k'angextola (Button Blanket)

About this object

History of use

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 skins and furs. Button blankets were used increasingly from the latter part of the 19th century among the coastal nations, from Vancouver Island north to the Alaskan panhandle. The only Northwest Coast groups that did not use the button blanket were the Salish peoples of southwestern British Columbia and northwestern Washington State. There are differences in use from group to group, and generation to generation.

Narrative

The blanket was owned by Margaret Frank. Frank sold the blanket to the donors when she was living in Comox. Mrs. Frank had informed the donor that she was secretary to Boas during one of his visits to the Kwakwaka'wakw. The large and medium sized carved buttons on the blanket are Chinese, given to her by Bill Wong, who worked on her husband's seine boat and brought the buttons back in the 1950s. The black and white checked gingham panel at the neck reminded her daughter, Mary, of the bibbed aprons Margaret always wore, so she thought the panel probably came from one of the aprons. The family also noted that button blankets were always washed in the springtime to remove the smoke built up from winter use. (Comments from Margaret Frank's daughter Mary, and her sons, in 1996.) It is unknown if Frank was the maker of the blanket, or if her sister may have sewn it?

Cultural context

ceremonial

Iconographic meaning

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 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 in specific ways. Coppers were made from a large sheet of beaten copper, cut in the shape of a shield, with a t-shaped ridge imposed on the bottom half. They were brought out as the climax of a potlatch, and were particularly associated with the marriage transfer of privileges and with naming ceremonies. Used as a decorative motif on garments, staffs and crest carvings, they had a clear meaning of wealth. Each of the coppers depicted in the central design of this blanket has its own name. When all that is left of the copper is the "T" ridge, it may be attached to a new copper which must then be brought up through future potlatching.
The "arrow" symbol in the upper corners of the blanket's border design, signify the 'tree of life', the western red cedar.

Specific techniques

Men usually design the robes, and women make them. A border of the same colour as the applique design is usually sewn to the top and along both sides, but not along the bottom. The border may break at the back of the neck, and a lighter weight material inserted. Small buttons are often used to outline the design, and large buttons sewn along the borders. People may go to an artist and commission him to do a blanket design. 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.

Physical description

Button blanket made of dark blue wool decorated with red applique, pearl buttons and abalone shell. There is a red fabric border on the sides and top with a gap at the top centre that is partially filled with off-white and black checked pattern fabric. The principal design represents three fragments of coppers with two smaller whole coppers below. The design is outlined and decorated with shell buttons, and the border is ornamented with shell buttons in a geometric pattern as well as rectangular pieces of abalone shell.