The Inuit Origins
This Inuit woman from the western coast of Hudson Bay, wears clothing heavily decorated with beads and other trade items
The Inuit are the aboriginal inhabitants of the North American
Arctic, from Bering Strait to East Greenland, a distance of over 6000
kilometers. As well as Arctic Canada, Inuit also live in northern
Alaska and Greenland, and have close relatives in Russia. They are
united by a common cultural heritage and a common language. Until
recently, outsiders called the Inuit "Eskimo." Now they prefer their
own term, "Inuit," meaning simply "people." There are about 40,000
Inuit in Canada. Beginning about a thousand years ago, these early
Inuit began to spread east into Arctic Canada.
Within a few hundred years, they had replaced the earlier
inhabitants of the region, a now-extinct people known to the Inuit as
Tunit. This Inuit migration was not a single mass event, but probably
involved dozens of small parties of perhaps 20 or 30 people moving east
in search of a better life. A particular goal seems to have been the
rich whaling grounds around Baffin and Somerset islands. Here they
quickly replicated the large whaling villages and prosperous way of
life they had left behind in Alaska. Other groups settled in coastal
areas without rich whale resources, where they lived in smaller
villages and depended primarily upon seals, caribou and fish.
Everywhere they went, Inuit pioneers brought with them the heavy sod
winter houses and elaborate hunting technology of their Alaskan
ancestors.
The Thule Culture of Greenland
Inuit hunter from early Thule culture
The Thule are the prehistoric ancestors of the Inuit who now live in
northern Labrador. (The name comes from a small community in
northwestern Greenland where the culture was first classified.) Thule
culture appears to have grown out of an exchange of ideas, and perhaps
peoples, from the Bering Sea and the north coast of Alaska just before
about 1000 years ago. Many archaeologists believe that around 1000
years ago, as the climate of the earth warmed, leads opened up in the
ice of the Beaufort Sea and Amundsen Gulf allowing these north Alaskan
people to follow bowhead whales eastward in the summer.
The Thule culture, as archaeologists would call it, rapidly spread
out across the Canadian Arctic and eventually to Greenland and
Labrador. Members of the Thule culture developed a remarkable
technology to deal with the Arctic. In a region where Europeans and
their descendants have never been able to live without outside
assistance, the Thule people flourished. They were able to use the
bones, teeth and skins of the animals they killed in order to hunt
those same animals. Large whaling and traveling boats called umiaks
were constructed with a frame of walrus ribs covered with walrus hide.
Smaller one-person, skin kayaks were also used in the whale hunt.
Driftwood was cleverly fashioned into dog sleds which often had whale
bone runners, and seal skins were cut and braided into the harness and
traces. Sea-mammal bone and ivory were carved into harpoons and lances,
and musk ox horn was used to reinforce the short, powerful Inuit bow.
Self-pointed bone harpoon.
Areas inhabited by Inuit Culture
This remarkable technology extended to housing as well. In winter,
the Thule lived in warm pit houses dug well into the ground, paved with
flat stone slabs and framed with wood or whale ribs and jaws. This
frame was covered with walrus skin upon which sods were piled. Entry
into these houses was through a long tunnel which dipped down at its
center thus trapping the cold air below the level of the house floor.
Inside these houses Thule families could rest comfortably on stone
platforms covered with furs. The long winter nights were lit and heated
with soapstone lamps which burned seal and whale oil. In the spring,
when the ground began to thaw and water accumulated in the pit houses,
the people moved into skin tents which would be their homes until the
next winter. When hunting or traveling, the Thule built snow houses,
popularly called "igloos"--another invention superbly adapted to Arctic
conditions. Using special snow knives made of bone or horn, Thule
igloo-builders carved blocks of snow and piled them one upon another to
create the familiar domed structure so often associated with the Inuit
of the Canadian Arctic. The heat from a soapstone lamp burning seal or
whale oil would glaze the inside of these snow houses with a layer of
ice that helped to keep out the cold and wind.
A cutaway view of an Inuit Igloo
Thule hunting technology was as ingenious as their house-building.
