Spinning and Processing | Woven in Wool Accessible Text

Woven in Wool Text Accessibility 

The Burke is prototyping different ways of increasing access to the content in our exhibits. 

This text allows you to access artwork, case labels, and audio transcripts from our special exhibition Woven in Wool: Resilience in Coast Salish Weaving to read, translate, or enlarge on your own device. Please test it out, enjoy, and connect with this exhibition.

This is just one small step in our efforts to increase accessibility museum-wide. If you have and feedback or suggestions, we'd love to hear from you.

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Audio Transcripts

Transcripts of audio storytelling from the exhibition are also available.

Learn more


[CENTRAL PLATFORM, CASE FACING LOOM PLATFORM]

Weaver, Skokomish
yiĺbi
ʔləqsəd tə səbaƛsx̌ʷiƛayiĺqid (Skokomish Language)
“Skirt of mountain goat wool”
Mountain goat wool
Pre-1892
147, Gift of Washington World's Fair Commission

[CENTRAL PLATFORM, LOW PRINTED RAIL]

Haʔməkʷitən Kelly Sullivan, Port Gamble S’Klallam
Roxanne Hockett, Port Gamble S’Klallam (Spinner)
Overspun S’Klallam Skirt

“The overspun technique is really magical. When you are taking it off the loom, it really feels like the weaving’s spirit is alive and visible, because those braids spring back and you don’t need a knot. It’s like they have come to life.

The technique is something that I learned through my apprenticeship with Susan Pavel. She learned from the collections, and I learned from Susan. That’s how collections keep teaching.”

Mountain goat wool, alder cone
2025
On loan from Haʔməkʷitən Kelly Sullivan

 

Haʔməkʷitən Kelly Sullivan, Port Gamble S’Klallam
Revival

“I wanted to make another piece of regalia that’s important, but not necessarily ceremonial—something more utilitarian. Because we have to carry so many things for ceremony, we have to have a way of carrying it.

This type of bag becomes our little grab bag that might hold a rattle or ceremonial items.”

Mountain goat wool blend, cotton, alder cone, red cortinarius mushroom
2025
On loan from Haʔməkʷitən Kelly Sullivan

Haʔməkʷitən Kelly Sullivan with one of her weavings in 2024.

 

Haʔməkʷitən Kelly Sullivan, Port Gamble S’Klallam

"The inspiration was a Paul Kane painting that I saw during a visit of a museum photo collection. We don’t have many pictures of Klallams in wool so this was a really neat discovery for me.

I was imagining how invaluable that shawl would have been then, the amount of work and hours that it would have taken to gather and create, the status of the person wearing it, wondering where the source of dye came from for the colors they used.

I love working to solve the mysteries that the collections show us from our ancestors. I was really taken by the material of the mountain goat fibers. I felt like I was making something really old and it felt so comforting. Once I had that in my hands it was just really magical and fast. Things were so easy.

I am just hoping that people see the majesty of it all. How important, how regal and how chiefly it is.

The way that my friends, family and coworkers have all contributed to this work is so uplifting.”

“Chee-ah-clah,” Songhees
by Paul Kane, 1849-1856.
Courtesy of Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada. ©ROM, object number 912.1.89, gift of Edmund Osler.

 

Haʔməkʷitən Kelly Sullivan, Port Gamble S’Klallam
Roxanne Hockett, Port Gamble S’Klallam (Spinner)
Garrett Sitting Dog, Port Gamble S’Klallam (Carver)
Many Hands Overspun Shawl

Mountain goat wool, alder cone, red cortinarius mushroom, deer antler, deer bone
2025
On loan from Haʔməkʷitən Kelly Sullivan

Haʔməkʷitən Kelly Sullivan with student Aliyah Hatch.

[CENTRAL PLATFORM, CASE FACING MURAL]

Weaver, Skokomish
kut tə səbaƛsx̌ʷiƛayiĺqid (Skokomish Language)
“Dress of mountain goat wool"
Mountain goat wool
Pre-1893
FM 19787, On loan from The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, 19787

 

In this photograph, Annie Williams wears traditional regalia woven of mountain goat wool, including a dress, belt, and hood. This set of regalia showcases one’s wealth and prestige and the love of family and community. It is her formal wear, not worn every day but for very special ceremonial occasion.

