Spruce Root Basketry of the Alaska Tlingit

Frances Lackey Paul

• Publisher: Barakaldo Books
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781839746918
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

The beautiful, artistic, and unique baskets of the Tlingit of southeastern Alaska. Numerous photos throughout.From earliest times the basket was made to use. In the huge community house of the winter village or the bark shelter of the summer fishing camp the furniture Consisted of baskets and wooden boxes. The old Tlingit did not understand the arts of pottery making or metal working. Baskets were used for cooking kettles, in which the women placed their meat or berries. They then dropped hot stones on the food with wooden tongs, added enough water to generate steam, covered the basket, and then set it aside until the food was cooked. Baskets, so closely woven as to be water tight, were their water jars and drinking cups. Baskets were one form of the family trunk, especially when traveling, because of their light weight. Baskets were used for gathering berries, roots and shellfish, for trying out seal and eulachon oil, for food dishes and for storage of food for winter. The typical work hat of the district, even some types of ceremonial hat, the headdresses of shaman or Indian doctors, shot pouches, work baskets, rattles and spoon bags were all woven from spruce root or cedar bark. This art was also used to make fish traps, net bags for eulachon fishing, huge mats for canoe sails and floor covering, the cradle swing for the baby and the winding sheet for the old shaman when his body was taken to the lonely burial house.

THE TECHNIQUES OF WEAVING

In ancient times every woman was a weaver, skillful enough to produce what was needed for her own use. Little girls began to learn as a matter of course at the age of five or six years. Certain women and even certain families became famous for the excellence of their work. Today, however, it is rare to find a woman who understands the whole process of producing a basket. Only a few weavers are left, but they all do beautiful work. This may seem singular at first thought, but when one remembers that baskets are no longer made for use it must be a sense of pride in her skill that sustains a woman as she follows the inconvenient and tedious steps that lead to the finished product. At no time has the price at which a basket could be sold been high enough to pay for the time required to make it.

In olden times the woman always sat on the ground or on the floor of her home while weaving, with her knees drawn up to her chin, her feet close to her body, and worked with her shoulders bent over and her arms around her knees. The Haida women wove with their basket upside down over a mold the size of the base of the basket, but the Tlingit held their work right side up without the use of a mold, except in the case of the cylindrical ornaments on the top of a crest hat.

There was considerable strain on the wrists in the old position, which kept the weaver from working all the time. One large basket might represent a whole winter’s work, a medium-sized one at least two months. Despite the seemingly awkward position, the strands were separated, twisted, tightened, new warp splints introduced, weft strands spliced, and colored stems introduced for overlaying the weft, with unbelievable rapidity. Weaving is particularly hard on the thumb and forefinger, but these never become calloused. This may be due to the moist condition of the root and the constant wetting of the fingers during work. In our modern days the worker sits on a chair with her work at a convenient height and her materials spread out on a table before her (Plate X).

The only other tools used besides the mussel shell or metal knife for splitting, were on awl made from the spike of a goat or deer horn or bear claw or even a bit of sharpened bone, and the large tooth of a killer whale or brown bear. The awl was used to push the weft strands tighter and the large tooth to stretch and smooth the work by frequently rubbing down the inside.

THE FIVE TYPES

There are five types of Tlingit weaving, a sixth type called strawberry weave being wrongly classed as a separate form. These five techniques do not include the fish trap or the simple checkerboard plaiting of mat-making. They are all twined weaving (as opposed to the coil method used by other Indians and Eskimo), in which a regular series of one or more warp splints are enclosed by a crossed twining of two or more weft strands, the work progressing from left to right. Wefts 1 and 2 are crossed, held in place with the left hand (Plate XII) while the right forefinger pushes the lower weft up into a loop and the right thumb slips under warp 1 and brings it up through the loop (Plate XIII); wefts 1 and 2 are tightened and twined or crossed again enclosing warp 1 between them; the right forefinger again pushes up the lower weft into a loop, the right thumb draws warp 2 through this loop and the wefts are tightened and twisted, enclosing warp 2 between them. The two weft strands are twined between each warp splint so that they make one line of weaving as opposed to a plaiting technique. This proceeds in a continuous spiral around the basket, presenting a solid surface mesh of polished weft strands, the warp splints being entirely covered both inside and outside the basket. Each warp splint is usually backed with another splint to give strength and rigidity to the basket, in which case the double splint is pulled through the loop as one unit by the thumb.

WEAVE 1

The most common weave, the standard technique by which three-quarters of all baskets are made, is called “Close-together-work” (woosh-tuhk-ah-gee), Plate XV and figure 1. This weave employs the simple technique described above, the work being so compact that the basket is water tight.

The strawberry weave, figure 2, is a variation of the standard technique in that it uses two different colors of weft strands which appear on the surface alternately in a checkerboard arrangement.

Figure 3 shows another variation of weave I, which was used for oil strainers. Using the same technique of twining, the rows of weft were not pushed compactly together, but left separated in regular order. This made a more open basket, through the interstices of which oil could drip into the container below.

WEAVE 2

This technique is shown as “between,” literally “middle thing” (khah-gees-ut). It differs...

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• MAP
• THE TLINGIT COUNTRY
• ILLUSTRATIONS
• INTRODUCTION
• GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
• USES OF BASKETS
• BASKETRY MATERIALS
• THE TECHNIQUES OF WEAVING
• FORMS OF BASKETS
• ROOT HATS
• ORNAMENTATION
• PATTERN NAMES
• THE MOTHER-BASKET OF THE CHILKAT
• BIBLIOGRAPHY