Their culture was based upon their ability to kill huge bowhead whales
that could reach up to 20 meters in length. These whales provided
enormous amounts of food that could keep a village well-fed throughout
a long winter. To kill them, Thule whalers used umiaks that could hold
20 or so men to bring them to the whale. Once a whale was spotted and
the umiak closed with it, a harpooner would thrust a large toggling
harpoon into the animal. A series of inflated sealskin floats attached
to the line acted as a drag hindering the whale from diving to escape
his hunters. When the whale surfaced, more harpoons and lances would be
driven into it until the animal was dead. In winter, when land-fast ice
made whaling impossible, seal hunters had developed a very effective
way of taking animals through the ice. First the hunter would cut a
hole through the ice and then place a feather or a chip of wood in the
water. When it moved, it was a signal that a ringed seal was coming up
to breathe. To keep the water clear of ice, the hunter periodically
scooped out the ice with a device that looked like a paddle with holes
in it. To attract seals, the hunter sometimes scratched on the ice with
seal claws. When the indicator fluttered, the hunter drove his harpoon
(a smaller version of the whaling harpoon) into the seal and dragged it
up. Often, the hunter fitted a "wound plug", carved of ivory, into the
wound to keep the blood, a highly nutritious food, from leaking away.
While hunting seals, a Thule man had to keep warm and dry. A wet
foot could ultimately result in frozen toes, and perhaps death through
gangrene. Thus the sewing skills of Thule women were as vital to the
survival of a community, as those of a male hunter. Waterproof sealskin
was used for boots and Thule women sewed incredibly tiny, tight
stitches using a sinew thread. (The favored sinew, or tendon, was taken
from the backs of caribou.) Holes were pierced in the skin with a bone
awl, and then sewed with a fine, bone needle. Where waterproofing was
necessary, Thule women sewed a double line of stitches along two pieces
of skin that overlapped. When the sinew thread got wet, it swelled,
effectively plugging up the holes made by the awl. Leggings and parkas
were commonly made of caribou hide. Caribou hairs are hollow and
contain air--an excellent insulator. Caribou skin clothing was often
exquisitely tailored, light, and incredibly warm. It was far superior
to the heavy woolen clothing used by Europeans in the Arctic.
As one might expect, Thule transportation was equally well-adapted
to the Arctic. In cold weather, the people used dog teams pulling
sleds. These light, strong sleds were usually made of driftwood with
whalebone runners. So that they would glide more easily across the snow
and ice, drivers would often pour water over the runners; the water
froze almost instantly and the sled now had runners that were almost as
slick as teflon. On water, as we have seen, the umiak was the preferred
vessel for transporting large numbers of people, goods and dogs. Single
hunters or travelers, however, used the light, skin boat called a
kayak. This too was another invention unique to Arctic peoples. The
boatman sat in the kayak with a "skirt" fastened from his waist to the
deck which prevented water from coming in and swamping his vessel.
Powered by a double-bladed paddle, it was faster and more maneuverable
than any one-person European vessel.
This, then, was the technology that Thule people brought to Labrador
about 750 years ago. As one might expect, the earliest Thule sites are
found in the far north of Labrador at places such as Killinek Island
and Staffe Island. Here, Smithsonian archaeologist William Fitzhugh
found evidence of what may be some of the earliest Thule people to come
to Labrador. Between about 1250 AD and 1450 AD Thule pioneers, whose
forebears had almost certainly lived in Baffin Island, established
three villages from which they hunted walrus, seal, and birds. These
small settlements, perhaps numbering 25 to 35 individuals, appear to
have been occupied in the late winter/early spring. The Staffe Island
people built two types of houses, shallow, rectangular houses,
averaging about 4 x 5 m, and deeper rectangular houses, averaging about
5 x 6 m. The larger houses had paved entrance passages, interior rock
roof supports, paved floors, and rear sleeping platforms. Evidence of
cooking and small pieces of slate ulu knives (commonly used by Inuit
women) were recovered from the eastern side of the house which led the
archaeologists to suggest that this was the woman's side of the house.
By contrast, flensing knives, and harpoon and lance blades were
recovered from the west side of the house, suggesting that this was the
men's side.
the bone goggles used by Inuit to protect their eyes from blinding snow glare
In 1989, the Smithsonian archaeologists found evidence of what they
believe to be a kashim, or ceremonial house, at Staffe Island. It was
oval in shape and lacked a sleeping platform, but instead, there were
stone benches along the walls. Relying upon records from the Moravian
missionaries, who came to Labrador in the late 18th century, Canadian
Museum of Civilization ethnologist, J. Garth Taylor, has found evidence
of Labrador Inuit construction and use of the kashim. Such structures
were used as communal buildings within which people sang, danced, and
carried out rituals important to the survival of the community. The
discovery of this sort of structure at Staffe Island provides a useful
glimpse at the spiritual and communal life of Labrador's first Inuit.
