Rosalie Paniyak was the matriarch of a family of dollmakers that now spans several generations in her home village of Chevak, Alaska. Beginning in 1953, Panyiak started making dolls out of sea mammal and fish skins, often in the form of qaspeq-clad “activity dolls,” who were shown dancing, gathering berries, or cleaning fish. [1] 

With her unique skin-sewing approach to making dolls, people either love or hate the sometimes-startling appearance of her doll’s faces. Working in skin with beads for eyes and teeth gives her dolls a somewhat similar appearance to dried apple head dolls of the American Northeast. Within her lifetime, Paniyak was regarded as a very important Alaska Native dollmaker and was featured prominently in several crucial doll exhibitions in Alaska, including Eskimo Dolls (1982) and Not Just a Pretty Face: Dolls and Human Figurines in Alaska Native Cultures (1999). One of Paniyak’s most well-known pieces is a Statue of Liberty doll on permanent display at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in New York City.

This charming doll features a woman standing, holding a woven basket to her chest while biting the fingernails on her right hand. Her face is constructed of sewn skin and features white and black beads for her eyes and teeth. She is wearing a hooded gut parka over her red cloth body and seal skin mukluks. The combination of her nail-biting with the side-eyed expression on her face creates a highly expressive and, frankly, relatable piece of art.

1. Molly Lee, Angela J. Linn, Chase Hensel, James H. Barker. 2006. Not just a Pretty Face: Dolls and Human Figurines in Alaska Native Cultures. 2nd ed. Fairbanks, Alaska: University of Alaska Press, p. 59.

Christopher W. Smith