Collection of the Portland Art Museum.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

Chilkat blankets, created by a complex form of tapestry twining, are the best-known textiles of the Northwest Coast. Emblems of nobility, they are prized for their crest significance, as well as for their beauty and fine workmanship. The labor-intensive process used to create a Chilkat blanket includes procuring and processing the materials, spinning the mountain goat wool wefts and the cedar bark and wood warps, dying the wefts, and weaving the blanket. The highly abstract designs of crest animals on Chilkat blankets fill the entire design space. The center panel of this design represents a diving whale, with the broad head filling the lower half while the spread-out tail flukes occupy the space along the upper border. A rectangular human face appears in the center of the whale's body.

Raven rattles were used throughout the Northwest Coast by people of high rank. The delicate and elaborate carving of these status objects displays the skills of the maker. The body of one of these rattles usually represents a raven, with the head of a hawk carved on its breast. A reclining figure, possibly a shaman, is carved on the back of the rattle. The figure's tongue is joined to the mouth of a bird or frog - in this example, a frog - possibly signifying a transfer of power from one to the other. This may indicate that it was traditionally a shaman's implement. The most common historical use of raven rattles, however, appears to have been as dance rattles carried by high-ranking individuals wearing frontlet headdresses.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection. Collected: Elizabeth Cole Butler

Museum Purchase: Indian Collection Subscription Fund, Rasmussen Collection of Northwest Coast Indian Art.

Museum Purchase: Indian Collection Subscription Fund, Rasmussen Collection of Northwest Coast Indian Art.

Museum Purchase: Indian Collection Subscription Fund, Rasmussen Collection of Northwest Coast Indian Art.

Gift of Miss Sally Hart.