Contemporary Coast Salish Art. RebeccaBlanchard and Nancy Davenport, eds. Seattle:University of Washington Press, 2005. 129 pp.

JAY MILLER

This catalog accompanied the exhibitionAwakenings: A Gathering of Coast Salish Artiststhat opened in August 2005, and which, sadly, hascome to be a memorial to several of the major artistswho were at the opening. Bruce Miller died thatsame year, and Ron Hilbert/Coy died in January2006. Don Ellegood, former director of theUniversity of Washington Press and a jazz clar-inetist, died before the plans were complete. TheStonington Gallery, which has co-published thisvolume, has been a landmark in downtown Seattlefor some time. In 1993, it launched a similar proj-ect, titled Southern Style: Contemporary Art of theCoast Salish, Makah, and Nuu-chah-nulth that wasaimed at promoting awareness of the Native arts ofthe southern Northwest Coast of North America.

Lavishly illustrated, this more-focused catalogrepeats the claim that Coast Salish art has beenlittle understood or appreciated, especially whencompared with the Formline style of the northernNorthwest Coast. It does so, however, by ignoringvirtually all of the publications and research, myown included, done in the past decade. True, this isthe work of a commercial gallery intended to encour-age appreciation and sales, but some intellectualhonesty seems called for. References to the art as toosacred and private beg its use on public architectureand open beaches. It was, and is, highly personal andreserved, but it did and does appear in public set-tings where the family and individual serve ashosts.

Of the several chapters, the first offering, “TheCoast Salish Two-Dimensional Art Style: AnExamination,” is an overview by Steve Brown—anartist, curator, and student of Bill Holm. Holm lit-erally wrote the manual for reviving and graspingNorthwest Coast Native art. Indeed, Brown borrowsHolm’s distinction between configurative and dis-tributive patterning, from his analysis of the north-ern Formline style, to apply to the more “free-formand flamboyant” Salish.

Brown gives the sense that all Northwest art isderived from a “common root” but he does not follow

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this up. The careful articulation of ribs, joints, eyes,and mouths, however, points in the direction of theso-called x-ray style of shamanic art found acrossthe Americas and Siberia. Brown does note thatsouthern style characteristics can be traced on arti-facts that are 4,000 years old. This art is ubiquitouson all objects, many of them utilitarian—such asspindle whorls, mat creasers, paddles, and stonehammers. Mountain goat horn bracelets, oftenmisidentified as coming from New Guinea, appearonly during the earliest trade period and stronglyreflect the style at its most elegant. Massive archi-tectural features reflecting this art style includehouse posts, canoes, and memorial figures set on abeach spit.

The style’s design elements include circles,ovals, U crescents, and the distinctive trigon (a tri-angle with concave sides). Negative and positivespaces frame images, which often overlap and “pun”upon each other.A human face will merge into a birdwing, which itself includes a fish head. Such shift-ing and ambiguity is deliberate since, as noted,Salish notions of power and spirit are more privateand personal than those of the northern coast, whichare more corporate and public.

Throughout the discussion, the creative innova-tions and insights of distinguished Salish artistsMarvin Oliver and Susan Point are stressed, as isthe inspiration provided by a very few artifacts.Foremost among these are a “shaman’s board” fromQuinault, curated in the American Museum ofNatural History (New York), which stood beside ashaman’s bed to protect him in repose.Another is thepainted plank that served in the Shamanic Odysseyritual to protect Native doctors going to the Land ofthe Dead to retrieve lost souls. Unfortunately, someartists are basing their new planks on those in muse-ums, which were criminally cut off (squared), remov-ing the original pointed bottoms to make them fitinto glass display cases. When used in the ritual,they were quite able to stand alone.

The epic of Northwind vs Southwind, involvingthe wooing of Mountain Beaver Woman, also pro-vides constant inspiration, though the artists eachhave individual interpretations of its significance.While it has much to say about the milder winterclimate and specific terrain in the Seattle region,these are subordinated to perceived personality con-flicts. Mountain Beaver—a truly amazing creaturegiven to elaborate burrows, trimmed trees, and the

making of clay “baseballs”—is barely mentioned bythe project’s authors or artists.

In her essay “Something Beautiful to Give,”Barbara Brotherton, curator at the Seattle ArtMuseum (SAM), is the only author to actually andcorrectly use Salish terms for artistic concepts,insisting on the creative totality that is the contextfor these art works. She is organizing a Salish artshow for the SAM, to open in 2008.

Succeeding chapters by the twin editors focuson artists actively involved in the Salishan artsrevival and expansion. Living in Seattle,Washingtonand Vancouver, British Columbia respectively,Oliver and Point are always in the vanguard as“Urban Innovators.” Susan’s family takes its namefrom Point Grey where the University of BritishColumbia now occupies the tip, but her reserve atMusqueam also remains in their homelands. Bothartists have finished major commissions for the Cityof Seattle that are on public display.While cedar wasthe traditional medium for such art, their innova-tions include work in glass, cement, paper, print,and steel.

“Rekindling Spirit” treats younger artists work-ing in both wood and other materials such as“Puyallup”Shaun Peterson of Tacoma,and CanadiansMaynard Johnny, Jr., and the Marston brothers,Luke and John. They work in stone, wood, and pre-cious metals. Peterson has many commissionedworks in public places around Tacoma.

“Keeping the Spirit Alive” focuses on CanadiansSimon Charlie (who is 86), Jane Marston, and StanGreene, as well as Americans Andy Wilbur-Peterson, the late Ron Hilbert/Coy, and RogerFernandes. Hilbert/Coy was particularly well knownfor his renditions of winter rituals set inside moderncedar plank longhouses, which are modeled afterancient dwellings.

“Weaving the Generations Together” discussesthe revival of woolen weaving by Fran and BillJames, the late Bruce Miller, Karen Reed, MichaelPavel, Susan Pavel, Ed Archie NoiseCat, andKrista Point. The James, mother and son, are fromLummi near the WA/BC border, while the othershave interrelated family connections through theTwana/Skokomish on Hood Canal in Washingtonstate.While these weavings are much in demand forNative ceremonial use, some have also been incor-porated into furniture and sculptures for the artmarket.

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In all, this catalog, especially in conjunctionwith the exhibition, has done much to call attentionto the value of Coast Salish art in its own right. Itacknowledges the growing community of artistswho, replacing those who have “gone to the otherside,” have moved into new media and addressednew challenges creatively and profitably. They haveincreased the visibility of this art style, which is sodeeply rooted along the shores of the so-called SalishSea, on both sides of the U.S./Canadian border. Thisdevelopment has been fostered by increasinglyinternational exchanges of talent. While possessingsuch merits, the catalog is a popular work intendedto foster interest and sales, so caveat emptor.

Jay Miller is the American Indian Studies Coordinatorat The Ohio State University. He has researchedwidely throughout North America and is the author ofmany works in anthropology, ethnohistory and NativeAmerican studies, including Tsimshian Culture: A LightThrough the Ages (University of Nebraska Press,1997) and Lushootseed Culture and the ShamanicOdyssey: An Anchored Radiance (University ofNebraska Press, 1999). Among his current researchprojects is an multifaceted interpretation of Nativemound building in Eastern North America.

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