An art generations old is on display at Sitka National Historical Park in Alaska, where master craftsmen are turning a giant red cedar log into a 25-foot-long Tlingit dugout canoe.
The log, resting on supports in the carving shed at Sitka National Historical Park’s visitor center, was cut from the forests on Prince of Wales Island. Master craftsman Steve Brown and his apprentices TJ Young, Tommy Joseph, and Jerrod and Nick Galanin, are busy hollowing out this massive tree into a dugout canoe. The carvers will transform this single log into a seafaring canoe in the same way their ancestors did thousands of years agg, according to park staff.
Finely crafted dugout canoes have long been an essential component of Southeast Alaska Native culture. Before the modern era, dugout canoes were functional necessities as well as revered art objects, serving as the primary transportation method for trading, seasonal travel, hunting, fishing and gathering. This carving project, which is funded by the National Park Service and the Sealaska Heritage Institute, seeks to preserve and perpetuate an art form that is central to the Southeast Alaska Native culture.
Visitors are invited to stop by the park’s visitor center to see the carvers at work, ask questions, and experience firsthand the incredible transformation of the log, which was donated by Sealaska. The carvers are at work daily between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.
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