Robes of Power: Totem Poles on Cloth

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. .