Time:

Materials

glue, needle & thread, mild soap, cloth (cotton), salt, vinegar, enamel or copper pot, stove or hot plate, dry towels, dye stuff (see text)

Objectives

A. To introduce students to dyeing.

B. To show students alternate sources for dye.

C. To engage students in actual dyeing activities.

The following activity comes from an Alaska State Museum workshop in which children dyed and made a Chilkat-style (Tlingit) blanket. You may want your students to make other items from other cultures. You may also wish to modify and use only berries (fresh frozen blue or black berries are best) and white yarn to dye.

If you decide to make a Chilkat-style blanket, first look through art books containing pictures of Northwest Coast art. Find a number of Chilkat blankets and study the designs. Then, as a class or in a subcommittee, draw the life-size design for your blanket before you begin dyeing the material.

You could divide your blanket-making groups up into boys and girls. This division reflects the traditional method of producing a Chilkat blanket. The boys' groups could supervise the drawing of the design and make pattern boards, and the girls' groups could supervise the sewing itself. You might, however, allow both sexes to partake in both activities so that all the students will be involved throughout the entire process.

When the pieces of dyed materials have been dried and ironed, make sure they are the proper size and shape for the design -- and begin putting the "blanket" together. The students can either glue the pieces in place, or, if they are more energetic, sew them in place using black thread and a simple running or slip sticth. When the blanket is complete, hang it on the wall or have some students model it. Then invite the parents to the classroom to see it.

Before dyeing the cloth, wash it in hot soft water with a mild soap. Rinse the cotton in hot water and allow it to sit for several hours. Then rinse it two or three times in cooler water.

There are basically two processes to dyeing: mordanting, or preparing the cloth so it will pick up and keep the dyes; and dyeing. The Tlingits and most other Indians used urine as a mordant but this seems impractical for a children's program.

How to Mordant: To mordant enough cotton to make a Chilkat-style blanket: add 3 tablespoons salt and 1 cup vinegar to 2 gallons of lukewarm water in an enamel or copper pot (iron darkens colors and tin makes them harsh). Then wetted cotton is immersed and the bath is heated to boiling, then allowed to boil for one hour. The bath is cooled (overnight if possible); then the cloth is removed, rinsed, and wrapped in a towel ready to be dyed.

Other mordant chemicals which can be used with cotton are: water glass (sodium silicate or potassium silicate), tea (tannic acid), washing soda (sodium carbonate), alum (aluminum potassium sulfate). When using alum, use 4 oz.- alum, 1 oz. washing soda, and 4 gallons of water to 1 lb. of cotton. Each mordant will, when combined with a given dyestuff, produce a unique color.

How to Dye: In dyeing your cloth, the color must first be released from the dyestuff. This is done through breaking up, squishing, soaking, and cutting the dye, then boiling it in a couple of gallons of water for as long as possible. Bark takes the longest boiling to release the color, and an overnight soaking helps a lot. A blender is a marvelous way to cut up things finely so they will give the maximum dye.

Add enough cold soft water to the dyebath to reach a sufficient level: 4 gallons of water for each pound of material to be dyed. Strain the bath and immerse the mordanted cotton in the cool dyebath. It is essential to totally submerge the cloth and then bring it to a low simmer. If the dyebath is very hot when you want to put the cloth in, get the cloth slowly hot by holding it under a running faucet, first cold and then hotter and hotter water until you can't hold it any longer; then drop it immediately in the hot dyebath.

Dyeing may take from 10 minutes to an hour of simmering. Usually the color will get darker the longer you leave the cloth in so it is best to be patient. When you take the cotton out of the dyebath, rinse it in hot, then cooler and cooler water until it is cold. Wrap it in a towel to absorb excess moisture, and then hang it up to dry in the shade.

During the dyeing section of the Museum workshop, we found that some children were terribly excited by the whole process, while others found it too long and got bored. On the days you dye, you might also have one or two other activities going to keep bored children busy. At the Museum, regardless of initial reaction, everyone was excited by the results of the projects.

Plants used in the Museum workshop were:

bark - alder, hemlock, onion skins
berries - blueberries, crowberries, salmonberries flowers - lupin, fireweed, goldenrod, yarrow
leaves - labrador tea, horsetail rush, bracken (fern), clubmoss

You can look up these plants for dyeing in a plant book to learn what to look for; try anything that you think looks colorful or read further in natural dye books.

The Tlingits used hemlock bark for black, copper for blue, and wolf moss for yellow in dyeing mountain goat wool. They used nettles, blueberries, and hemlock bark as dye for baskets.

Natural Dyes and Home Dyeing, Rita Adrosko (Dover Publications)

Dye Plants and Dyeing, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Indian Vegetable Dyes Parts I & II, Denver Art Museum

Intermediate - Junior High School

Northwest Coast Indian Art - Holm

Monuments in Cedar

Haidas

other NWC art books

Alaska Magazines/Alaska Journal

VT 14 - Tlingit Dancers

materials needed for button blanket (felt, pearl buttons, needles, thread)

Northwest Coast crest designs (from art books)

Objectives

1. Students will go to the library to do research on button blankets. They will learn the history and use of the blanket in ceremonies.
2. Students will learn 4 main elements of NWC design.
3. Students will do reports on various NWC crafts and traditions.
4. Students will make maps of NWC tribal variations.

