Overview

The button blanket is eye-catching, prestigious and treasured - one of the most spectacular embellishments to the Indian culture of the northwest coast of North America 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 book focuses on button blankets and on 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. ""Robes of Power"" will make people aware that this traditional practice is flourishing. It is a source of strength to the Indian artists who design the robes and to the hereditary chiefs and others who wear them. The book was produced in association with the University of British Columbia's Museum of Anthropology and its ""Robes of Power"" exhibit. Doreen Jensen is a Gitksan artist. Polly Sargent is Senior Researcher for the book ""Builders of K'san."".

Full Product Details

Author:   Doreen Jensen ,  Polly Sargent
Publisher:   University of British Columbia Press
Imprint:   University of British Columbia Press
Dimensions:   Width: 20.30cm , Height: 1.00cm , Length: 25.40cm
Weight:   0.330kg
ISBN:  

9780774802642

ISBN 10:   0774802642
Pages:   96
Publication Date:   01 January 1986
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Dedication Foreword Preface Requests Responses: The Blanket Makers' Stories Dempsey Bob -- Roy Henry Vickers -- Carole Helin -- Norman Tait -- Margaret Heit -- Fanny Smith -- Robert Davidson -- Freda Diesing -- Hazel Simeon -- Carrie Weir -- Francis Williams -- Dora Cook -- Simon Dick -- Marion Hunt Doig -- Shirley Hunt Ford -- Tony Hunt -- David Gladstone -- Joe David -- Ron Hamilton Recollections of Historians Agnes Cranmer -- Martha Brown -- Florence Davidson -- David Gunanoot -- Moses Ingram -- Flossie Lambly -- James Sewid -- Albert Tait Contributed Articles Sculpting on cloth / Dorothy Grant Haida button blankets / Freda Diesing Kwagiutl ceremonial blankets / Daisy Sewid Smith Button blankets on the west coast? / Ron Hamilton Button-blanket designing, Gitksan style / Vernon Stephens Gitksan ceremonial robes / The Book Builders of Ksan The significance of colour among the Kwagiutl / Martine J. Reid Results Bibliography Acknowledgments Photographic Credits

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. -- Alfred Young Man * American Indian Culture and Research Journal *

Author Information

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

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