Important locations in Labrador. Illustration by Tina Riche and Duleepa
Wijayawardhana, 1998. Staffe Island represents the beginning of the
Thule occupation of Labrador. By about 1500 AD, the Thule settlers had
reached Saglek, and by perhaps 1550 AD the Labrador Inuit, as they
should be designated by that date, had established their settlements in
the Nain-Hopedale region. Not long after, Labrador Inuit explorers had
reached the Basque site at Red Bay, perhaps in search of the abundance
of iron objects to be found at such places. Here, Memorial University
archaeologist James Tuck has reported finding a slate endblade, a
soapstone pendant, and seal bones used in an Inuit game. By this time
the complex interaction between the Inuit and Europeans that is
characteristic of the historic period had begun. - Ralph T. Pastore
Archaeology Unit & History Department Memorial University of
Newfoundland
Inuit Culture: Myths of Canada
Inuit mythology has many similarities to the religions of other
polar regions. Inuit traditional religious practices could be very
briefly summarized as a form of shamanism based on animist principles.
In some respects, Inuit mythology stretches the common conception of
what the term “mythology” means. Unlike Greek mythology, for example,
at least a few people have believed in it, without interruption, from
the distant past up to and including the present time. While the
dominant religious system of the Inuit today is Christianity, many
Inuit do still hold to at least some element of their traditional
religious beliefs.
Some see the Inuit as having adapted traditional beliefs to a
greater or lesser degree to Christianity, while others would argue that
it is rather the reverse that it true: The Inuit have adapted
Christianity to their worldview. Inuit traditional cosmology is not
religion in the usual theological sense, and is similar to what most
people think of as mythology only in that it is a narrative about the
world and the place of people in it. In the words of Inuit writer
Rachel Attituq Qitsualik: The Inuit cosmos is ruled by no one. There
are no divine mother and father figures. There are no wind gods and
solar creators. There are no eternal punishments in the hereafter, as
there are no punishments for children or adults in the here and now.
Indeed, the traditional stories, rituals and taboos of the Inuit are so
tied into the fearful and precautionary culture required by their harsh
environment that it raises the question as to whether they qualify as
beliefs at all, much less religion. As Knud Rasmussen's Inuit guide
told him when asked about Inuit religious beliefs "We don't believe. We
fear." Living in a varied and irregular world, the Inuit traditionally
did not worship anything, but they feared much.
Inuit Pantheon
A carving of Sedna, the Sea Goddess
Sedna was the goddess of the sea and the whale was her most
magnificent subject. Sedna was a winsome girl who had spurned all of
her suitors and married a bird. Outraged, her father killed her husband
and took her home in a boat. On the way back he threw her overboard.
She clung to the umiak, so he had to chop off her fingers, one by one.
Sedna turned into the huge, voracious deity of the Lower World and
ruled over all the creatures that dwell in the sea.
Akhlut is a spirit that takes the form of both a wolf and a whale.
It is a vicious, dangerous beast. Its tracks can be recognized because
they are wolf tracks that lead to and from the ocean.
Malina is a solar deity in Inuit mythology. She is found most
commonly in the legends of Greenland. Legends about Malina link her
closely with the lunar deity Anningan, her brother. Malina is
constantly fleeing from Anningan as the result of strife between the
two (legends vary as to the cause). Their constant chase is the
traditional explanation for the movement of the sun and moon through
the sky.
Malina and her brother Anningan or Aningaaq lived together in a
village. They were very close when young, but came to live apart as
they grew older, in the lodges for women and for men. One night, as
everyone slept, a man crept into the women's dwelling and forced
Malina. As it was dark, Malina was unable to tell who it was, but the
next night, when the same thing happened, Malina covered her hands with
the soot from the lamps and smeared the man's face with it. Afterward,
she took a lamp and looked through the skylight of the men's lodge. She
was surprised to find that the man was her own brother. So Malina
sharpened her knife and cut off her breasts.
