Thompson (Nlaka'pamux) Tule Mat: Dogbane Fibre Cleaned on a Board Edge, Thigh-Spun, Reeds Strung Across (Teit, 1900)

"The reeds are strung on bark strings, and held in place by other bark strings which pass around them near their ends."

Pull the dogbane bark with the left hand over the sharp edge of a small board held in the right, pressing the bark down against the edge with the right thumb, to shred and clean it. (Milkweed fibre was used too, and nettle when bark fibre ran out.)

Roll the fibre on the bare thigh into a two-stranded twine. Make plenty: it is both the stringing and the binding.

Lay dried tule stems side by side and string them on the bark twine (ours: push the twine through each stem with a pointed bone, rows about 20 cm apart). Run more twine round them near their ends to hold them, and finish the mat end with a stick (his tent-mats used rosewood).

From James Teit, *The Thompson Indians of British Columbia*, **Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, Jesup North Pacific Expedition** vol. I part IV (1900), pp. 188-190 and Fig. 131 c (checked on the archive.org scan cihm_16242). Floor and table mats of young reeds were woven in other ways, some exactly like Coast cedar-bark blankets. Mat size, row spacing and the stringing tool are ours.