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Social Science Native American Studies

Robes of Power

Totem Poles on Cloth

by (author) Doreen Jensen & Polly Sargent

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
Nov 2011
Category
Native American Studies, Customs & Traditions, Native American, Pre-Confederation (to 1867), Native American
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774844864
    Publish Date
    Nov 2011
    List Price
    $99.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774802642
    Publish Date
    Jan 1986
    List Price
    $32.95

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Where to buy it

Description

The button blanket is eye-catching, prestigious and treasured -- one of the most spectacular embellishments to the Indian culture of the Northwest Coast and a unique form of graphic and narrative art. The traditional crest-style robe is the sister of the totem pole and, like the pole, proclaims hereditary rights, obligations and powers. Unlike the pole, about which countless books and papers have been written, the button blanket has had no chroniclers.

 

This is not only the first major publication to focus on button blankets but also the first oral history about them and their place in the culture of the Northwest Coast. Those interviewed include speakers from six of the seven major Northwest Coast Indian groups. Elders, designers, blanket makers, and historians, each has a voice, but all do not conform to any one theory about the ceremonial robe. Rather, the book is a search for the truth about the historical and contemporary role and traditions of the blanket, as those relate to the past and present Indian way of life on the Pacific Northwest Coast.

About the authors

Contributor Notes

Doreen Jensen is a Gitksan artist. Polly Sargent is a senior researcher for the Book Builders of 'Ksan.

Editorial Reviews

A badly needed contribution to the study and understanding of Northwest Coast art and art history ... Timely and of fundamental importance in assisting native art to become thoroughly established as an Art and not simply to be seen as idle curios which are shuffled off to the halls of anthropology and ethnology.

American Indian Culture and Research Journal