Quileute People - Craftsmanship

Craftsmanship

Historically the Quileutes were very talented builders and craftsmen. Like many other tribes in the region, they were excellent boat makers. They could make canoes for whaling, which could hold tons of cargo and many men. They had cedar canoes ranging in size from small boats that could hold two people to giant vessels up to 58 meters long and capable of holding up to 6,000 pounds. The modern clipper ship's hull uses a design very much like the canoes used by the Quileutes. The Quileutes used the resources from the land to make tools and other items. In the region, almost everything was made out of wood. Necessities like utensils, clothing, weapons, and even paints were made from the natural resources available to them. The Quileute Tribe is best known, as artists and craftsmen at least, for their woven baskets and dog hair blankets. The tribe would raise specially bred, woolly dogs for their hair, which they would spin and weave into blankets. They would also weave incredibly fine baskets that were so tightly woven that they could hold water. They could even boil water in some of them. Another example of their craftsmanship was the waterproof skirts and hats that they would make, using cedar, to shield against the heavy rainfall in the region.