CheeXial (Roy Jones,
Jr.) leads hereditary chiefs and singers to the cemetery.
The remains of 48 people sit in cedar boxes at the front of the
Anglican Church in the village of Massett, at the northern end of
Canada's Queen Charlotte Islands. "Maybe we don't know who
these people are," says the Reverend Lily Bell, "but we
know they are our people."
"Yes," nods 83-year-old Ethel Jones, seated where she can
see the boxes. Nonny (grandmother) Ethel's life spans perhaps the
most dramatic period of cultural change in the thousands of years
since the Haida settled on this rainy archipelago.
Nonny Ethel was born during a period of decline. She grew up speaking
only Haida, but by the middle of the 20th century, she had seen
the language and many traditions all but abandoned. Now, seated
among the bones of her ancestors, she wonders if she may be witnessing
the return of what was lost.
The top of the "Dogfish"
totem pole. Haida artist Bill Reid led the carving.The
pole-raising in 1978 was the first in decades in the
village of Skidegate.
Until the late 1800s, at least 10,000 Haida lived in large settlements
scattered throughout these islands. An abundance of salmon, halibut
and shellfish provided the material support for a culture that produced
massive cedar houses, intricately carved and painted artifacts,
and monumental totem poles that recorded family history and legend.
Then smallpox came, killing nine out of ten Haida in the space of
a few years. All but two of the villages were emptied. Museum collectors
arrived to buy or steal artifacts and pillage graves.
The remains that will be reburied today were returned by Chicago's
Field Museum of Natural History, where they spent more than one
hundred years in boxes and drawers. Another 84 bodies will be interred
tomorrow. Other museums have also returned remains, more than 400
so far. More are yet to come. To describe the repatriations, the
Haida use the word Yaghudangang, "to pay respect".
It is an important concept in a culture where respect for one's
elders and ancestors is inseparable from self-respect.
For the Haida, the repatriations are part of a much larger cultural
and political resurgence. Driven by education, a renaissance in
carving and other arts (and a new appreciation for Haida art on
the part of outsiders), the movement has been gathering speed since
the 1970s.
Bentwood cedar boxes
are made using modern tools and ancient methods. A cedar
plank is notched, steamed, and bent to form four continuous
sides.
Protests and negotiations in the 1980s led to protected status
for much of the Queen Charlotte Islands. The Haida, who never signed
a treaty with England or Canada, are still pursuing a legal case
against the government, seeking the recognition of full aboriginal
title over the archipelago.
And Nonny Ethel, along with other elders, now spends much of her time
in the schools, teaching the language to a new generation. "In
the old days, we snuck to speak it," she says. "That's why
I'm in school trying to teach to the younger people. I think it will
survive."
The
music for the dance of the Ravens
