Blanket brings "sacred change"
1-28-2007
By Lynda V. Mapes
Seattle Times staff reporter
OLYMPIA — With prayer and song, tribal members from around the region Saturday named and blessed the first known hand-twined mountain-goat-hair blanket made in Puget Sound country in generations.
The art was retained by a few master weavers, including the late Bruce Miller, a Skokomish spiritual leader known as subiyay, who passed the art on to his apprentice, Susan Pavel. Pavel, who made the blanket, brought it out in a joyous ceremony at the longhouse at The Evergreen State College. The one-of-a-kind blanket will hang in the new addition of the Seattle Art Museum, which is scheduled to open in May.
"A blanket like this made from mountain-goat hair probably has not been made in 100 years," said Barbara Brotherton, curator of Native American Art at the Seattle Art Museum. "She is bringing back a most ancient style of weaving."
The blanket's Indian name, which means Sacred Change for Each Other, is as much a mission as a name, said Delbert Miller, a spiritual leader of the Skokomish people. "It is a sacred change for everyone, from a people that nearly lost everything, to a people that is coming together."
The blanket is a triumph of an ongoing quiet renaissance in Coast Salish weaving carried on by Indian and non-Indian weavers from Vancouver Island to Puget Sound and the Washington coast. "One of the great acts of survival is to adapt Salish weaving that had waned for quite a period of time," said Michael Pavel, Susan's husband and Miller's nephew. Michael Pavel spent 12 years gathering the wool for the blanket, tuft by tuft. It took Susan Pavel about six months to weave it.
"Our culture was essentially dismembered; our elders and leaders had been decimated by a variety of diseases and the ill effects of the introduction of modern society," Michael Pavel said.
"The people's understanding of the blankets was still there, they carried the prayers of the people, they kept the people warm.
"Uncle was adamant; he said we are weavers of blankets. Susan really took it on, and understood that, and it was the beginning of a great renaissance. It's just one more attempt to retain our greatness through the aboriginal and indigenous aspects of our culture. This is part of our generation's effort to reclaim our identity."
The blanket was presented in a procession of weavers from the region, each wearing woolen vests, dresses and other regalia they wove themselves.
"It's something I never thought I would see in my lifetime," said Susan Pavel, who, as a weaving teacher, had hoped to attend an event at which people wore regalia they had woven.
After the procession, the blanket was wrapped around honored elders, one at a time, amid song and prayer. "I feel like I'm in heaven," said Fran James, 83, a Lummi master weaver and one of the elders honored with wearing the thick, soft blanket. At about 15 pounds, the blanket was so heavy James and other elders wore it seated. "It has so much energy, you could feel it has so much meaning," James said.
Lynda V. Mapes 206-464-2736 Lynda V. Mapes
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January 2007 Reports
Last updated on January 28, 2007