Pacific Northwest Coast Native American Art
The colored areas & names on this map (excluding Vinland, Hellmland, and Markland) are the basic Pacific Northwest Coast tribes you need to know. Some of these names have been revised to fit the native languages, but you ll need to recognize both the old and new names when reading. I ve listed the old and new names on the following slides.
Northern PNWC Tribes TLINGIT (SW Alaska, northern Prince Edward Island) HAIDA (southern Prince Edward Island, Queen Charlotte Islands); Kaigani Haida in Alaska TSIMSHIAN (northern BC across from the Haida, along the Skeena and Nass Rivers): Nisga a, Gitxsan & Haisla subgroups
Central PNWC Tribes Northern Kwakwaka wakw/ Northern Kwagiulth/ Northern Kwakiutl/ Bella Bella/Oweekeno/ Heiltsuk (on the BC mainland, south of the Tsimshian) Bella Coola/Nuxalk (inland of the Northern Kwakiutl on the Bella Coola River) Southern Kwakwaka wakw/ Southern Kwagiulth/Southern Kwakiutl (on NE Vancouver Island and across on the mainland) Nuu-chah-nulth/ Westcoast/Nootka (on the west coast of Vancouver Island; related to the Makah on the NW tip of Washington)
Southern PNWC Tribes Coast Salish Northern: southern mainland coastal BC across from so.vancouver Island & SE Vancouver Island; Central: southern coastal BC to northern WA; Southern: Puget Sound, Southwestern: coastal Olympic Peninsula,WA
Natural Resources Red cedar: the basis of most PNWC native culture
Just to remind you of the size of red cedar trees in the 19 th century and before.
Pacific Northwest Coast Tools
knives Elbow adzes
Mungo Martin using adze on a totem pole
Before Europeans arrived and traded iron, tools were: Microblades of obsidian, agate, chalcedony (2700 BCE) Adzes, chisels and knives edged with mussel or clam shell blades, igneous rocks, jadeite, horn, beaver teeth, bone Stone mauls (black basalt, beach cobbles) Hardwood, whalebone, elk and sheep horn wedges Bone drills Sandstone grindstones/whetstones Sharkskin, scouring rushes for fine polishing Or salvaged iron from shipwrecks
Elk antler digging tools
Stone blades, Harpoon barbs
knives Elbow adzes
Wooden handled D-adze (Nuu-chah-nulth/Makah)
D-adze (Makah/Nuu-chah-nulth)
Natural Environment and PNWC life and art Mild, wet enough weather that trees and plants flourish, especially the straight-grained red cedar Food is plentiful enough that people were able to live in settled, permanent villages for most of the year (with summer camps for berry-picking and gathering) Permanent villages and houses mean people are able to accumulate wealth (large, heavy artworks included) in a permanent site
Mask, basket, and bailer, all made from cedar
PNWC treasures in a plankhouse, almost all made from cedar.
Stripping the inner cedar bark From the outer bark Inner cedar bark was used for Clothing, baskets, mats, costumes, etc.
Dresses, capes, and baskets all made from the inner cedar bark
Salmon
Common foods included: Salmon Halibut Shellfish Deer Seaweed Berries
Harvesting mussels
PNWC Villages -Food was plentiful enough that people were able to live in settled, permanent villages for most of the year (with summer camps to fish, berry-pick, and gather ) -These villages were almost always facing the shore where they would gather seafood and bring their canoes ashore -Permanent villages and houses meant people are able to accumulate wealth (large, heavy artworks included) in a permanent site
Nuu-chah-nulth village
Haida village (Skidegate) in 1860s
1881 1881
1910
Sitka 1878, Tlingit
Masset
Hope Island, 1881. Kwakwaka wakw
Alert Bay, 1898, Southern Kwakwaka wakw
New Vancouver, 1900
Gilford Island, 1900, Kwakwaka wakw
PNWC Society Between 500 BCE and 500 CE, became stratified into: Chiefs and nobles Commoners Slaves
Sitka, 1904 Tlingit nobles
Tlingit Village. 1899.
Chiefs and PNWC Wealth Chiefs came from the noble class, and were often nephews of the former chief Chiefs and PNWC families had both tangible wealth Canoes, houses, food, clothing, coppers, etc. and intangible wealth The rights to stories, songs, dances, and crests
Chief with copper Coppers symbolized great wealth: representing an amount of wealth, blankets, dollars
Chief with Talking Stick
A Chief & his family s status was based on: Ability to lead & influence Ability to validate one s position through expensive potlatch ceremonies Material wealth: Abundant food Well-made clothing, houses, canoes, art, coppers Intangible wealth: Rights to tell certain histories Dance certain dances Sing certain songs Display certain crests
Chief Shakes V after death surrounded by his treasures
Northern: Tlingit Tsimshian Haida Tribes of the PNWC Central: Northern Kwakwaka wakw Nuxalk (Bella Coola) Southern Kwakwaka wakw Nuu-chah-nulth South: Coast Salish
Moieties Each tribe was divided into moieties: Tlingit: Ravens and Wolves/Eagles Haida: Ravens and Eagles Opposite moieties performed funerary functions, built houses, attended potlatches, created art (and were repaid during potlatches)
Lineage Extended family group Shared origin stories and crests Within villages, lineage groups would be divided into one or more house groups
Within each house, an extended family, with a chief, nobles, commoners, and their slaves would live.
Chief with a copper Coppers symbolized great wealth: representing an amount of wealth, blankets, dollars One example: a copper was sold to another chief for eight slaves, one large cedar canoe, one hundred elkskins and 80 boxes of eulachon grease
Coppers Originally annealed from natural copper Later used copper sheeting Europeans used on hulls of wooden ships In shape of Russian shield With face of crest on top half With T-ridge suggesting shoulders and spine (& ribs)
Chief with a copper
copper20[1].jpg
Willie Seaweed s Long Top