essays:

A Chlkat Weaving Adventure

Tlingit Textiles

The Essence of Chilkat Weaving
 

poetry:

Five Weavers Gathered

 Follow the Dream

The textiles of the Pacific Northwest hold a unique place in the world.  They express the distilled heart of a culture that is at least 10,000 years old.  One of the most interesting features of this weaving style is the ability to weave a perfect circle.  There is no other weaving technique in the whole world in which one can accomplish this.  But there are many other reasons why this weaving method is so fascinating, reasons that go far beyond the mechanics of technique.  One thing to keep in mind is that we never walked on our weavings or slept under them.  These textiles were neither rugs, nor blankets.  The were created for ceremonial purposes only.  They were made to live, to dance.

Among the textiles developed by the women of the Northwest Coast are their baskets, made with either spruce roots and cedar bark.  Many of the designs developed for basketry were adapted to clothing.  The first clothing used on the Northwest Coast was made with cedarbark, shredded until soft and then woven into garments.  Roots and bark were used for a range of items that were intricately woven in the fabric of life.  From cradles to death shrouds, the choice of material was plant-based rather than animal-based.

All of the first Dancing Robes were made with cedar bark.  To understand the significance of this, it is necessary to undersigned who the Tlingit People are.  First a brief geography lesson ---  the Tlingit people lived a fairly isolated life situated between the northern Pacific Ocean and nearly impenetrable mountain ranges, mountains that are the cradle of some of the largest glacial ice fields in the world, in what today is referred to as the Alexander Archipelago, several hundred miles of islands dotting the inland waterways of southeast Alaska.  The climate was generally mild, the Japanese current bringing warm ocean currents that tempered the cold one would expect of this northern latitude.  The ocean also brought rain --- southeast Alaska is a rain forest.  There are places there that get over three hundred inches of rain a year.  With this kind climate, it was a wise choice to choose a material for their clothing that would shed the rain.

The Tlingit believed that we descended from beings that could metamorphosis from animal to person.  They also believed that the forces which animated the life of the people also animated the life of the sea, the forest, the glaciers.  All things possessed their own individuality, or spirit, and were capable of independent interaction with other spirits.  Their world was alive with myth, magic and mysticism.  There was only a thin veil between the mortal world and the spirit world.

Symbolic patterns were created to represent the spirits of things, both tangible and intangible.  So, a wavy line decorating a basket is not merely decoration.  It was not placed on the basket merely for aesthetic reasons, but it could be the design that represents the intestine of the sooty song bird.  This particular pattern, even when you know the meaning, doesn't yet make much sense.  To understand the symbology, you would have to go back in time and immerse yourself in a different world view, back to a time when you might adjust yourself to the seasonal flow of time.  The basket may have been used to contain berries that were the favorite food of the sooty song bird, or perhaps it was a pattern that represented prosperity.  The birds always found food to eat, so to use the pattern of the intestines could invite the spirit of plenty to fill the basket.

The development of the ceremonial robes progressed from the all-cedarbark Robe to a combination of materials.  The body of the robe was still cedar bark, but a border of mountain goat wool was incorporated, utilizing some of the designs developed for basketry.  These transitional Robes indicate a merging of interaction, containing both the essence of the forest and the essence of the mountain.  The mountains were a place of mystery and power.  To go into the mountains required the help of spirit allies and powers.  It is possible that the mountain goat wool used in these transitional Robes was gathered from bushes which collected shed wool every spring.  These robes represent a merging of the material realm and the spirit realm, and the human interface between them.  I believe it is possible and likely that these first two styles of Robes were made with materials that did not take the life of another living being.

The next generation of Robes were made entirely of mountain goat wool.  the designs on these robes portray mythological history, represented through geometric designs similar to the designs on baskets.  They have a presence of power contained in them that transcends time.  In a very tangible way these Robes are the thin veil that separates the material and spiritual worlds.  I believe it is significant that these robes did not contain any plant fiber.  they were not intended to represent the interface of the natural world with the human world, but rather the connection of human and spirit.  The mountain goat was considered to be a very special spirit.  It was almost magical in its ability to traverse nearly-vertical slopes.  To hunt a mountain goat required immense preparation, physical purification and the guidance of the Holy People.  It also required the consent of the animal itself to be taken.

Finally we come to the so-called Chilkat Dancing Robe.  These robes are the culmination of thousands of years of interaction in multiple dimensions of being.  These robes have a heart of cedar bark and are woven with mountain goat wool.  The designs on the robes are representations of clan crests.  As I said earlier, the Tlingit believed they were descended from beings who could metamorphosis.  The clan crests represented not only real ancestors but also gifting of powers from various animals.  For instance, if one of my ancestors had found a trapped animal and freed it, that animal would give something in exchange, an ability to see far, or an ability to hunt a particular animal, or any number of other powers.  Conversely, if one of my ancestors had been killed by an animal, that animal would then owe a debt to my family and we could take the representation of that animal as belonging to us in payment for the death of the ancestor.  Clan crests represent the interaction of humans with other realms of being, both material and spiritual.  They have their own names, their own identities, their own spirit.  These Robes represent the heart of the Tlingit People.  They represent our ancestors and provide a link, a spiritual connection through time, to our ancestors and the cosmos.
 
 

©1996 Suzi Vaara Williams