WEAVING, HAND AND LOOM

References:

Plate 14, Figure 4. Design for Bag or Wallet. Kootenay.
Plate 14, Figure 6. Design for Bag or Wallet. Kootenay.
Plate 15, Figure 1. Design on Woven Mats. Nootka.
Plate 15, Figure 3. Design on Woven Mats. Nootka .
Plate 17, Figure 1. Woven Head Bands. (Tump

lines.) Salish.
Plate 17, Figure 2. Woven Head Bands. (Tump

lines. ) Salish.
Plate 17, Figure 6. Woven Head Bands. (Tump

lines.) Salish.
Plate 17, Figure 7. Woven Head Bands. (Tump

lines.) Salish.
Plate 17, Figure 3. Woven Blanket. Whale Design. Bella Coola.
Plate 17, Figure 4. Woven Blanket (Chilcat). Tsimsyan.
Plate 17, Figure 5. Woven Blanket. Bella Coola.
Plate 18, Figure 1. Design’ on Rug. Salish.
Plate 18, Figure 3. Design on Rug. Salish.
Plate 18, Figure 5. Cedar Bark Mat. Dogfish

Crest. Haida.

The specimens selected to illustrate the skilled craftsman-
ship of these tribal women give but an inadequate conception of
its extensive variations or of their sagacity and ingenuity in
the selection, preparation, dyeing and utilization of unpromis-
ing substances. Of this skill the large cedar bark fibre mats
are perhaps the simplest forn of their hand-weaving methods;
added interest is lent to these illustrations when so great an
authority as Dr. Otis Mason describes them as marking the trans-
ition from that of basketry to loom. However the hand still
played the part of shuttle throughout such later developments as,
for example, the designs woven on the intricate Chilcat blankets.
The simplest form of weaving for clothing, noted by Captain
Cook as a "kind of cloth," was the product of carefully prepared
cedar bark beaten into soft fibre by whalebone or wooden tools
and then spun; that of the yellow cedar being softer and finer
than that of the red. The use of this substance was confined
almost entirely to Vancouver Island where fur bearing animals
were scarce; dressed skins had to be secured by trade from the
Interior where buck and doe skin, moose and caribou were in
general use, as well as the hair and wool of mountain goat and
sheep. But even there the poorer members of the Thompson,
Lillooet and other tribes had to exercise ingenuity in the em-
ployment of even more unpromising material than cedar bark
fibre for weaving blankets, leggings, etc., Substituting sage-
brush, strips of rabbit skin or a mixture of dog hair and bird

— 82re