Unpacking a Phrase: What is a Chilkat blanket? What Native culture was the brainchild of this weaving art? ![]() ![]() These vertical warp strands function as the supporting ribs for the whole textile, and were breathtakingly delicate to the touch! As I ran across historic photograph after historic photograph within the Burke’s Ethnology Archives depicting noble Tlingit and Haida figures enveloped in these expressionistic and esteemed Chilkat blankets ( Figure 1), I knew that I needed to explore the cultural identity embedded in these woven garments. It was at this point that my friend enlightened me to the fact that the vertical strands (known as the warps) concealed beneath their fluffy vanilla exterior of mountain goat wool a heart of cedar bark, which provided stability and substance to the blanket. What awed me the most, though, struck me while gently encouraging the layers of fringe cascading from the base of the design field to lay flat against the wall. A friend had asked me to assist in suspending one of these northern Pacific Coast Native woven creations from a wall in his gallery, and I was at once taken aback by the complex, fractured design, the striking tightness of the weave and the subtle-yet impactful shifts-in the blanket’s texture, as well as the rhythmic nature of the limited color palette. My first encounter with the alluring and boldly graphic ceremonial dancing blanket, known extensively as the Chilkat blanket, was this past summer.
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