English	Tlingit	Audio
Weaving	Da.áak	Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Grade Levels: 3-12

This unit is based on the old tradition of weaving baskets.
Basket making was one of the oldest and most important arts in the Tlingit economy. Woven basketry was fairly prominent in all coastal Native groups from the Aleutian Chain to the Columbia River. Many baskets, mats, bags, etc. were sewn, coiled, twined or plaited from a variety of materials.

Twining (the same type of weave as used in the Chilkat Blanket) was reserved for the spruce root baskets of the Tlingit. These water-tight vessels augmented the Tlingit’s selection of wooden cooking utensils common among the Northwest Coast Indians.

Baskets were made to be used and their shape was dictated by the use for which they were intended. Some were cook kettles, water jars, drinking cups and food dishes. Some of the largest baskets were used for collecting and storing berries, a food staple.

This twining weave turned spruce roots into work hats, headdresses for a shaman, work baskets, rattles, spoon bags, fish traps, net bags for eulachon fishing, huge mats for canoe sails, floor mats, a baby’s cradle swing or a winding sheet for an old shaman when his body was taken to the lonely burial house.

Weaving1-1[MS Word]

Weaving: Tlingit Language audio files for this unit [MP3]. Nouns and Noun Forms Verbs and Verb Forms

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