What they did with fur

It’s not the most animal friendly topic so far, but there are communities, people and cultures who base their livelihoods off of using animals for their fur for clothing such as trousers, jackets, coats and parkas especially those who live in Northern Canada and Alaska where that’s part of their culture for centuries (going so far to be documented by European explorers in the early modern period). There are even animals who’re domesticated and farmed for their fur, most notably American minks and red foxes.

These animals would have to be fed and cared for before being euthanised for their fur, usually through gassing or electrocution in order to be skinned. As gruesome as it sounds, that’s how they use the animals for their fur. This has raised the ire of some people who even get fur farming banned for good in some countries such as Britain and Ireland for instance, even if that results in more invasive species (as in newly introduced species wrecking havoc on the environment they’re in).

Then they stretch the skins and have it be patched and sewn when made for clothing at all, which the numbers vary depending on the animal being used as well as how many hours it takes to sew such a garment that it takes 40-100 hours for a fur coat to be sewn but less if it were just cuffs and collars. For the Inuit and their habit of using seals for clothing and meat, this takes much longer as that involves softening the fur from chewing it constantly and continuously.

For sewing furs and possibly leather, a special needle is used which’s thin and strong enough to penetrate the flesh and have it be sewn to other patches of fur to make a garment which was the case before the invention of the sewing machine for a long time and still is so to some extent, possibly a great extent, today. It’s called a furrier’s needle, which’s the sort of needle used for sewing furs with and possibly leather when one considers this. Even today, some people use needles to sew fur with and even then it has to be done with a special technique.

Fur clothing has been around for a long time in whatever form, whether if it’s an entire pelt of fur, several pelts of fur stitched together to make a garment or patches of fur stitched onto woven garments.

Not so interchangeable Native Americans

Admittedly, I’m in the dark about this but if there are any differences they do exist on some level. Those in the North (and further South of South America, though I could be wrong about it) have a tradition of relying a lot on animal skins and fur for clothing (they would’ve figured out a way to sew furs by then) but this disappears in the tropics and those close to it where they have a tradition of weaving fabrics and fibres. Most notably the Navajo and Nahuatl, as far as I know about them.

Likewise, their attitudes to animals may also differ where some Native American communities may highly esteem the wolf but others like the Navajo associate wolves and coyotes with witchcraft hence why they don’t esteem them highly. There are even Native American cat owners just as there are Native American dog owners, as far as I know one who does. While I may not know much about Native Americans as much as I do with blacks and Africans but the differences do exist on some level.

It’s there to some extent, though greater than I would realise with regards to languages and cultures and even genetics where some Native Mexican tribes are this distantly related to one another. So in some regards, Native Americans should not be treated as interchangeable with one another especially in other contexts where some are Westernised but others aren’t.

Especially with regards to uncontacted tribes in Brazil, though their cultures may be endangered by now.

Slow fashion, Inuit style

Even with sewing machines, I still suspect it takes time to make clothes and longer for fur as you have to not only skin the animal but also stretch the skin and find a way to attach different skins together to make a garment like a cape for instance. For the Inuit, it’s even longer still as that involves scraping off the fat of seals and chewing the skin to soften it (if it takes 40-100 hours to make a fur coat from foxes and minks, it would be a little longer if it were a seal or something).

This was the case for a long time for the Inuit, something that got documented as early as the start of European exploration and colonisation of the Americas went. The Inuit tend to live in an environment that’s not favourable for farming, it’s not that they didn’t make clothes and food out of plants (they do to some extent) but since it gets cold and barren during winter that it’s more practical to eat meat and wear fur.

What the Inuit have been doing for a long time (which also goes for other First Nations people, pardon my wording) is the opposite of fast fashion in that what they do takes a long time. Fur takes a long time to be made, going from skinning the animal to stretching the animal skin and attaching it to other skins to make a garment such as a cape or a jacket for instance.

It does vary depending on the animal, so for the reindeer the Inuit take up to 40-100 hours at least when it comes to skinning the animal for clothing but longer if it were a seal. If fast fashion’s built on sartorial impatience in the sense of chasing and getting the latest fads, Inuit fashion’s the opposite as it involves making timeless garments for a long time.

Some amount of waiting’s done to make an outfit, but that goes for cotton and other plant based fibres and textiles to some extent as you have to wait for the plant to blossom to use it for making clothing and yarn. I still think Inuit dressmakers are commendable in that what they do takes a long time to make, though shorter if they’re just using animal fur as cuffs.

Even then, what they do still takes time to make, mend and sell if they wanted to.

