Clara Newman Benson sits at a weaving loom at Klukwan in the 1890s.
Chilkat weaving is one of the most demanding and complex weaving techniques in the world, yet it has received relatively little attention from mainstream historians.
That lack of research inspired Zachary Jones, a U.S. National Park Service museum curator based in Anchorage, to write the first-ever biography of Clara Newman Benson, a Klukwan artist who was one of the most prolific weavers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and whose lineage can be traced to today.
“A Life Painted in Yarn,” published by Sealaska Heritage Institute in May, is the only biography of a historic Chilkat weaver other than Jennie Thlunaut, who lived two generations after Benson and is credited with helping preserve and promote the art when the number of practitioners was in decline.
Benson, whose Tlingit name was Deinḵul.át and who was of the G̱aanax̱teidí clan Yéil Hít, or Raven House, was known for weaving tunics and robes, some of which are still in use today, including in Klukwan.
“I really wanted to document these weavers, acknowledge them. I hope my research empowers practicing weavers today,” Jones said. “They are an important and wonderful group of individuals.”
Today there are several practitioners throughout Alaska and British Columbia, including in Haines, where Chilkoot Indian Association (CIA) is overseeing a mentorship program for weavers and other traditional artists.
One of the program’s mentors, Juneau-based Chilkat and Ravenstail weaver Lily Wooshkindein Da.Áat Hope, is carrying on Benson’s artistic lineage. Hope learned the art from her mother, Clarissa Rizal, who apprenticed with Thlunaut, who was trained by Ester Johnson, who in turn learned from Benson.
“I feel like this particular apprenticeship is kind of a return to the source. It’s a pretty powerful connection to bring the work back to Haines, where it all started, where my story started,” Hope said of the CIA program in March.
Haines resident Karen Taug is apprenticing with Hope. She’s weaving a child-sized robe that she estimates will take about 800 hours of work.
“I’m really inspired personally by the book. I’m already inspired by just the craft itself. So I feel really lucky at this point in my life that I’m able to do the apprenticeship with Lily and to be able to weave the Chilkat technique,” Taug said.
Taug’s grandfather, Judson Brown, was from Haines, and his mother, like Benson, was from Klukwan.
“In the opening of the book, it explains (Benson’s) heritage, and what I really connect with is that it’s also my heritage,” Taug said.
Wrangling sources was a challenge for Jones since Benson’s life had never been formally documented. Jones said he contacted every museum in the U.S. and Europe known to house Tlingit art.
“By combining extensive research at museums and archives and working with tribal historians like Harold Jacobs, I was able to piece together aspects of Clara Benson’s life,” he said. The biography was an offshoot of Jones’ doctoral dissertation – a series of historical profiles of prominent Tlingit artists.
Jones said the project on Benson was inspired by a former colleague at Sealaska Heritage Institute, where Jones worked before the Park Service. His colleague, Johnny Marks (K’óox and Kooteix’téek), often pointed to a photo of Benson and told him she was a weaver from Klukwan named Mrs. Benson. But no one seemed to know more than her name and that she was a Klukwan weaver, Jones said.
Even after extensive research, a few questions about Benson’s life remain unanswered. Jones couldn’t determine if she had any children. He also isn’t sure who taught her to weave.
Sealaska Heritage president Rosita Worl, also from Klukwan, said in a press release that records of women born in the 1850s in Alaska villages aren’t readily available. “More often, women are overlooked as artists and rarely are their lives documented in the way that Dr. Jones has attempted to do,” she said.
Chilkat weaving is an art long practiced in Indigenous cultures along the coasts of Alaska and British Columbia. It originated in Tsimshian culture and spread throughout Haida and Tlingit communities. It is known for its curvilinear features. Traditionally weavers used goat wool and yellow cedar bark.
The curved shapes are difficult and time-consuming to execute; a single Chilkat robe can take a skilled weaver a year or longer to complete, according to the Sealaska press release.
A similar version of Jones’ biography was published in 2020 by the Alaska Historical Society’s journal “Alaska History.”