The Origin of Chilkat Weaving

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I have read and heard many variations on where Chilkat weaving first originated. The main common denominator in all the stories is Chilkat weaving originated with the people on the Nass River, on the west coast river valley in British Columbia, Canada. The following were stories told to me. They don’t quite match up; I leave it up to each individual to come to their own conclusions:

Vanessa Morgan, Nisgha'a Tribe, Kincolith, Nass River, British Columbia, Canada:
"There is considerable evidence that place the origin of the famous Chilkat Blanket in the Nass Valley (Nass River, British Columbia, Canada). Early designs have been analyzed as being Nisgha'a in origin. Several ancient varieties of the ceremonial capes were found among the Nisgha'a. Several theories explain how the Chilkat became renowned for this craft. The Nisgha'a may have traded ceremonial capes to the Tlingit for the highly valued copper. Capes may have been taken by the Chilkat as the spoils of raids. A legend posits a further explanation: It seems a Nisgha'a Chief married a Chilkat bride. The bride learned the art of weaving the blanket from the Nisgha'a women of her village. Upon her death, the Chief sent a dance apron made by his wife, back to her people. The Chilkat, impressed by the unique article, studied the weave. The Chilkat women loosened the yarn and unraveled it bit by bit. In this manner, they learned the technique. The Chilkat continued to fashion the blanket while the Nisgha'a women eventually forgot the craft."

Louise Dangeli, Nisgha'a Tribe matriarch, a former weaving student, related this story:
Louise and her daughter, Arlene said they were glad to have learned Chilkat weaving from someone who learned from Jennie. They felt that the Chilkat weaving finally returned “home”. According to Louise, Jennie said she wanted to teach a Tsimshian woman so she could “return the weaving back to where it came from”. Louise explained even though they were called Tsimshian, for many years they did not acknowledge it whole-heartedly because they knew they were Nisgha'a. She explained the reason why people have labeled all of the area surrounding Prince Rupert, British Columbia “Tsimshian country” is because when the first anthropologist came to the area, instead of acknowledging all of the various tribes, they lumped all of them under the title of “Tsimshian”; they wrote it down in their books, and now people read this as fact. She further explained everyone knows that the Chilkat weaving came from the people of the Nass River. The Tsimshian did not reside in the Nass River; the Nisgha'a people have resided on the Nass River from "time immemorial" and continue to do so. Louise said it hasn’t been until recently the Nisgha'a are finally acknowledging themselves as a people separate from the Tsimshian, and are making it known to the general public.

Jennie Thlunaut - During a speech at the Chilkat weaving class she taught in 1985:
Jennie told us how the weaving came to the Chilkat people. It came from the Tsimshian people; a woman by the name of Hayuwa’as Tlaa was married to a man from Jennie’s father’s clan, the Gaanaxteidi, a clan of the Raven moiety. Jennie explained that Hayuwa’as Tlaa brought the first weaving, a dance apron, to Klukwan. There, the local women learned Chilkat weaving by unraveling the apron and then weaving it back together. The dance apron is still in the care of the community.

(Author’s note: If Hayuwa’as Tlaa was a weaver from the Nass River (Nisgha’a) married to a Chilkat chief living in the community of Klukwan, I have questioned why the Gaanaxteidi women had to unravel the apron and weave it back together, if they had Hayuwa’as Tlaa to teach them? Perhaps the Gaanaxteidi women in Klukwan did not take up the art of Chilkat weaving until after Hayuwa’as Tlaa passed away; they learned Chilkat weaving by unraveling and re-weaving the apron Hayuwa’as Tlaa wove.)

Village of Klukwan, Alaska in 1985.

* Click here to read Master Chilkat Weaver Jennie Thlunaut's Biography

* Click here to read about the Chilkat Valley

Clarissa Hudson
970-903-8386