Tule Mats and Fibre Weaving

Boas wrote of the Secwepemc in 1890: "The Shushwap make mats of bulrushes, which are strung on threads of nettles, in the same way as the Lku'ngen and their neighbours do. Mats are also plaited, threads made of nettles being braided across bulrushes."

On the wider Plateau, "dyed and woven, tules are used to make baskets, bowls, mats, hats, clothing, duck decoys, and even boats by Native American groups," and "before the Salish got horses for bison hunting, they lived in tents covered with sewn mats of tule." Plateau housing "included longhouses roofed with summer tule mats," while winter homes were pit houses: "the people dug a pit a few feet into the ground and constructed a framework of poles over it."

Basketry and matting carried the material culture of the Plateau: "Plateau tribes excelled in the art of basketry. They most commonly used hemp dogbane, tule, sagebrush, or willow bark. These materials were also used to make hats, bedding, nets, and cordage. Basketry was particularly important because plateau tribes used no pottery."

Fibre weaving also connected the interior to the coast. The Wikipedia article on Salish weaving records that "the Salish speaking people near Spuzzum on the Fraser River" used Indian hemp as foundation warp material for blankets.

The tradition is presented today at the Secwepemc Museum and Heritage Park in Kamloops, whose reconstructed winter village includes summer tule mat lodges alongside a 2000-year-old pit house site on the South Thompson River.