The authors are grateful to the Elders and cultural leaders from Salish communities who have supported and encouraged this project. They have been important advisors to us over the years. Weaving, we were told, is a key element of Salish traditional culture, and the teachings surrounding it should not be lost. The way to keep culture alive, they said, is to share it, experience it, and record people’s knowledge—both of the historical teachings and of the contemporary activities. The privacy associated with particular sacred and ritual traditions has been respected in the research and the writing of this book. We have been careful to present only those materials and information that would have been, or are currently, used for family-related or community and public ceremonies.
We would like to thank the research and collections staff at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery, the Pitt Rivers Museum of the University of Oxford, the Royal British Columbia Museum, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of the American Indian, the American Museum of Natural History, the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, the Burke Museum of the University of Washington, the Museum of Vancouver, the British Museum, the Museum of Anthropology of the University of British Columbia, and the Canadian Museum of History. Their gracious welcome into the storerooms and their enthusiasm in sharing ideas, documentation, and artifacts made this project truly a joint effort with our museum colleagues.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canadian Museum of History. From our initial proposal for this study, the museum has allocated curatorial time for research and writing, provided travel funding that allowed us to analyze Salish weaving collections, and offered financial and administrative assistance when the manuscript was accepted for publication. The encouragement and interest of the chiefs of the Ethnology Department and of the Research Division over the years have carried this project steadily forward. We would like to thank the staff at the University of Nebraska Press, particularly Matthew Bokovoy, for their guidance in bringing the manuscript to publication.
The authors are all weavers, though from different traditions. We have experienced the excitement of thinking about a new project; the pleasure of choosing colors, textures, and design; and the satisfaction in taking a finished textile off the loom. Weavers form a strong community. We are indebted to the people who taught us the joy of weaving, to our families and friends, and to the many people who have shared their insights, experiences, and expertise.