Name/Title
Mat (fragment)Entry/Object ID
1981.005.003Description
Mat made from cat tail rushes and tied with cedar rope. Appears to have originally have been tan but has since been darkened by brown stains and blueish-green mold growth.
From "Salt Water People" by Dave Elliott, p.47: "Rush mats were made by passing a long needle with braided stinging nettle twine, through a row of dried rush reeds. The mat creaser would be pressed over the rushes before the needle was pulled through, creating a distinctive line pattern."
p. 49: "Also in the marshes they would be gathering bull rushes to make mats. They are great long plants that grow seven or eight feet tall. The mats were about seven feet tall and ten feet long. They would be used like a tent. These mats were carried along when they travelled and they would elect a temporary shelter or camp out of them. They also sat on them and slept on them, and used them for house linings. Wide mats lined the house right around the walls of the inside of the house... That plant is very porous which is what makes it very insulating. That is why they used it. They also used mats for putting in bottoms of canoes so they could kneel down on them. If they were travelling their children sat on them."
p. 53: "...rush mats - used to sit on or as a sail."
See also page 16Acquisition
Accession
1981.005Source (if not Accessioned)
John, May & JosephNotes
Accession Date: 01-Jan-81
Mode of Acquisition: giftLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Primary Object Term
MatNomenclature Class
Floor CoveringsNomenclature Category
Category 02: FurnishingsLegacy Lexicon
Object Name
mat (fragment), car mat (fragment)Created By
Greenlee, LucyCreate Date
January 5, 2000Update Date
July 2, 2026