat are in perfect harmony, each individual design at once independent and interdependent. The subtle hatching lines that pierce and perforate the hide add dimensionality.
Many Native American communities hold that people can communicate with things beyond the human realm. The powers of seduction embodied in the beauty of this coat, for instance, would please the Lord of the Caribou, who would send animals from the sacred mountain for hunters to harvest—an exchange honored between realms.
The motifs on this coat came to the hunter in dreams and were given to his wife to interpret and paint. Generally only two designs were dreamed up, the rest were created by his wife.
This 300-year-old coat is looking good for its age, probably because it was only worn a few times before being sold to a European visitor. When worn, the hunting coat contains power and seduction—yet its charm would hold only so long before new coats would need to be made to honor and attract new caribou. These hand-me-downs became hot commodities for Europeans.
Trade with the French influenced the style of the hunting coat. Its shape was modeled on a justaucorps, a long knee-length coat worn by the French in the 1600s and 1700s.