INDIAN COSTUMES KRIEGER 639 



If We include as typical of Northwest coast area all tribes de- 

 pendent on the sea for food and j)ossessing a conventionalized totemic 

 art, it becomes possible to extend Northwest coast culture along the 

 coast of Washington and Oregon up to and including the northern 

 portion of California. If the Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and 

 Kwakiutl are typical tribes of southeast Alaska and of British 

 Columbia, the Salish tribes of Vancouver Island and the Nootka of 

 the lower Frazer River valley may be considered typical of the more 

 southern groups. The Tahltan and other Athapascan tribes of the 

 interior of British Columbia possess an entirely different type of 

 dress resembling more that of the Plains tribes. The Tahltan In- 

 dian^ have in recent years discontinued all their native arts and 

 industries because of changes brought about by the great number of 

 miners wdio have invaded their territory. 



Typical of the textile arts of the Sali,sh Tribes of Washington and 

 the Columbia River region generally is the blanket woven from the 

 hair of the mountain goat. There had developed among the Salish 

 Tribes of the Columbia River region at the time of the first explora- 

 tions an interesting primitive weaving industry in the hair of the 

 dog and mountain goat. A few specimens of robes and blankets 

 have survived and are of great rarity. They show superior skill in 

 weaving and taste in their decoration with dyed cords and the down 

 of birds. Salish blankets were traded with the interior tribes and 

 were carried long distances from the coast. In some cases other 

 tribes received the credit of weaving these blankets, for instance, 

 the Nez Perce and other Shahaptian tribes who traded with the 

 Salish were believed to be weavers. Salish Tribes w^ove burden 

 straps of which the warp is of .strong hemp, and the weft of goat's 

 wool dyed in various pretty colors. (PI. 13.) The weaving proceeds 

 always entirely across the warp, but is done in twined work like the 

 w^eaving of the Chilkat Indians farther north. The Shahaptian 

 Tribes of the Columbia River region wove blankets of rabbit skins. 

 They are likewise represented by their soft carrying wallets in wild 

 hemp and twined weaving, decorated with tasteful geometric figures 

 in overlaying with variously dyed grasses. 



A Salish blanket collected by Charles Wilkes (Cat. No. 2124, 

 IT. S. N. M.) (pi. 9C), is made by the process of twined weaving, 

 entirely of dog and mountain-goat hair yarns dyed and undyed. The 

 patterns are alike on both sides as in the Navaho blanket. In some 

 cases the weaving follow,s the design, that is, the warp is inclined at 

 an angle. The pattern is in four divisions, as follows: Across the 

 top are three bands with designs as in the belts; the center is com- 

 posed of three bands of yellow, margined with black and with a 

 black line through the middle, all on a white field. The white field 

 is flanked by a rectangular area divided into equal sections of bands 



