Happily posing in front of two gut skin parkas at the Kodiak History Museum while holding the bear intestines and esophagus I had just finished processing.
Summer 2016 Photograph by Tiffany Brunson
Inner Skins
For thousands of years this material, known as gut skin, was sewn by Alutiiq women into waterproof garments and other items essential to thrive in Kodiak Island’s cold and wet environment.
Happily posing in front of two gut skin parkas at the Kodiak History Museum while holding the bear intestines and esophagus I had just finished processing.
Summer 2016 Photograph by Tiffany Brunson
While sausage casing is common across the world, many indigenous peoples of the circumpolar north realized long ago the waterproof qualities of inner skins. Their use of gut skin in rain gear with waterproof stitches made daily life in the arctic and sub-arctic much easier. Hunters and berry pickers alike were able to keep warm and dry because of this outstanding material that can go from wet to dry many times without issue. Gut skin feels and stretches like a latex balloon when wet and is like Gortex.
Kodiak brown bear intestines before processing
Ground slate tools are easy to make for use in scraping the intestines.
Intestines right side out
Intestines scraped clean inside and out – looks a little like super long pasta.
After pulling apart all the connective tissue (peritoneum) the process of scraping both the inside and outside of the gut is fairly straight forward. Through experimentation I figured out how to run water through the gut to turn it inside-out. This is fun and my neighbor’s kids and their cousins really enjoyed helping and watching the gut inflate with water.
When the intestines are scraped clean (down to the submucosa) they look a lot like pasta and in many parts of Alaska they are stuffed, cooked and eaten like any other sausage casing.
After cleaning the gut you simply inflate it, let it dry, and split the tube.
The photographs show how the gut looks inflated and starting to dry.
In my experience, one Kodiak brown bear has about 70 feet of intestine.
The material dry and ready to be cut and rolled flat
Alutiiq Elders, still living on Kodiak Island today, have vividly described the quiet flexing crinkling sound the gutskin windows made inside their childhood or grandparent’s homes.
Like the gutskin window stories of living Elders, the gutskin waterproof parkas behind me in the exhibit case (photo above) are also not remnants of a past not experienced by people today. I spoke with an Elder whose father wore one against his skin under his furs and one over his furs when he went out alone in his single hole kayak to hunt. Her mother had made the gutskin garments and she brought one into the Alutiiq Museum to share with us. I felt so honored to have been there learning about her family and being able to touch her father’s gutskin parka. When dry, it seemed fragile like brittle parchment paper, but when misted with water, the garment became flexible and durable like a latex balloon. The use of waterproof stitches using grass and thread made of tendons (sinew) is another story…
Thank you for taking the time to read about what the Alutiiq and Yupik Elders shared.
Clearly, I am a huge fan of inner skins and am thankful for the Elders who shared their knowledge with me. I am glad to have been a part of passing this knowledge on to the next generation.
Quyana! (Thank you)
© 2016 Jill HH Lipka. All rights reserved.Updated version © 2026 Jill HH Lipka. All rights reserved.