Mountain goat wool provides spiritual protection during occasions such as namings or weddings—moments when individuals are taking on life-long responsibilities.

 

Indians of the Puget Sound, vol. 2, manuscript. Box 15, item 2. WCMss 137. Myron Eells Collection. Whitman College and Northwest Archives.

[CENTRAL PLATFORM, CASE FACING PLANT INTERACTIVE]

Weaver, Quinault
limotu.olaks (Quinault Language)

“Cape”
Spun and Braided Cape
Mountain goat wool
Pre-1892
148, Gift of Washington World's Fair Commission

“This was the only braided cape that I know of. We distinguish a skirt from a cape by the shape. If it has a straight shape, it’s a skirt. If it has an angle, it’s a cape.

It’s all a little confusing because things get mislabeled. Skirts were labeled as capes. Capes as skirts. The original labeling of this weaving was “skirt with an angle.”

When we started doing all this research, this was befuddling because if you had an angle on a skirt, where would you put the angle?

Would you put it in front to hide whatever it is you’re trying to cover? Or would you have that angle in the back? I mean, where would you put an angle on a skirt? It didn’t make any sense.

If it were a cape, that made sense because our brothers and sisters around the world are weaving capes that have an angle in the back. But to my knowledge, until now, no one is braiding or has braided one that would be directly inspired by the one in the Burke collection.”

— sa’hLa mitSa Dr. Susan Pavel, Filipina, married into Skokomish

[SPINNING GALLERY WALL]

“Spinning is really magical. 

When I display spinning for people, they are really consumed by it.

They want to watch the spindle roll. They want to touch it. They want to see it flick off the top and do its magic.”

— Haʔməkʷitən Kelly Sullivan, Port Gamble S’Klallam

[LEFT TALLER CASE ON SPINNING WALL]

Spinning Tools

Spindle whorl designs are often personal to the weaver, evoking

closely guarded gifts or animals in their territories. Many symmetrical designs are animated when spun, like an animal chasing its tail or repeating geometries evoking salmon, birds, or people that blur together at speed.

The transformative power of spindle whorls to create spun yarn from raw material is part of the wealth that weavers gift to their communities.

 

1. Carver, Coast Salish
stibtəd (Lushootseed)

"Tool for tension"
Wood
RBCM 2907, Courtesy of the Royal BC Museum

2. Carver, Squamish
Spindle whorl
Wood
Pre-1940
1-276

3. Carver, Cowichan
sul'sul'tun (Cowichan Language)

"Spindle whorl"
Wood
Pre-1920
6943

4. Carver, San Juan Island
Spindle Whorl
Whale bone
200 - 2000 years old
SAJH 132696, courtesy of San Juan Island National Historical Park in consultation with traditionally associated Coast Salish Tribes

5. Weńanūá Al Charles Jr.
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe / Lummi Nation

Thunderbird Whorl and spindle
Yellow cedar
2025
2025-94/1, Purchased with funds donated by ArtsWA

6. Carver, Snohomish
d
uləq ʔə sx̌ʷiƛaýalqid (Lushootseed)
"Spindle whorl with mountain goat wool"
Mountain goat wool, cedar
Pre-1923
8683, Gift of Dr. Leslie Spier and Dr. Erna Gunther Spier

7. Sm3tcoom Delbert Miller, Skokomish
Whale Bone Spindle Whorl with Nettle
Whale bone, wood, stinging nettle
2024
On loan from SiSeeNaxAlt Gail White Eagle

8. Spinner, Northwest Coast
sx̌
ʷiƛaýalqid (Lushootseed)
"Mountain goat wool"
Mountain goat wool, cedar
Museum of Vancouver Collection, catalog AA 1246

[SPINNING CASE STORY AUDIO TRANSCRIPT]

“The tools we use and make—trying to understand the images, the carvings that are on some of these things. Some people would question why, let's say it's, a wolf. Right? They look at this wolf on this spindle whorl or on this comb and a lot of times it looks like a wolf, but there's a fin on its back.

