The button blanket, which came into use after contact, has now become my most popular piece of contemporary feast attire. At first, crest designs decorated with dentalium shells were sewn onto wool blankets acquired from maritime fur traders and later the Hudson's Bay Company (PLATE 10). By the middle of the last century, the favored blanket was made of blue duffle, with the designs appliquéd in red Stroud (PLATE II). Squares of abalone shell were sewn to the eyes and joints of the crest figures to reflect bits of light as the wearer danced around a fire. When pearl buttons obtained from fur traders came into use, they proliferated onto the form lines. Today, buttons are sometimes used to fill entire zones of the design dements and even the whole field of the background.

A modern potlatch can bring forward a hundred or more button blankets from the participants. At a traditional naming ceremony, it is now considered essential to present the recipient with a special blanket decorated with a family crest. A century after the button blanket was first developed, it has become a symbol of social and artistic rebirth among the Haida. One Kaigani Haida artist, Dorothy Grant, has initiated a fashion house specializing in appliquéd clothing that she labels "Feast wear".

A button blanket by Dorothy Grant, Kaigani Haida, depicting the Raven bringing light to the world. This piece was commissioned by Dr. Margaret Hess for the Canadian Museum of Civilizacion on the occasion of the unveiling of a bronze sculpture on the same theme by Roben Davidson at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, 1986. CMC VIl-B-832 (s95-26,944)