Inua or Inuat refers to a sort of soul which exists in all people,
animals, lakes, mountains and plants. They were sometimes personified
in mythology. The concept is similar to mana.
Inuit and Viking Contact
An early Inuit carving found in Greenland that may represent a westerner or Viking settler in what may be a knight's surcoat
By about AD 1250, the first Inuit had entered Greenland through the
Smith Sound area in the far northwest of the island. Here, possibly on
the Canadian side, they first encountered medieval Norse ("Viking")
hunters coming from the Norse colonies in southwest Greenland founded
by Eric the Red.
Eventually these Norse colonies disappeared, probably in the mid
1400s. There are different theories about their disappearance, but a
deteriorating climate was one reason. Competition with the Inuit, who
were far better adapted to Arctic life than the Norse, might also have
been a factor. By the time of later European exploration in the 16th
century, the Inuit were in sole possession of the entire North American
Arctic.
Greenland was home to a number of Paleo-Eskimo cultures in
prehistory, the latest of which (the Early Dorset culture) disappeared
around the year 200 AD.
Hereafter, the island seems to have been uninhabited for some eight
centuries. Icelandic settlers led by Erik the Red found the land
uninhabited when they arrived c. 982. Around 984 they established the
Eastern and Western settlements in deep fjords near the very
southwestern tip of the island, where they thrived for the next few
centuries, and then disappeared after over 450 years of habitation. The
fjords of the southern part of the island were lush and had a warmer
climate at that time, possibly due to what was called the Medieval Warm
Period. These remote communities thrived and lived off farming, hunting
and trading with the motherland, and when the Norwegian kings converted
their domains to Christianity, a bishop was installed in Greenland as
well, subordinate to the archdiocese of Nidaros.
The settlements seem to have coexisted relatively peacefully with
the Inuit, who had migrated southwards from the Arctic islands of North
America around 1200. In 1261, Greenland became part of the Kingdom of
Norway. Norway in turn entered into the Kalmar Union in 1397 and later
the personal union of Denmark-Norway and Copenhagen became an
administrative control of Greenland. After almost five hundred years,
the Scandinavian settlements simply vanished, possibly due to famine
during the fifteenth century in the Little Ice Age, when climatic
conditions deteriorated, and contact with Europe was lost. Bones from
this late period were found to be in a condition consistent with
malnutrition. Some believe the settlers were wiped out by bubonic
plague or exterminated by the Inuit. Other historians have speculated
that Spanish or English pirates or slave traders from the Barbary Coast
contributed to the extinction of the Greenlandic communities.
Northwest Coast Culture
A early photograph showing Totem Poles carved perhaps 100 years prior
The Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian share a common and similar
Northwest Coast Culture with important differences in language and clan
system. Anthropologists use the term "Northwest Coast Culture" to
define the Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures, as well as that
of other peoples indigenous to the Pacific coast, extending as far as
northern Oregon. The Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian have a complex
social system consisting of moieties, phratries and clans. Eyak,
Tlingit and Haida divide themselves into moieties, while the Tsimshian
divide into phratries. The region from the Copper River Delta to the
Southeast Panhandle is a temperate rainforest with precipitation
ranging from 112 inches per year to almost 200 inches per year. Here
the people depended upon the ocean and rivers for their food and
travel.
Although these four groups are neighbors, their spoken languages were
not mutually intelligible.
Eyak occupied the lands in the southeastern corner of Southcentral
Alaska. Their territory runs along the Gulf of Alaska from the Copper
River Delta to Icy Bay. Oral tradition tells us that the Eyak moved
down from the interior of Alaska via the Copper River or over the
Bering Glacier. Until the 18th century, the Eyak were more closely
associated with their Athabascan neighbors to the north than the North
Coast Cultures. Traditional Tlingit territory in Alaska includes the
Southeast panhandle between Icy Bay in the north to the Dixon Entrance
in the south. Tlingit people have also occupied the area to the east
inside the Canadian border. This group is known as the “Inland
Tlingit”. The Tlingits have occupied this territory, for a very long
time. The western scientific date is of 10,000 years, while the Native
version is “since time immemorial.” The original homeland of the Haida
people is the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia, Canada.
