Hat, Basketry

Item number E313279-0 from the National Museum of Natural History.

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Notes

From card: "Plain twined weaving. Three ply twined weaving and lines at regular intervals of diagonal twined weaving. Hat band is also of this weave. Ceremonial hat. Very fine weave. Brought from the interior of Alaska by a Naval officer. Totemic design. Illus.: Crossroads of Continents catalogue; Fig. 394, p. 286." [Note: 2 images of hat are glued to back of card] Crossroads catalogue caption identifies as: "Spruce-Root Crest Hat. ... spruce-root wefts of the [four] top cylinders [i.e. hat rings, sometimes called potlatch rings] were split to less than a milimeter in width - there are 12 warps and 12 rows of twining per centimeter. Probably dating from the early historic period, its once rich painting of black, red (repainted in vermillion), and blue has faded, and the darkening root has obscured the fine formline patterns. Although it is often said that each cylinder ring represented a potlatch given by the owner, according to some native traditions the number of cylinders associated with a crest was fixed long ago." For small illustration see Hat 103, p. 220 in Glinsmann, Dawn. 2006. Northern Northwest Coast spruce root hats. Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006.