Leaders of Nootka and Makah whaling parties, who lived along the north Pacific coast, wore "onion dome" hats depicting successful whale hunts to aid their own hunting efforts, undertaken in ocean-going canoes. But Lewis and Clark saw and obtained this style of hat far to the south, in the trading sphere of the Columbia River. The hats may have been carried there by American mariners active in the sea otter trade (see Mary Malloy's "Passing the Hats"). They reportedly obtained this first example from a Clatsop woman during their winter near the Pacific, in response to a request for rain-repellent, woven hats for their party. It is woven from spruce root, cedar bark, and surf grass. According to journal entries, the men wore these hats as they traveled back to St. Louis.
