The Tlingit, indigenous people of the southeastern coast of Alaska, traditionally fishermen, hunters, and gatherers, developed a unique type of weaving known as chilkat weaving. It is believed that the weaving technique itself originated from an older basket weaving technique, and its specialty lies in the use of cedar bark threads and mountain goat wool.
The weaving is named after the Chilkat River, near which the Tlingit villages were located, where the most beautiful ceremonial robes were once created. Both men and women participated in the making of the robes. Men defined the pattern and obtained the goat fur used for the yarn, while women collected cedar bark, prepared the yarn, and wove.
The base was made of inner cedar bark threads around which the goat wool thread would be wrapped, while the weft was made of two goat wool threads. The traditional colors used in the weaving were yellow, black, and bluish-green, along with the natural color of undyed wool. The weaving was done on a very simple vertical loom, from Chilkat blankets were made from a freestanding wooden frame, with crossbars on which the warp threads were freely hung. At the bottom, they were loaded with stones to achieve thread tension. The weaving process was very complex, as it was done solely with fingers, and it took up to a year to make one blanket. Since Chilkat blankets were intended for chiefs who wore them during potlatches, “gift-giving ceremonies,” as well as other ceremonial occasions, special attention was given to their creation, and only women of high status made them.
The dense abstract weaving patterns reflected their ancient beliefs and often represented symbolic depictions of different animals – clan guardian spirits. The Tlingit society was divided into clans (Raven, Eagle, Wolf), which were further divided into numerous subgroups and households. Each of these groups and subgroups was named after the animal whose spirit served as their totem. The same symbolic characteristics of magical power found in the weaving can be found… Even on totem poles, canoes, ceremonial pottery, jewelry, etc.
It is interesting that comparative research in the second half of the 20th century showed that Chilkat patterns in some way “resonate” with the patterns of the robes of another ancient culture, on the other side of the Pacific. Researchers say that there are cultural parallels between the Ainu of Hokkaido and the indigenous peoples of the northwest Pacific coast. Comparative art historian Chisato O. Dubreuil believes that all the ancient peoples of the northern Pacific are part of an extended family, and the Aleutian archipelago (more than three hundred small islands located between the Alaska Peninsula and Kamchatka) served as a transpacific exchange route between the Ainu, Aleuts, and Tlingit. The arts of both cultures, Ainu and Tlingit, act as echoes of a voice from the depths of time that none of these peoples have ever forgotten, says Dubreuil.
In our time, the skill of Chilkat weaving has almost fallen into oblivion; the last weaver, then already ninety-two-year-old Jennie T. hlunaut, she passed on her skills to several young women in 1984. However, the Tlingit culture is fading away; today, only about three hundred people in the US and less than a hundred people in Canada speak the Tlingit language. Therefore, Chilkat weaving is simply an interesting reminder of a distant and different world.