Kwakiutl Chilkat Blankets

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In Kwakiutl traditions found on the Northwest Coast, Chilkat blankets were commonly used in potlatching ceremonies as markers of status among the Kwakwaka’wakw people. These blankets were carefully designed to represent the inner character of the person who designed it. Popular to the Kwakwaka’wakw tribe around the 19th century, Chilkat blankets could only be made by the wealthy. Men and women of the tribe, particularly husband and wife, participated in creating the blankets, and believed that it was an honor to make and wear one. The men would design the pattern, make the board patterns and loom to create it, and provided the goat hides for wool. The women’s roles were to gather the materials such as cedar bark, prepare the yarn for weaving, and weave the blanket. The idea of Chilkat blankets was adopted from the village of Chilkat Tlingit, where the most amazing weavers were located. It was the European traders that gave the blankets their name in the late 19th century.1 The blankets had been traded all along the Northwest Coast, which was how the Kwakiutl tribe came across its intricate design. Chilkat blankets have such detailed design, with which the women of the Kwakiutl culture had to do precise weaving and make specific dyes to color the wool that was used in the blankets. It typically takes a year of hard work to create a Chilkat blanket. Such techniques used in Chilkat blanket weavings include many unique concepts, incorporating color specificity to areas in the design field (the area on the blanket in which the different designs are weaved), different animal presentation, and different types of weaving methods into each blanket. To begin explaining the process of making a Chilkat blanket you have to initially start with the gathering of the materials. The blanket is made completely from wool gathered from mountain goat hides by the men. The wool is then

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