Tsirku River Robe and a photograph of the weaver, Saantaas’ Lani Hotch

YEIL KOOWÚ • QWĒGAL GIA’T • RAVEN’S TAIL WEAVING

Tsirku River Robe

by Saantaas’ (Lani Hotch) (Tlingit), 2006
Gift of the Rasmuson Foundation Art Acquisition Initiative. ASM 2006-19-1

Lani Hotch at the loom, weaving a raven’s tail robe.
Photo by Steve Henrikson, 2006

The Tsirku River Robe is third in a series of robes by Lani Hotch honoring the three rivers that converge at her home village of Klukwan: the Klehini, Tsirku, and Chilkat. The Tsirku and Chilkat Rivers converge near the village. Hot springs on the Tsirku keep it and the Chilkat from freezing in the winter. This phenomenon, together with a late run of salmon, helps form Klukwan’s subsistence base and wealth.

In composition and technique, the Tsirku River Robe is based on traditional raven’s tail design. At the same time, new colors, designs and meanings make this robe very modern. The bottom fringe is fixed with tin cones (making a sound like trickling water) and the beads fused from local sands are new innovations.

“When I considered the Tsirku River and all the elements that I wanted to portray in this robe, I was struck by the whole creative force behind the river and wanted to convey those primordial forces…The Tsirku River is glacially fed and empties into the Chilkat River via an alluvial fan just opposite of Klukwan. The top border features the Chilkat Mountains with alluvial fans at their base, alternating with a pattern that represents the glaciers. The side borders, done in spiral wefts represent the run off of waters that feed the river, and the center field features a new design that I created to represent the geothermal waters that percolate into the Tsirku….The warm springs design is alternated with the box designs which reflect the meaning of the name Chilkat—which means a storage container for Salmon, and alludes to the story of Petral and the storage container of water that he tried to keep Raven from stealing…considered a creation story by many….I put the special beads made from Chilkat River sand-collected at the point where the Tsirku joins the Chilkat. The beads represent the water in the treasure boxes. The bottom border is the rippling water pattern done in blue, grey, and black alternating with a design that represents the reflections of the cottonwood trees on the water.”  -- Lani Hotch