RAVEN WARRIOR

17 x 22 Giclée print in archival inks on acid- and lignin-free paper

Original painting in acrylic on canvas  24” X 36”  1991

Collection of Lloyd Averill

Screened by the fog, a Tlingit war party in the early nineteenth century approaches an enemy village. The warriors paddle silently, steering their great war canoes close to the steep shore. The canoes are the ancient battle craft, with upright, broad and flaring bows, apparently designed as a shield against arrows. These high bows were said to be removable for ease in traveling. Their details seem to be exaggerations of classic Nootkan canoe design, but these war canoes were used in the early historic period all along the coast, from Vancouver Island to Alaska. They are known today only from a few drawings and paintings and a handful of native models. The Tlingit name of this canoe type was kookh-da-gi-gin-yakw. The  Kwakwaka’wakw term was Man’ka, and it is by this name (usually spelled  “munka”) that the archaic canoe is best known today.

Standing in the bow of the lead canoe is a warrior armed with a flintlock trade musket and steel dagger, the pommel of which is in the form of a raven’s head  Raven’s image, a crest derived from lineage myths, appears on his canoe and paddles, his heavy hide armor and his carved helmet with its trailing plume of human hair. All the warriors are armed with daggers or spears and wear armor, some of it reinforced with rows of Chinese coins.

A pair of ravens wheel and call in the fog above the canoes.  They are the counterparts in nature of the mythical culture hero Raven, the source of the images below. All along the Northwest Coast there was the belief that ravens spoke a language that could be understood by those given that power, and could foretell victory or danger. Perhaps these are off to tell the unsuspecting village of the warriors' approach.