Ground squirrel fur is soft and flexible, suitable for next-to-skin garments.

Different furs or leathers might be used in areas requiring more durability.

The selection and combination of materials in Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi’s clothing reflected the accumulated knowledge of generations of makers who had worked out, through practice and transmission, the optimal materials and techniques for specific purposes.

The robe was not simply functional.

It was the product of skilled craftsmanship — the work of hands that knew their materials and their techniques and that had invested significant time and skill in the making.

Whether Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi made his own clothing or whether it was made for him by members of his community — women who were the primary makers of garments in most Northwest Coast and subarctic Indigenous traditions — we cannot know.