guuláangw gyáat’aat (Button Blanket)

The traditional crest-style button blanket ceremonial robe proclaims hereditary rights, obligations, and powers through the depiction and display of family crests. The design becomes the property of the family and cannot be copied. The documentation for each crest is known and recited at feasts where those attending verify its prerogatives and obligations. Before Europeans introduced manufactured cloth to the coast in the 1700s, the indigenous peoples made their ceremonial robes from animal hides. Button blankets were used increasingly from the latter part of the 19th century among the coastal nations, from northern Vancouver Island to the Alaska Panhandle.

This blanket must have been one of the first that Carrie Weir made: it has the same bear design that she used on a blanket which she made to attend the National Brotherhood Convention in Hydaburg, Alaska. She said that she made it in 1965, and made a mistake by putting the red border along the bottom, which is not supposed to be there. However, she thought that she had removed the bottom band after the convention, while this one still has a band along the bottom edge.

ceremonial

Emblems or crests distinguish different social groups (lineages, phratries, or moieties) and symbolize their privileges. They can be shown on any material possessions, such as totem poles or robes, and each group owns the right to display specific crests. Within each group, families or individuals have the right to show the general crests is specific ways.

People may go to an artist and commission him to do a blanket. They tell him a story, and the artist draws a design. For contemporary blankets, the design is applied to a template which is used to cut out the applique material. The applique is then sewn on to the background blanket material.

Button blanket with a bear design in white plastic buttons and applique red wool for the centres of the eyes, the palms and the balls of the feet. Dark blue with a red border.