Traditionally, only the wealthy could make or own a Chilkat Blanket. Both men and women played a role in the creation of the blankets and both considered it a great privilege to wear one. The men designed the pattern and made the pattern board and loom. They provided goat hides for wool. The women gathered cedar bark, prepared the yarn and wove the blanket.
The patterns were a highly stylized form of art often representing clan symbols and natural forms in an abstract geometric pattern. Animals were portrayed as if sliced down the center and laid out flat. The small circles are ball and socket joints. Eyes were often used as space fillers. The men designed the pattern and painted the abstract figures on a wooden “pattern board.” As the blanket was bilateral, only half the pattern was painted in life-size dimensions. The blanket pattern could be interpreted in a variety of ways, however only the man who designed the blanket knew the true legend.