A Chilkat robe on the left and two photographs of the weaver demonstrating on the right.

NAAXEIN • NAAXIIN • GWISHALAAYT • CHILKAT WEAVING

Keet Naaxein (Killer Whale Robe)

By Anna Brown Ehlers (Tlingit), 2014
Loan Courtesy of the Artist, LC.480

The largest naaxein (Chilkat robe) ever made, it is based on a killer whale design by Will Burkhart of Sitka. The weaving took two years to weave—some 8,000 hours, using enough materials (merino wool and silk) for two average-sized robes. The width of the robe, 7 feet, is the average length of an orca at birth.

Weaver Anna Brown Ehlers, prepares to cut her robe at the 2007 Dakla’weidi koo.eex for her father, Naahaan.
Photo courtesy of Anna Brown Ehlers.

Anna Brown Ehlers weaving, circa 1995.
Photo by Steve Henrikson.

RELATED