Conflicts between activists and Indigenous people

The conflict between animal rights activists and Inuit people (as well as Indigenous Canadian people in general to some extent) is well known as it’s practically a struggle between animal rights (as endorsed by a white or non-Inuit/non Indigenous majority populace) and a minority that’s reliant on fur for clothing and meat for survival. The Dene people for instance have a culture built on making fur and leather/animal hide clothing, that’s not to say they never relied on plants to make clothing but like with the Inuit the climate and geography they’re in isn’t favourable for mass production of plant fibres for clothing the way it would be in Mexico.

(The Aztecs for instance used maguey for commoners’ clothing and cotton for royalty.)

A good number of fur trappers in Canada are Aboriginal and Metis (mixed race Aboriginal and white European), so the use and production of fur garments is common to several if not all First Nations communities and cultures. Among the Ojibwe people, they believe that animals willingly themselves as presents to people so the use of fur, meat and leather plays into this. That turns the animal rights’ idea of animals as beings lacking agency on its head where what if animals consented to being used for meat and fur. There are also people, regardless of their ethnicity, who believe that animals can be humanely harvested for their fur and meat.

I think with wool, that’s meeting things halfway in my opinion as you’re using animal fur without skinning and killing the animal but in the context of indigenous Americans, that’s something the Navajo and Quecha people indulge in as they have a history of animal husbandry so they rear animals for their wool (sheep for Navajo, llama and alpaca for Quecha). These two live south of Canada and they come from environments that are favourable for grazing and cultivating plant fibres (if they use them at all). As far as I know about the Dene and Inuit, these are the indigenous people who’re heavily reliant on fur and leather for clothing.

I could say some of the same things about the Sami in Norway, Sweden and Finland where while some of them could’ve adopted the habit of goatherding, farming linen and shepherding from the Nordic Vikings others continued to harvest and rear reindeer for leather and fur, which some still do today so it does say a lot about the importance of reindeer to their cultures. You might argue that culture and cultural attitudes can and do change, which they do but for other cultures fur and animal hides are important to their cultures that taking away their livelihoods involves taking away their culture.

Not to mention some parts of Canada where the Inuit live have high rates of suicide and unemployment, so speaking from my own experience with unemployment and mental illness it’s better for them to have something better to do even if it’s not something animal rights activists like than to have them do little else and wallow in their pain. The fact that animal rights attitudes are practically neo-colonialist and indigenous cultures have been impacted by Westernisation, so it’s better to hold onto your culture and not kowtow to Westernisation much.

Indigenous people and Samis have been pressured to lose their languages and customs that it’s hurtful as it’s something they love and share in their cultures, not to mention it’s disrespectful. So respecting their cultures is important as much as preserving and sharing them do.

Of Canada and fur

If I’m not mistaken, according to an online lesson I took up (which got confirmed by later sources that I looked up on) Canada did have a thriving fur trade and still has a fur industry to this day especially in some parts of the country like Prince Edward Island where mink and foxes are raised for their fur. Not to mention this industry has a substantial number of First Nations/Aboriginal, Inuit and Metis/mixed race people working in as it was before. A good number of fur trappers in Canada are Aboriginal for instance.

For the Inuit, fur is a big part of their culture that they partake in subsistence hunting a lot to support themselves for money and to keep themselves preoccupied as much as they honour their ancestors a lot since their culture has been subjected to being silenced, censored (for want of a better word) and taken away by the white majority. Let’s not forget that the harsh climate and environment they’re in isn’t favourable for pastoralism (maybe except for the Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish Sami who managed to thrive and rear reindeer) so hunting and fishing are big parts of their culture.

While I may be squeamish about using animals for their fur at times, let’s not forget the craftsmanship that goes into making wonderful outfits that they have to be respected and lauded for their efforts as it takes a lot of time (40-100 hours) to complete a fur garment especially if it were big and nearly covers the whole body. For the Inuit, this would take even more time and effort as they bite into and scrape fat off of sealskin a lot to soften it and make it usable for clothing so that’s something to be respected.

That’s not to say Canadians never made use of plant and animal fibres for clothing, they do to some extent but the use of linen and wool only came with Western colonisers so this means Aboriginal Canadians would’ve resorted to animal skins and bark clothing a lot for their garments. (Let’s not forget that Montreal’s the fashion capital of Canada and Montreal’s also where fur garments are made.)

That’s not to say all Canadians and Canadian Aboriginals necessarily take part in the fur industry but a good number of them do to support themselves, their families and their communities enough to earn a decent living off of their labour.