Northern peoples have always used traditional sleds with a simple and reliable design. All parts of the sled are made of wood and assembled without nails so that a reindeer herder can repair the sled without any additional tools when traveling or hunting.

There are around ten types of sleds, including men’s and women’s sleds, sacred and racing ones, as well as sleds designed for transporting houses and stoves. They all differ in size, design, weight, and speed. In the past, a sled was usually beautifully decorated, but now this tradition is reserved only for sleds used by women, especially brides.

For the peoples of the North, decorating a women’s sled is an important element of traditional art, an opportunity to express one’s creativity, and an embodiment of the worldview and social status of the owner. The design of women’s sleds is different from that of men’s: the seat is larger and is surrounded by borders on three sides because women usually travel with children. The seat is softer and warmer as it is covered with deer hide and cloth blankets.

The blankets for a women’s sled are decorated in a special way. They are made of rectangular pieces of overcoating cloth of various colors, with a size of one meter by three meters. The blankets are decorated using traditional geometric patterns, such as “hare’s ears”, “bull’s horns”, and “bear’s ears”.

In the past, brightly embroidered blankets were used for wedding rituals: a bride was covered with such blankets when she was taken from her home in a sled. The back of her reindeer was decorated in the same way. The modern Nenets use such decorative blankets in everyday life. The Nenets Museum of Local Lore also houses a reindeer blanket.

For the purposes of both beauty and durability, women’s sleds are painted with enamel, usually red. The front parts of the sleds are wrapped with red strips of cloth or dyed rovduga (reindeer suede) with fringes.

According to the Nenets, each color has its own sacred meaning and reflects their idea that the world is made up of three realms. White symbolizes goodness, well-being, and purity and is associated with the Upper World — the realm of the gods and the sky. Black represents illness and death — it is a symbol of the afterworld or the Lower World.

Green is the color of grass, spring, and summer. According to the Nenets, people live in the Middle World, which combines all colors. Therefore, a bright and colorful blanket used to decorate women’s sleds symbolizes the triumph of life.