Prior to contact with Europeans, a group migrated north to the Prince
of Wales Island area within Alaska. This group is known as the
“Kaigani” or Alaska Haidas. Today, the Kaigani Haida live mainly in two
villages, Kasaan and the consolidated village of Hydaburg. The original
homeland of the Tsimshian is between the Nass and Skeena Rivers in
British Columbia, Canada, though at contact in Southeast Alaska’s
Portland Canal area, there were villages at Hyder and Halibut Bay.
Presently in Alaska, the Tsimshian live mainly on Annette Island, in
(New) Metlakatla, Alaska in addition to settlements in Canada.
A woven Hat used by men of the Haida in British Columbia, 19th Century
Before and during early contact with the non-aboriginal population,
the people built their homes from red cedar, spruce, and hemlock timber
and planks. The houses, roofed with heavy cedar bark or spruce
shingles, ranged in size from 35’-40’ x 50’-100’, with some Haida
houses being 100’ x 75’. All houses had a central fire pit with a
centrally located smoke hole. A plank shield frames the smoke hole in
the roof. Generally, each house could hold 20-50 individuals with a
village size between 300-500 people. The people had winter villages
along the banks of streams or along saltwater beaches for easy access
to fish-producing streams. The location of winter villages gave
protection from storms and enemies, drinking water and a place to land
canoes. Houses always faced the water with the backs to the mountains
or muskeg/swamps. Most villages had a single row of houses with the
front of the house facing the water, but some had two or more rows of
houses.
Each local group of Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian had at least
one permanent winter village with various seasonal camps close to food
resources. The houses held 20-50 people, usually of one main clan. In
each Eyak village, there were two potlatch houses, outside of which was
a post topped with an Eagle or Raven. The dwelling houses were
unmarked. The southern Tlingit had tall totem poles in the front of
their houses. The Northern Tlingit houses had fewer and shorter frontal
totem poles. This environment is a temperate rain forest. This
environment produces many tall and massive trees. Wood was the most
important commodity for the people. Houses, totem poles, daily
utensils, storage and cooking boxes, transportation, ceremonial
objects, labrets (worn by high status women), clothes all were made of
wood and wood products. The tools to make the wood into usable items
were adzes, mauls, wedges, digging sticks and after contact, iron. To
cut the wood people used chipped rocks, bones, beaver teeth, and
shells. For light, the Eyak used a clamshell with seal oil or pitch,
and a lump of fat for a wick in the sleeping room. Dried ooligan were
used as candles. Also, hollowed sandstone with cotton grass fashioned
into wicks.
Various means were used to harvest the seasonal salmon runs. Fish
weirs (fences) and traps were placed in streams. Holding ponds were
built in the inter-tidal region. Dip nets, hooks, harpoons and spears
were also used to harvest salmon during the season. A specialized hook,
shaped in a ‘V’ or ‘U’ form allowed the people to catch specific sized
halibut. Various baskets were used for cooking, storage, and for
holding clams, berries, seaweed and water. The Tsimshian used baskets
in the process of making ooligan (a special of smelt) oil. Basket
weaving techniques were also used for mats, aprons, and hats. Mats
woven of cedar bark were used as room dividers and floor mats, as well
as to wrap the dead prior to burial or cremation. The inner cedar bark
was pounded to make baby cradle padding, as well as clothing such as
capes, skirts, shorts and blankets (shawls). The Nass River Tsimshian
are credited with originating the Chilkat weaving technique, which
spread throughout the region.
No central government existed. Each village and each clan house
resolved its differences through traditional customs and practices; no
organized gatherings for discussions of national policy making took
place. Decisions were made at the clan, village or house level,
affecting clan members of an individual village or house. The people
had a highly stratified society, consisting of high-ranking
individuals/families, commoners and slaves. Unlike present day
marriages, unions were arranged by family members. Slaves were usually
captives from war raids on other villages.
A dancers mask representing an eagle, carved by Haida, 19th Century
All four groups had an exogamous (meaning they married outside of
their own group), matrilineal clan system, which means that the
children trace their lineage and names from their mother (not their
father as in the European system). This means the children inherit all
rights through the mother, including the use of the clan fishing,
hunting and gathering land, the right to use specific clan crests as
designs on totem poles, houses, clothing, and ceremonial regalia.
The Eyak were organized into two moieties, meaning their clan system
is divided into two reciprocating halves or “one of two equal parts”.
