Guulaangw gyaat'aad (button robe)
ca. 1890
John Yeltadzi descends from a family of artists who were originally from the Queen Charlotte Islands (now called Haida Gwaii), but moved to Alaska sometime in the late eighteenth century. The Alaskan Haida peoples are known as Kaigani Haida, the name being derived from an important village on Dall Island.
Haida artists have long demonstrated their abilities to adapt to new materials, new techniques and new markets ever since early contact with Euro-Americans. Robes fashioned from Hudson's Bay Company cloth and embellished with pearl buttons eventually replaced the older robes of cedar fiber, fur, and hide. Designed by men and fabricated by women, robes bear the clan crests that proclaim the identity and lineage of the wearer, in this case represented by a splayed orca whale.
Commercial wool cloth, pearl buttons, metal pins, cotton twine
54.5 x 70 in. (137.16 x 177.8 cm)
Gift of John H. Hauberg
91.1.65
Photo: Paul Macapia
