412 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



Chilkats, Hunalis, Sitkas, Takoos, Tongass, and Yakutats." It will 

 be noted in lookino- at the women in the group that the Tlinkits are a 

 well-fed, vig-orous race. The Russians spoke well of them, not oidy 

 for their physical qualities but for their intelligence. 



The group is a study in more respects than in basketry. They are 

 all clad in trade goods. As to jewelry, one wears her rings on her 

 fingers, but the chief woman has hers in the septum of her nose. Old 

 forms of basketry are mingled with covered bottles and the ubiquitous 

 can (Kanastron), formerly a basket ])oth in Greek and Tlinkit, stands 

 by the side of the genuine article. Before leaving the group it is 



worth while to recall that 

 with thrifty tribes new tricks 

 of handicraft are readily 

 borrowed and too nuich 

 stress must not be laid on 

 the assumption of identity 

 of race because of identit}" 

 of art. It is worth while to 

 linger here a moment. The 

 Attn woman as well as the 

 old time Algonquian tribes 

 did suspend warp for bas- 

 kets and matting, l)ut here 

 among the Chilkat is to be 

 seen the pristine loom. It 

 is not surprising when it is 

 remembered that here the 

 Rock}" Mountain goat is at 

 home. 



On the main land of the 

 northern Pacitic slope the 

 mountain goat ( Oreainnos 

 montann^i) abounds. From the Chilkat Indians about Mount St. Elias 

 southw^ard to the Nez Perces of Idaho, blankets are woven from the 

 wool. These fabrics are, in their manufacture, the transition from 

 basketry to loom work. The}" are in twined weaving. The only 

 shuttles are the skillful fingers of Indian women; the warp hangs down 

 loose from a pole or bar, and the work of twine is upward, precisel}^ 

 as in Haida basketry. (See Plate 148.) 



Vernon Bailey .says of the material that the winter coat of the 

 mountain goat is a dense piece of long, soft wool, with strong, coarse 

 hairs scattered through it. In spring and earl}- summer, when the 

 wool is being shed, and hangs in loose strings on the. goat, it catches 

 on bushes and rocks and the low branches of timber line trees. On 



Fig. 142. 



WALLET. 



Chilkat Indians, Southeastern Alaslia. 



« On the Ethnology of the Tribes of the West Coast, see Franz Boas, in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the British Association for 1884 and following years. 



