Skookum Pair

Male and female kookum store displays. Female having papoose on back and wrapped in Beacon blankets. Original moccasins, headdresses and necklaces. Mounted on fruit crate slats. Skookum dolls were first commercially produced around 1913 by Mary Mc Aboy of Missoula, Montana. The first skookums had dried apples for the head, wool/felt blankets formed the bodies that were then stuffed with dried twigs, leaves and grass. For the remainder of the body, they used cloth and felt. In 1920 the Arrow Novelty Company was making the dolls. At this time, they went to all composition heads which were painted with life like facial characteristics. The dolls represented real Indians of various tribes as seen on reservations. By 1929 The H.H. Tammen Co. of Denver and Los Angeles had taken over production. After 1949 the legs and feet were made of plastic. Skookum dolls with wooden legs and felt covered wooden feet were made between 1917 and 1949. 40".