{"id":20394,"date":"2016-04-13T08:02:20","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T15:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/from-a-log-to-a-dugout\/"},"modified":"2016-04-13T08:02:20","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T15:02:20","slug":"from-a-log-to-a-dugout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/life\/from-a-log-to-a-dugout\/","title":{"rendered":"From a log to a dugout"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOONAH \u2014 <\/strong>On a recent Tuesday in Hoonah, community members and carvers stood near the canoe carving shelter Yaakw Kahidi, arranging large black, porous rocks beneath huge, burning logs. In front of them lay the dugout canoe four Haines carvers \u2014 lead carver Wayne Price, along with apprentices James Hart, Zack James, and son Steven Price \u2014 had been working on for months.<\/p>\n

The night before, they\u2019d paddled the canoe out on the water. Then they\u2019d turned it over and sunk it, soaking it overnight. At six that morning, they\u2019d pulled it out and hauled it to its space between Yaakw Kahidi and the Hoonah Indian Association building.<\/p>\n

This day was the day the canoe would transform, expanding from around 37 inches at its widest point to, carvers hoped, between 66 and 72 inches.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t without its challenges. During a few cold days over the winter, wind had hit the side of the canoe as they were carving, and the canoe cracked along that side. They\u2019d fixed those cracks with the wooden equivalent of butterfly bandages \u2014 figure-8 shaped pieces of wood which intersect the closed crack at its narrowest point, ensuring that when the canoe flexes outwards, the crack won\u2019t open up.<\/p>\n

At six in the morning, when they brought the canoe back on shore, there was \u201cno shortage of manpower,\u201d said Wooshkeetaan clan leader Dennis Gray Sr.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing the interest it\u2019s created within our community,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s pulling our community together. We\u2019ve been a pretty divided community for the number of years. All the Hoonah kaawu (Hoonah people) \u2014 it\u2019s so heartwarming to see all this happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could see the silhouettes of all the people up on the shore when we were bringing it out,\u201d said carver Zack James. Some of those silhouettes were students, waking up early before going to school; some were community members, waking up early before going to work. \u201cEverything we\u2019ve done so far has been for this day. The canoe is shaped by the steaming. Every part of the canoe will change\u2026 this is the day where it goes from being a log to the dugout.\u201d<\/p>\n

By eight in the morning, the canoe was filled with a several inches of sea water, the fire was blazing, and the rocks were getting extremely hot. Someone reached into the canoe and pulled out a strand of seaweed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s feeling quite a bit more real,\u201d said carver James Hart. \u201cWe\u2019re in Wayne\u2019s world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone directly involved with the expansion of the canoe had fasted; the carvers began fasting at 6 a.m. the day before. (Traditionally, people would fast as long as three or four days, Zack James said.)<\/p>\n

Community members hauled out tarps to cover the canoe and trap the steam, once the water heated up. And then it was underway; Zack James and Owen James, a carver on the Xunaa Shuk\u00e1 H\u00edt, the Glacier Bay tribal house, began moving the first rocks out of the fire with lengthened metal rakes and arranging them on a metal rack. They carried them over to the canoe and lowered the rack into the water, under Wayne Price\u2019s direction. Community members immediately covered the canoe with the tarp.<\/p>\n

Then, more people brought another load over, and another. Price wedged a piece of wood across the top of the canoe, to encourage the wood to expand. They switched out cooled rocks for heated ones, and raked the cool ones back into the fire. People tilted their ears toward the canoe, and the sound of the water beginning to sizzle, the canoe beginning to expand. \u201cCan you hear it?\u201d one asked. \u201cI can feel it,\u201d another answered.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like breathing life back into the tree,\u201d said Chookaneidi clan leader Jack Lee.<\/p>\n

Come August, the tree being transformed into a dugout will be one of the two forty foot spruce canoes Hoonah community members will paddle to Bartlett Cove for the Huna Tlingits\u2019 ceremonial return to Glacier Bay, and the dedication of Xunaa Shuk\u00e1 H\u00edt, the Bartlett Cove tribal house currently under construction.<\/p>\n

Lee remembers back when discussions about the clan house began in 1990. It was the same time he quit drinking, he said.<\/p>\n

