Continuing with the subject of the bark coloth and beaten bark that seems to be a pan-Pacific industry, found in Indonesia, Polynesia, China, Southeast Asia, Mexico and the Northwestern coast of North America, this post deals with the latter, the beaten bark of the natives of Alaska, British Columbia.
The book Cedar: Tree of Life to the Northwest Coast Indians By Hilary Stewart (see p. 143) shows images of different types of clothes, like aprons, skirts, capes, and blankets fashioned by the natives in cedar bark. It also mentions Captain Cook's and John Jewitt's accounts about these woven bark mats and textiles.
Captain James Cook visited this region during his final (third) voyage (1776-1780). He carried an artist to record the events of his expedition, John Webber, who drew several images, some nicely watercolored, of the expedition's stop in Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island, in what is now Canada. The two ships, Resolution and Discovery anchored there between March 29 and April 26, 1778.
Further down, the illustration of the interior of a Nootka home, shows the natives, wrapped in mats of woven bark, seated on mats, weaving, and cooking. Smoked salmon can be seen under the ceiling. Below is what Cook wrote at that time, as recorded in The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. VI. Being the Second of the Third Voyage, by James Cook, p. 298.
"The flaxen and woollen garments, with which they cover themselves, must necessarily engage their first care, and are the most material of those that can be ranked under the head of manufactures. The former of these are made of the bark of a pine-tree, beat into a hempen state. It is not spun, but, after being properly prepared, is spread upon a stick, which is fastened across to two others that stand upright. It is disposed in such a manner that the manufacturer, who sits on her hams at this simple machine, knots it across with small plaited threads, at the distance of half an inch from each other. Though, by this method, it be not so close or firm as cloth that is woven, the bunches between the knots make it sufficiently impervious to the air, by filling the interstices, and it has the additional advantage of being softer and more pliable. The woollen garments, though probably manufactured in the same manner, have the strongest resemblance to woven cloth. But the various figures which are very artificially inserted in them, destroy the supposition of their being wrought in the loom; it being extremely unlikely that these people should be so dexterous as to be able to finish such a complex work, unless immediately by their hands. They are of different degrees of fineness; some resembling our coarsest rugs or blankets, and others almost equal to our finest sorts, or even softer, and certainly warmer. The wool of which they are made, seems to be taken from animals, as the fox and brown lynx; the last of which is by far the finest sort, and, in its natural state, differs little from the colour of our coarser wools; but the hair, with which the animal is also covered, being intermixed, its appearance, when wrought, is somewhat different. The ornamental parts or figures in these garments, which are disposed with great taste, are commonly of a different colour, being dyed, chiefly, either of a deep brown, or of a yellow; the last of which, when it is new, equals the best in our carpets, as to brightness."
In the case John Rodgers Jewitt (1783-1821), we have his account, The adventures and sufferings of John R. Jewitt, only survior of the ship Boston, during a captivity of nearly three years among the savages of Nootka Sound. With an account of the manners, mode of living, and religious opinions of the natives (see p. 72 below).
"From bark they likewise make the cloth for their garments, in the following manner : A quantity of this bark is taken and put into fresh water, where it is kept for a fortnight, to give it time to completely soften; it is then taken out and beaten upon a plank, with an instrument made of bone, or some very hard wood, having grooves or hollows on one side of it, care being taken to keep the mass constantly moistened with water, in order to separate, with more ease, the hard and woody from the soft and fibrous parts, which, when completed, they par cel out into skeins, like thread. These they lay in the air to bleach, and afterwards dye them black or red, as suits their fancies, their natural colour being a pale yellow. In order to form the cloth, the women, by whom the whole of this process is performed, take a certain number of these skeins, and twist them together, by rolling them with their hands upon their knees into hard rolls, which are afterwards connected by means of a strong thread, made for the purpose.
Their dress usually consists of but a single garment, which is a loose cloak or mantle (called Kutsack) in one piece, reaching nearly to the feet. This is tied loosely over the right or left shoulder, so as to leave the arms at full liberty.
Those of the common people are painted red with ochre, the better to keep out the rain, but the chiefs wear them of their native colour, which is a pale yellow, ornamenting them with borders of the sea-otter skin, a kind of grey cloth, made of the hair of some animal which they procure from the tribes to the South, or their own cloth wrought or painted with various figures in red or black, representing men’s heads, the sun and moon, fish and animals, which are frequently executed with much skill. They have also a girdle of the same kind, for securing this mantle, or Kutsack, around them, which is in general still more highly ornamented, and serves them to wear their daggers and knives in. In winter, however, they sometimes make use of an additional garment, which is a kind of hood, with a hole in it for the purpose of admitting the head..."
Jewitt had been an armourer and blacksmith on board an American ship, the "Boston" on a trading expedition around the world. The natives attacked the crew in March 1803, sparing Jewitt as they needed his know-how as an armourer. He was held captive for 28 months when he managed to escape aboard another ship that was visiting Nootka Sound.
Ninety years later, the Report on Population and Resources of Alaska at the eleventh census: 1890, by Robert P. Porter, published in 1893 (see p. 57-58), indicated that the natives still continued with this tradition:
" The early visitors to the Alexander archipelago [see Google Maps] found the natives of both sexes wearing conical or truncated hats woven of grass or finely split spruce root, and painted with totem shapes in different colors, generally black and red. From the same material, blankets and mats ornamented with grotesque designs were manufactured and found in general use. They also had a rain coat or rather blanket with a central aperture for inserting the head [like a poncho].
These garments were woven from coarse grass with the shaggy side exposed to the rain. The inhabitants of the southern part of the archipelago substituted the more pliable material obtained from cedar bark for grass and roots. Mats and cloths manufactured in this way are still in general use throughout the Thlingit tribe and they are applied to every imaginable purpose from carpeting a house and lining a canoe to packing cases bags and coverings. In cases of emergency they also serve as garments and bedding while nearly everything the Thlingit brings for sale to the settlement is carefully wrapped in cedar matting."
Below is an image of one of these cedar bark mats
But, they also made sophisticated clothes, as you can see below, and not only coarse mats.
Woven Bark and also wool
In their book, The Tlingit Indians, George Thornton Emmons and Frederica De Laguna (see p. 222), describe how the Tlingit wove cedar bark into mats and "cloth". They also used animal wool to weave blankets, like the famous Chilkat blanket (see this online source for more details about the blanket).
Comments
To my non-scholar eyes, these mats and cedar bark mats and rugs of the Tlingit natives seem less sophisticated than the Celebes-Sulawesi paper (the key here is "paper") garments. The Indonesians beat bark into a paper pulp and then fashioned it into clothing. The Tlingit wove (the key here is "weaving") the bark, they used very primitive looms (if the word loom could be used), actually frames onto which they wove the bark. The only similarity is that they used a plant fiber to make clothes. But the processes seem different.
My next post on the Mesoamerican beaten bark will show that they made paper from the bark. So Mexican bark-cloth is similar to the Indonesian product.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall ©
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