Their moieties, Raven and the Eagle, equated with the Tlingit Raven and
Eagle/Wolf and with the Ahtna Crow and Sea Gull moieties. The names and
stories of the clans in these moieties show relationships with the
Tlingit and Ahtna. In the Tlingit clan system, one moiety was known as
Raven or Crow, the other moiety as Eagle or Wolf depending upon the
time period. Each moiety contained many clans.
The Haida have two moieties, Eagle and Raven, and also have many
clans under each moiety. The clans that fall under the Haida Eagle
would fall under the Tlingit Raven. One example: Tlingit Raven/Frog;
Haida Eagle/Frog. The Tsimshian had phratries (four groups instead of
two groups). There are four crests: Killerwhale (Blackfish), Wolf,
Raven and Eagle. However Fireweed, Wolf, Raven and Eagle are the
Gitksan’s phratry names. The Tsimshian Killerwhale and Wolf are one
side and their opposite side are the Eagle and Raven. However, the
Gitksan have Fireweed and Wolf as their opposites to Eagle and Raven.
All four groups used animal fur, mountain goat wool, tanned skins
and cedar bark for clothing. Hats made of spruce roots and cedar bark
kept the rain off the head. After western trading, wool and cotton
materials were common. The main means of travel was by canoes. The
people traveled regularly for seasonal activities such as subsistence
and trading. The Haida canoes, made from a single cedar log up to 60
feet in length, were the most highly prized commodity. Contemporary
subsistence activities and traditional ceremonies are still essential
and important to the Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people’s
cultural identity.
The water supplied their main food. One of the most important fish
is salmon. There are five species: King (chinook), silver (coho), red
(sockeye), chum (dog salmon), pink (humpback or humpy). Steelhead,
herring, herring eggs, and ooligans (eulachon) were also caught and
eaten. Southeast waters produce an abundance of foods including a
variety of sea mammals and deepwater fish. Some sea plants include
seaweed (black, red), beach asparagus, and goose tongue. Some food
resources are from plants (berries and shoots), and others from come
from land mammals (moose, mountain goat, and deer). Traditionally,
clans owned the salmon streams, halibut banks, berry patches, land for
hunting, intertidal regions, and egg harvesting areas. As long as the
area was used by the clan, they owned the area. The food was seasonal
and therefore had to be preserved for the winter months and for early
spring. The food was preserved by smoking in smokehouses or was dried,
either by wind or sun. These subsistence patterns are still a crucial
part of Southeast Alaska Native people’s cultural identity.
Potlatch Ceremonies
Western Inuit (Inuvialuit) dance outside of the Hudson's Bay Company post at Fort MacPherson, ca. 1870
The Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian are known for a ceremony
called the “potlatch” and feasts. Potlatches are formal ceremonies.
Feasts, a less formal but similar event, are more common with the
Haida, in which debt was paid to the opposite clan. High-ranking Eyak,
Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian clans and/or individuals were expected to
give potlatches. However, a potlatch could be given by a commoner who
could raise his position by doing so. Except in the Haida tradition,
the host would not raise his personal status, but rather the status of
his children. Potlatches were held for the following occasions: a
funeral or memorial potlatch, whereby the dead are honored; the witness
and validation of the payment of a debt, or naming an individual; the
completion of a new house; the completion and naming of clan regalia; a
wedding; the naming of a child; the erection of a totem pole; or to rid
the host of a shame. Potlatches might last days and would include
feasting, speeches, singing and dancing. Guests witness and validate
the events and are paid with gifts during the ceremony. In potlatches,
there would be a feast, however, a feast does not constitute a potlatch.
Regalia worn at potlatches were the Chilkat and Raven’s Tail woven
robes, painted tanned leather clothing, tunics, leggings, moccasins,
ground squirrel robes, red cedar ropes, masks, rattles, and frontlets.
Other items used at potlatches inducle drums, rattles, whistles,
paddles, and staffs. Only clan regalia named and validated at a
potlatch could be used for formal gatherings.
The Chilkat robes were made of mountain goat wool and cedar
warps. The Chilkat weaving style is the only weaving that can create
perfect circles. The Raven’s tail robe is made of mountain goat wool.
Some of the headpieces had frontlets that would also have sea lion
whiskers and ermine. After contact, robes were made of blankets,
usually those obtained from the Hudson Bay trading company, adorned
with glass beads and mother-of-pearl shells, along with dentalium and
abalone shells.