Lead carver Wayne Price went through his own struggles with alcohol. Communal healing from alcohol, drugs, and other forms of trauma, including sexual abuse and loss of culture, has become a central theme throughout the carving process.<\/p>\n

Price spoke about the need both for recovery and unity among different peoples.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a time in Indian country when so much was taken away \u2014 this belongs to us,\u201d Price said. \u201cHelping to bring our culture back, in this modern day today. It\u2019s so rare, and it\u2019s so precious, and it\u2019s so beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

People began to sing, and to drum.<\/p>\n

As the water heated enough that the rocks could stay in for a longer period of time, people gathered around a bowl carved out of the burl of a tree. It was full of chips with names written on them. Each chip represented someone negatively affected by some form of trauma.<\/p>\n

Bill Gray Sr. said a prayer in Tlingit, and then people began taking handfuls of the chips \u2014 some with names they\u2019d written themselves \u2014 and throwing them on the fire in a symbolic cleansing.<\/p>\n

As the biggest of the canoes Wayne Price has carved, \u201cthis one is very special,\u201d said Steven Price, who\u2019s been present for the majority of the canoes his father has steamed open. This is Steven Price\u2019s sixth. \u201cThe chips around the canoe \u2014 that was my playground growing up.\u201d<\/p>\n

For most of the other people there, the event was a new one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen one of these before,\u201d said elder Genevieve Cook, who was born in Excursion Inlet and raised in Hoonah, as her grandson, Bill Dalton Sr., arranged her in a chair near the fire, beneath blankets and a rainbow umbrella. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting\u2026 the spirits are happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kids began arriving from school, taking measurements \u2014 the canoe had expanded to 45 inches at its widest point \u2014 and notes for English class.<\/p>\n

Bill Wilson, the clan leader of the Kach-adi, said if a steaming has happened in Hoonah, it was before his time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really exciting,\u201d he said. \u201cThe guys doing the work are really great artists.\u201d He gestured to the 40-foot log destined to become the second of the two canoes. \u201cJust a few months ago, it was another tree like this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo come from a real log to this is really amazing,\u201d echoed elder Melvin Williams.<\/p>\n

As the wood heated, Price replaced the wedges of wood, cutting them longer and longer. By a little before noon, the canoe was more than 55 inches at its widest point. Water was dripping through some of the pre-existing cracks, but the butterflies were holding fast.<\/p>\n

Then, around 12:10 p.m. and 59 inches across, a new crack developed \u2014 near the pre-existing ones \u2014 and the water began to leave the canoe more quickly. They rolled back the tarp, took out the rocks, wound rope onto wood laid across the top and bottom of the canoe to help cinch the crack shut, and began clean out the ash that had settled to the bottom of the canoe.<\/p>\n

To have developed a new crack during the steaming process \u201cstings,\u201d Price said, but it\u2019s by no means the end of the story. They only have seven to 12 more inches to expand the canoe. Though a crack is disappointing, it\u2019s not uncommon. Cherri Price, Wayne\u2019s wife, said she\u2019s seen cracks the entire length of a canoe \u2014 and that after it\u2019s repaired, you can\u2019t tell at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a blow, but if it\u2019s made out of wood, we can fix it,\u201d Price said. \u201cWe\u2019ll figure out how to fix it so it doesn\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next day, Wayne and Steven Price, Hart, and James began both mending the crack and carving the second of the two 40-foot spruce canoes that the Huna Tlingit will paddle to Glacier Bay.<\/p>\n

Even after the steaming is complete, there will be more work to do, Hart said. They\u2019ll paint it, and put in seats.<\/p>\n

The carving of the two canoes, along with the tribal house in Glacier Bay and the ceremonial return of the Huna Tlingit on August 26, is \u201ca history-making event for our community,\u201d Gray said. \u201cIt\u2019s bringing out our cultural pride for all our people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur ancestors did this for 10,000 years,\u201d Price told people throughout the event. \u201cWe\u2019ll figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Read previous stories on the events surrounding the ceremonial return of the Huna Tlingit to Glacier Bay here: http:\/\/bit.ly\/20w8E7g. And here: http:\/\/bit.ly\/1Q3rpY2.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Contact Capital City Weekly managing editor Mary Catharine Martin at maryc.martin@capweek.com.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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