Procedures

1. Go to library to do research on Tlingit/Haida design and button blanket.
2. Students will see VT 14 on Tlingit dancers (button blankets are shown in VT).
3. After doing research on the button blanket, decide the size of the blanket you wish to make, i.e., adult, child, etc., and select a crest design to be used on it. Depending on the size of the blanket, make a pattern of the design, using, if necessary, an opaque projector. The pattern is used to put the design on the blue part of tne blanket.

While making the blanket, discuss the history and use of button blankets. Include in the discussion significance of the crest design, who makes the blanket for whom, bringing out a blanket at a potlatch, etc.

An adult blanket should measure approximately 70" wide by 50" long, with a 6" red trim around the top and sides. The crest design could be made of either buttons or felt applique. Two rows of buttons should be sewn around the top and sides of the blanket, directly adjacent to the red trim.

Needles - sizes #10, 11

Beads - sizes #10, 12

Thread - size #40

Precut felt patterns of raven and coho salmon (paper patterns follow)

Leather thongs

Stiffener for raven and coho salmon (card stock or shirt cardboard, for instance.)

Glue

Heavy-duty string

Objectives

1. To introduce students to beadsewing in the Tlingit tradition.
2. To engage the student in actual beadwork sewing using raven or coho salmon patterns.
3. To explain the meaning of Tlingit beading designs.

Procedures

1. Give background of beadsewing in the old Tlingit Indian tradition.
   1. Discuss material used
      1. Skin - leather
      2. Bone needles
   2. Discuss use of traditional designs
      1. Raven
      2. Coho salmon
      3. Others (see designs following)
   3. What types of items were beaded? Why?
2. Instructions given to students must include:
   1. Explanation of beading project of a raven/coho salmon pendant
   2. Explanation of materials assembled
   3. Give each student necessary materials
      1. Pattern pieces - front and back
      2. Needle
      3. Beads
      4. Leather thong
      5. Stiffener
      6. Glue
   4. Demonstrate with threaded needle:
      1. How and where to place needle through material
      2. How to place beads on the needle
      3. How to secure beads onto material
   5. Show and explain the uses of the front and back pieces of pattern.
      1. Beaded design is done on front pattern
      2. Leather thong is sewn on the back side of pattern
   6. Have students complete beaded design on front pattern.
   7. Have students glue stiffener on the back pattern.
   8. Sew leather thong onto the back pattern.
   9. Have students sew front and back pieces together.
   10. Put string through loop of leather and place around neck.

A. Were my instructions clearly stated?

B. Did students show enthusiasm and interest in the project?

C. Were the objectives met?

D. How could I have improved the lesson?

on-going if resources are used

I.

Masking tape, blankets, art supplies, one or more copies of In a Tlingit Winter House (available from the lEA office), Tlingit story books (see bibliography)

Background

The Tlingit clan house was the basis of Tlingit social organization up to the turn of the century. The house was owned by the clan as a whole, though the headman, or chief of the clan, had proprietorship and responsibility over it. An entire clan or segment of a clan lived in a house, and identified with it; there were thus sometimes as many as 40 or 50 people living in a large clan house.

Clan membership was determined through the mother's line. Thus all children of a marriage belonged to the mother's, not the father's clan. Although a couple usually lived with the husband's clan after marriage, their children (especially the sons) went to live in the mother's clan house when they reached an age of learning (i.e., when it was time to learn to be a hunter and clan member). Clan houses were named, and people identified with that name. For instance, a certain house might be called the Snail House, and had a crest design of the snail which showed this relationship.

Since the clan house was so important in the social structure of Tlingit life, it is a good place to begin teaching your students something about that culture. Tsimshian and Haida clan houses were similar in style to the Tlingit houses.

Procedures

Extension

Look into other types of housing for other lessons.

Materials

Books on Northwest Coast art (see appendix C, Art Bibliography)
Books containing clan crest stories:

Kiksadi Dog Salmon Legend by A. P. Johnson

K'eet - Kake Version by Henry Davis

"The Girl and the Woodworm" (from Tlingit Stories by Maria Ackerman)

Many of the stories associated with totem poles in The Wolf and the Raven by Garfield and Forrest

Chapter I, "The One Horned Mountain Goat" in Once Upon a Totem by Christie Harris

You might also check out UN 516 (Tlingit Stories Kit) from the AVS Center

projector

poster paints

butcher paper

Objectives

1. Students know the relationship between at least one crest design and the story behind it.
2. Students recognize wall panels as a Northwest Coast art form.
3. Students participate in choosing a crest design.
4. Students participate in designing and painting their design.

Procedures

This activity, can be done in conjunction with the preceding lesson (Make a Clan House) or on its own.

Using books or visuals on Northwest Coast Art, have students choose a fairly simplified crest design. They should research the design to learn what animal it shows, and what clan it belongs to, if. possible. Then, using an overhead or opaque projector, project the design on white or brown buther paper. The projection should be large enough to fill at least a 5' x 7' section of paper. Students can then trace the design, then paint in the proper colors (black for primary outlines, red for secondary outlines and points of emphasis, and blue-green for tertiary areas). Hang the design on a wall of your classroom as a backdrop for other activities centering around Native Emphasis Week.

A proper Northwest wall panel should, of course, show a design which belongs to the clan that owns the house and which tells something of the clan's history. If you have no Tlingit, Tsimshian, or Haida students in your class, it would be appropriate for the class to decide on a clan designation and write a story explaining how they came to earn that designation. As a model for clan stories, you might turn to one of the books listed in this lesson under "materials."

Evaluation

A. Note student attainment of objectives A through D above.

B. Did students enjoy the activity?