YEIL KOOWÚ • QWĒGAL GIA’T • RAVEN’S TAIL WEAVING
Painting (crop view): Potlatch Guests Arriving at Sitka, Winter 1803 by Bill Holm
ASM 92-22-1
Early Accounts of Raven’s Tail Weaving
Yeil koowú (Tlingit) - tail feathers of the raven
Qwēgal gia’t (Haida) - sky blankets
Several types of twined robes once produced by Northwest Coast Native weavers may be ancestral to Chilkat weaving.
In his monograph on Chilkat weaving, George Emmons explained that “the testimony of those best informed” (Tlingit weavers and elders) revealed that the earliest robes on the coast were plain and white, and called taan or thlaok klee (worked together blanket) by the Tlingit. Robes of yellow cedar bark, often with narrow decorative borders of black and yellow geometrically patterned twining, date to the 18th and 19th century and may also have played a role in the evolution of northern ceremonial robes.
Following or contemporaneous to these robes were rectangular robes, covered with geometric patterns in black on a white field of twined mountain goat wool. This weaving was named yéil koowú raven’s tail for the resemblance of the herringbone patterns to the vanes of tail feathers. The eye-dazzling geometric patterns of raven’s tail, woven in black on a white field and highlighted with traces of yellow, resemble patterns on spruce root basketry of the northern coast and Athabaskan quillwork from the Interior. Like basketry, raven’s tail patterns were limited to geometric motifs by the twining techniques used to produce them.
The earliest written account of the geometrically patterned raven’s tail weaving comes from the Pérez expedition of 1774, when geometric robes were described in use among the Haida of Haida Gwaii. The development of the Chilkat technique allowed curving designs representing clan crests to be woven into ceremonial regalia. These designs closely followed the formline style used in painting and carving of the northern Northwest Coast, and the more complex Chilkat weaving style eventually replaced raven’s tail by the second quarter of the 19th century.
With the original raven’s tail robe being well beyond living memory, and with the few surviving original robes deposited in museums far from the coast in Europe and eastern North America, knowledge of their existence faded among the Native people who invented and wove them.
The Revival of Raven’s Tail Weaving
Over the past thirty-five years, raven’s tail weaving has reemerged on the Northwest Coast.
Hundreds of weavers have learned the process through the efforts of weaver and scholar Cheryl Samuel, who traveled the world to study all twelve of the surviving original robes. Samuel reconstructed the raven’s tail techniques, and through trial and error, completed a pair of raven’s tail leggings, then three robes. She published the history and technical data in her book, The Raven’s Tail (1987).
Beyond making a valuable documentation of the ancient weavings, Samuel wanted to see the regalia come alive—a wish shared by a new generation of weavers. With the support of Haida elder Vesta Johnson and Tlingit elders Esther Shea and Esther Littlefield, Samuel developed classes in raven’s tail weaving for the University of Alaska Southeast and several Canadian institutions, and soon the art form caught fire with the students. Today, through their hard work and dedication, raven’s tail regalia once again adds spirit and vitality to contemporary Native ceremonies.
As Samuel and the contemporary weavers are mastering the techniques necessary to construct regalia, they are also gaining insight into less tangible aspects of the art, such as composition and aesthetics. By using the tools and techniques of the ancestors, contemporary weavers share similar challenges and triumphs with the original weavers and find new meaning within a reborn tradition.
