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	"Onion Dome" Knob-Top Whaling Chief's Hat Nootka or Makah; late 18th- to early 19th century spruce root, cedar bark, surf grass, unidentified fur, unidentified hide H: 27 cm D: 22.5 cm PM#99-12-10/53080 Knob-top hats with decorative motifs worn by noble men and women were frequently described and drawn by early explorers and early artist-illustrators who sailed to Nootka Sound. In 1805, on their way down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean, Lewis and Clark noticed that many native people wore basketry hats of different forms, including knob-top, rounded-top conical, flat-top, and hats shaped like European top hats. Cone-shaped hats with geometric or pictorial figures and knob-top hats with figures representing whaling scenes caught the explorers' eyes. Favorably impressed by the rain-repellent qualities of the hats, Lewis and Clark acquired a number of them through trade and by commission. Clark wrote "Maney of the nativs of the Columbia were hats & most commonly of a conic figure without a brim confined on the head by means of a String which passes under the chin and is attached to the two opposit Sides of a Secondary rim within the hat&emdash; the hat at top termonates in a pointed knob of a conic form, or in this Shape. these hats are made of the bark of Cedar and beargrass wrought with the fingers So closely that it Casts the rain most effectually in the Shape which they give them for their own use or that just discribed, on these hats they work various figures of different colours, but most commonly only black and white are employed. these figures are faint representations of the whales, the Canoes, and the harpooners Strikeing them." Such hats were actually made farther north by whaling peoples on the coasts of Washington and Vancouver Island. The presence of "foreign" hats in the lower Columbia region indicated cultural contact with outsiders through trade, exchange, gift networks, raids, enslavement, visits and possibly inter-tribal marriage. (above) Woman of Nootka Sound (right) Sketches from Clark's journal	By the latter half of the eighteenth century, although whaling chiefs' hats were no longer worn exclusively by whale hunters, Northwest coast residents still wore them to display their social status and wealth. In 1806, Lewis and Clark commissioned two Clatsop women to weave several basketry hats, confirming that the Nootka and Makah were at that time but two of a larger group of peoples who made these hats. Because of the complexity of the construction and the skills required for such fine weaving, only the most talented weavers manufactured "onion dome" knob-top whaling chief's hats. Knob-top whaling chiefs' hats performed a triple function. They served as items of utility, communicated the social status of the wearer, and were a means of communication between human and animal worlds. This "onion dome" knob-top whaling chief's hat is overlay-twining, that is, twining with double strands. The warp is split spruce root; the weft is black-dyed cedar bark with an overlay of ivory-colored surf grass. Either weft color can be brought to the surface, to create decorative motifs. This type of hat has two layers: an inner form of more coarsely twined red cedar bark joined at the edge of the rim to the outer structure. Both the inner headband overlaid with fur and the "onion dome" knob-top are alternate pair twining, and the initiating construction of the knob is checker weave. Hats were held on the wearer's head with two thongs tied under the chin.

	<previous -index- next> h o m e i n t r o o b j e c t s m a p r e s o u r c e s c r e d i t s The Ethnography of Lewis and Clark: Native American Objects and the American Quest for Commerce and Science Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University Copyright ©President and Fellows of Harvard College