Growing up, I figured that they just thought it looked cool. I didn't understand why they put that fin on its back. It's because that tool is working with something so sacred, they would put those images on there that were of these supernatural beings.

I've had this conversation with, with different elders from Vancouver and over on Vancouver Island in the Puget Sound, down to the Columbia River, of why they put these, these supernatural images on these, whether it's a tapper or it's, a beater stick or net shuttle or spindle whorl.

The same answers that kept coming out was, it's because of how sacred that material was that tool would be holding. You know, that wool.

The designers would make whatever image they were carving on there relate to that spirit world, the world that we can't see, walking down the street a lot of the times.

They would put those on these to make them that much stronger so they could be used with this sacred material.

— Al Charles, Jr.

[VIDEO]

 

[Video on this wall includes contemporary and historical footage. Captions within the video are listed here]

 

2022 >> Members of the Coast Salish Wool Weaving Board pounding and cleaning wool with diatomaceous earth.

1928 >> Harriette Johnnie (Squamish) pounding and cleaning wool, demonstrating techniques still used by Coast Salish weavers today.

1928 >> Harriette Johnnie (Squamish) spins and weaves mountain goat wool into regalia

Historical footage courtesy of Canadian Museum of History Collection “Coast Salish Indians of British Columbia” Harlan Smith, 2018

[ANGLED DECK WITH TOUCHABLE TOOLS]

Spinning

Spindle whorls are tools consisting of a disk with a central hole that fits onto a spindle, a rod used to twist fibers into yarn. In Coast Salish territory, they are typically carved from wood, stone, or bone.

One side of the whorl gathers and holds the spun yarn, while the carved side faces the spinner as she spins. 

Spindle whorls help spin raw fiber into yarn with a consistent twist and thickness. The whorl provides steady weight at one end of the spindle rod, allowing the spinner to better control the speed and force of the spin.

Please touch
Whorl
Dusty Humphries, Jamestown S’Klallam

 

Processing

How does raw wool become yarn? Cleaning it is the first step.

Weavers can clean raw wool using a rocky powder called diatomaceous earth. After sprinkling the wool fibers with this powder, they use a wool beating stick to pound the fiber against a cedar mat.

The diatomaceous earth filters through the mat, leaving the wool clean. This process cleans and whitens the fibers, removes dirt and oil, and acts as a natural bug repellent.

Please touch
Wool Beating Stick
Dusty Humphries, Jamestown S’Klallam

[RIGHT SHORTER CASE ON SPINNING WALL]

“As we were rediscovering with Uncle Bruce all of the processing techniques, my husband Michael remembered that they had this beating stick tucked away somewhere.

When we first brought it out, we were a unsure how we used it. And then we saw a video of Buddy's great-great grandmother Harriette Johnnie. In the video she's squatted on the ground and she's beating the wool and she's fluffing with her other hand. Beating and fluffing.”

— sa’hLa mitSa Dr. Susan Pavel

Carver, Skokomish
səpu squpčiĺəš ti yiĺqiyid (Skokomish Language)

"Beating stick for wool"
Wood
On loan from the Pavel family, Skokomish

“I love to gather cedar bark; it’s a medicine for me and it's a medicine for my people. I would gather for the elders, because it's medicine for them. When they get to sit down and weave, they remember teachings and share them with you.”

— SiSeeNaxAlt Gail White Eagle, Muckleshoot
 

SiSeeNaxAlt Gail White Eagle, Muckleshoot
sutupud slag
ʷəd (Lushootseed)
“Pounding mat”
Cedar pounding mat
Cedar bark, mountain goat wool, sinew
2025
On loan from SiSeeNaxAlt Gail White Eagle

 

1. Saanich
Diatomaceous earth
1930
1-10613

Before processing
2. sx̌ʷiƛaýalqid (Lushootseed)
Raw mountain goat wool
Courtesy of Woodland Park Zoo

After processing
3. Mountain goat wool batting
Mountain goat wool, sheep wool, fireweed fluff, cattail fluff, duck down, diatomaceous earth
On loan from Haʔməkʷitən Kelly Sullivan