by Skip Saunders
(Nuxalk)

Yellow Cedar, paint, bark, copper (11”x6”x6”)

($2250)

Eagle - One of the important rites carried out at a potlatch in the past was the return of a dead ancestor to visit the living. If the deceased’s first ancestor had been an eagle, in that guise the figure will appear – an eagle mask on his head, and his whole body, except perhaps his feet, covered by a large blanket thickly covered with eagle down and furnished with painted wooden wings. (McIlwraith)