Biography of Jennie Thlunaut: Part 4

"Jennie Thlunaut” Master Chilkat Blanket Artist
by Rosita Worl and Charles Smythe
from the Exhibit book “The Artists Behind the Work”
published by the University of Alaska Museum,
Fairbanks, Alaska 1986
Reprinted here with author's permission
Jennie Thlunaut 1892-1986

Chilkat Shirts

Jennie made six Chilkat woven shirts in her life. There was only one lady in Klukwan who knew how to make shirts, but she did not want to teach Jennie how to make them, so Jennie tried it and figured out how to make shirts on her own.

The shirt was made for Jack David is a spirit shirt. It has the name Naa Tuxgaayi. Austin Hammond has this shirt now (fig. 16). She also made a shirt for Tom Jimmie and for her second husband John Mark (Thlunaut). Her husband sold the shirt Jennie made for him while she was in the hospital. He sold it to someone aboard the missionary boat Sheldon Jackson, which at the time traveled to all southeastern communities. She felt so bad about it that she made another one just like it. Austin Hammond inherited this shirt as part of the Lukwaax.adi clan property. Jennie also indicates she made a shirt for Peter Dick of Angoon.

(Top photo) Fig. 16. NaaTuxgaayi, the Spirit Shirt, was woven for Jack David. It is being worn by George Davis in a 1981 potlatch given by Austin Hammond. Hammond and Walter Soboleff are standing by George Davis on the platform. (Bottom photo) Fig. 17. The Bear crest shirt, originally woven by Jennie Thlunaut for Jimmie Marks, here worn by a young dancer during a potlatch.

Cultural Signifigance of Chilkat Blankets

The ceremonial regalia of the Tlingit nobility includes the Chilkat blanket. They are worn at potlaches and other ceremonies. Weavers were often commissioned to make Chilkat blankets to commemorate events recorded in a clan's oral traditions. Chilkat blankets were also given away in potlatches. Sometimes they were even cut up and the pieces were distributed among the guests. The blanket is used in dancing and is quite spectacular when it is swirling in motion as the dancers spin around. Today the blankets are the prize of musuem collections around the world. Chilkat blankets are important to the Tlingit both in life and death. Tlingit nobles were cremated in their ceremonial regalia. After the practice of burying the dead was adopted, the Tlingit would either wear their blankets or drape them over their burial sites. When they found that whites were taking them from the graveyard sites, the Tlingit began cutting the blankets into strips. They found that even this did not discourage the grave robbers, who continued to remove them.

Jennie made a number of Chilkat blankets for outright commercial sales to non-Tlingits. She was also commissioned by other Tlingits to make them Chilkat blankets and shirts. Jennie also made and gave away Chilkat blankets and shirts to her family members. Many of these Chilkat blankets and shirts remain the propert of the clans. Clans also own rights to specific crests. Jennie is always careful to ensure that she weaves only those crests on the blankets and shirts to which the Tlingit recipients of the blankets or shirts have property rights. For instance, she would never weave a Raven crest for a Tlingit who is a member of the Eagle clan.

The following stories which Jennie related reveal the importance of the Chilkat blankets to the Tlingit.
Jennie was invited to a potlach in Hoonah. During the potlach Jimmy Marks put money on the table (which would be distributed to validate her right to the name), called Jennie out and said, "Excuse me, sister, I am going to adopt you, I am going to give you my sister's name, Alice Sutton's name." Jennie felt so honored to be given the name L'eex'eendu.oo, (Keeping the Broken Pieces), and to become the adopted sister of Jimmy Marks, who was the Chief of the Chookaneidi Clan.

When Jimmie Marks became ill, Jennie was so worried that she would not have any money to give in his honor when he died. She recalls the distress she felt: "What we [I] going to do when he died. I got nothing...I got no money." At that pont she decided to make him a Chilkat shirt. When she finished the shirt she went down to Juneau to visit him. He had recently been released from the hospital. She approached him, "I just came to see you. I worry about [you]. I thinking about you all the time. I got no brother, that's why I'm glad adopt me for your sister...what are we going to do when you go away? That's why I make something for you." Jennie recounted his response: "How do you know my thoughts? Thank you. That's the way we think about it when we know we're going to pass away. Somebody going to put the bear ear, you know, dancing, they use it, they put it on my head and then we died with it. Now this time you make that bear, thank you very much!" (Gangoosh [head band with bear ears] was put on the nobility just prior to their death). Jennie returned to Klukwan pleased that she had made something special for her adopted brother.

(Top photo) Fig. 18. Raven crest blanket, Sheldon Museum and Cultural Center collection. (Bottom photo) Fig. 19. Chilkat blanket with wolf design, ca 1910. this blanket is owned by Klukwan, Inc., the profit village coporation, and is on exhibit at the Sheldon Museum and Cultural Center.

Jennie occasionally stayed with her daughter, Edna Land. Edna lived in Haines next to the Raven House in which Jennie had once lived with her husband John Mark (Thlunaut). Austin Hammond is now the recognized Chief of the Lukwaax.adi and lives in the Raven House.

Jennie recalls that one day in July when she was staying with Edna, she looked out the window and was surprised to see her adopted brother and his wife going into Austin's house. She recalled thinking, "Oh, my auntie coming and her husband too!" It was not too long before someone came to get her to go to Austin's house, and soon the purpose of the visit was made evident. Jennie recalled her brother's words to her: "We come back from Hoonah. I show the one you give me, the shirt. I show my family, and my family says they don't want to bury with me." Jimmie explained that his family wanted to keep the shirt rather than having it buried with him. His family felt that the shirt would remind them of both Jimmy and Jennie. Jimmy told Jennie the purpose of his visit was to explain his family's wishes to her. Jennie simply replied, "Thank you."

After his death, Jennie went to Hoonah to participate in his potlach. The evening before the big potlach, all his personal possessions, "his tools, everything" were given to members of his clan. Jennie was approached by one of her adopted brother's clan members, "Sister,your brother was talking about you lots, about the blanket shirt. It costs too much money...He feels bad he go away before you. He [was] talking about he was going to buy your casket when he go away. Now this time he go ahead of you. That's why he told me to give you this money." Jennie was handed an envelope which she opened and found one thousand dollars. The clan member continued, "your brother was talking about it, when you go away you buy some casket." Jennie explained that this is why her family and friends need not worry, "I'm all right. Everything is okay." Jennie has put the money she received from her brother in the bank to pay for her coffin when "she goes away too."

The Chilkat Bear shirt which Jennie had made for her adopted brother, Jimmy Marks, became part of the Chookaneidi Clan property. Willie Marks, who succeeded his brother Jimmy, inherited the shirt. Jennie's neice, Mary Johnson, who is also Chookaneidi, became the caretaker of the clan's possessions. Jennie points out that she is often given money by those who have her Chilkaat blankets or shirts. She tells that once she was at a potlach and a man came and embraced her, he said, "I'm glad I got it your job. Thank you very much." He pressed fifty dollars into Jennie's hand and said, "That's my thanks; don't say no." She also tells that Willie Marks would give her twenty dollars of fifty dollars just to go the restaurant.

Click here to continue “Jennie Thlunaut” Biography Part 5

Clarissa Hudson
970-903-8386