Kerlungner (born about 1877), also written as Ker-Lung-Ner, was an

Alaska Native Alaska Natives (also known as Native Alaskans, Alaskan Indians, or Indigenous Alaskans) are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of Alaska that encompass a diverse arena of cultural and linguistic groups, including the I ...

woman who toured the United States as part of Miner W. Bruce's "Eskimo Troupe" in the 1890s.

Early life

Kerlungner is variously described in contemporary sources as belonging to the Kinugumiut or Kumu-Gu-Mut cultural group, based near

Port Clarence, Alaska Port Clarence is a census-designated place (CDP) in the Nome Census Area of Alaska. The population was 0 at the 2020 census, down from 24 in 2010. It is located on the spit separating Port Clarence Bay from the Bering Strait. History Missiona ...

Touring, 1893-1896

Kerlungner was photographed with other members of her community in 1894, by American ethnographer

William Dinwiddie William Dinwiddie (August 23, 1867 – June 17, 1934) was an American journalist, war photographer, writer and colonial administrator in the Philippines. He was born in Charlottesville, Virginia.Roth, Mitchel P. and James Stuart Olson. (1997) ''Hi ...

. She was among the Alaska Native people who toured American cities with entrepreneur Miner Wait Bruce's "Eskimo Troupe" from 1893 to 1896. The tour was a publicity effort supporting Bruce's business plan, importing and breeding Siberian

reindeer The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...

in Alaska. Bruce had no particular authority or expertise to travel with the group, or to arrange their appearances at various exhibitions, schools, and other gatherings. They were presented in exploitative ways, and their health and safety were jeopardized more than once. (During these same years, Miner W. Bruce assembled a large collection of Alaska Native artifacts, hundreds of which he sold to the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educationa ...

in Chicago in 1894 and in 1896.) The troupe of three men, four women, and three children appeared at the

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The ...

in Chicago in 1893, at the

Cotton States and International Exposition Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

in Atlanta in 1895, and were welcomed at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

by president

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Hist ...

. Kerlungner was billed as an "Alaskan Princess", the young beauty of the group. "The 'princess' is really quite a pretty girl, with rosy cheeks and superlatively white teeth," commented one report in 1894. She displayed her traditional clothing and cookery, danced, and participated in chants and drumming for curious audiences. Her "small and shapely" hands and feet were also measured and admired. Kerlungner married her fellow performer, Iser-Kyner, without legal papers or family involvement, and possibly only for publicity, at a ceremony on the midway during the Cotton States and International Exposition in 1894. On their trip home in 1896, Kerlungner was struck in the head by the ship's rigging and hurt, but recovered by the time the schooner landed at

Unalaska The City of Unalaska (; ) is the main population center in the Aleutian Islands. The city is in the Aleutians West Census Area, a regional component of the Unorganized Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Unalaska is located on Unalaska Isl ...

. Her mother died in 1897, as noted in a government report from the nearby reindeer station. In 1915, the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

Bureau of Ethnology The Bureau of American Ethnology (or BAE, originally, Bureau of Ethnology) was established in 1879 by an act of Congress for the purpose of transferring archives, records and materials relating to the Indians of North America from the Departme ...

exhibited photographs of Kerlungner at the

Panama–Pacific International Exposition The Panama–Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California, United States, from February 20 to December 4, 1915. Its stated purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely s ...

in San Francisco.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kerlungner 1870s births 19th-century Native American women Alaska Native women American Inuit women Inupiat people Year of birth uncertain Year of death missing