Coast Salish Peoples
4
Historical Art
Explore the history of the Coast Salish people by studying
art in the form of sculpture, textiles and basketry.
Burke Museum, cat. no. 3
This Snohomish twill-woven mountain goat
wool robe was collected by James T. White
of the Young Naturalists Society.
Burke Museum cat. no. 2005-21/1
Coiled cedar root basket made by Mrs.
John Goody (Siagut), Cowlitz/Nisqually,
collected by Judget Wickersham, 1890s.
Burke Museum cat. no. 1983-72/1
This ancient hat was excavated from an archaeological
wet site at Wapato Creek in 1976, along with remnants
of a fish weir and fiber netting. Though it is crushed and
damaged, this unusual hat retains enough of its original
shape to allow contemporary weavers to study its ancient
style. The blackened color is from the polyethylene glycol
used to preserve it after removal from the wet site.
Cedar Bark Hat by Karen Reed, Puyallup/Chinook
Burke Museum cat. no. 2000-124/1
“The unusual form of this hat is based on an ancient
hat excavated at the mouth of Wapato Creek where
Karen Reed’s grandmother lived. True to its ancient
prototype, this is a double hat with the inner and outer
hats woven with a continuous warp that doubles back
and joins the outer hat near the crown of the hat.”
Burke Museum cat. no. 2.5E603
This is the largest of these figures. The eyes and hands
were likely once inlaid with shell, and the holes at the
sides of the head probably once had ear pendants. The
shape of the head shows the head-flattening that was
done on the southern Northwest Coast as a sign of status
and beauty. The skirt may represent the cattail or cedar
bark skirts worn by women in ancient times.
Burke Museum
cat. no. 1988–84/1
Mountain goat wool
robe made by Fran
and Bill James,
Lummi, 1988.
Burke Museum
cat. no. 1–10827
Snohomish cattail mat,
Tulalip Reservation,
collected by Erna
Gunther, 1930.
Burke Museum
cat. no. 1–2077
Sooke cattail mat
section with mat
needle inserted.
Mrs. John Goody (Siagut), a Cowlitz woman who married into
the Nisqually tribe, made baskets using a coiling technique
using split cedar root, decorated with an imbricated design of
bear grass, cedar bark and horsetail root.
Coast Salish Clam basket with woven tumpline, collected by the
Young Naturalists Society, 1904, Burke Museum cat. no. 415
Open-work baskets like this one were made of pealed cedar
roots twined with split cedar strips. They were attached to woven
tumplines, used as head or shoulder straps and filled with clams
that could be rinsed, allowing the sandy water to run out.
Twill plaited and twined cedar bark and grass basket made
by Mary Josh, Sauk-Siuattle, Burke Museum cat. no. 1-308
This basket displays both plaiting and twining techniques.
Split cedar bark is used with an overlay of grass, giving a rich
appearance to this utility storage basket. The looped rim could
be used to tie a cloth cover over the contents of the basket.
