Haida carved stone eagle gripping green jade leaf in its beak. Not signed. 

Size With Leaf: 10 1/2 x 7 x 3 in. 

#7260 . 

The Haida are an indigenous group who have occupied the area between British Columbia and Washington for approximately 12,500 years, with their oral tradition cataloging the receding of the glaciers and the arrival of red cedars on the islands in the pre-Neolithic period. The Haida are known for their craftsmanship, trading skills, and seamanship, and frequently carried out raids on other tribes. They took slaves and had highly animalistic rituals, and have been compared to the Vikings by anthropologists. For thousands of years the Haida participated in a rigorous coast-wide legal system called Potlatch, which became the loanword “potluck” in English to mean a gathering to accomplish a task while exchanging and sharing goods, food, and services. The first recorded contact between the Haida and Europeans was in July 1774 by Spanish explorer Juan Pérez. The Haida conducted regular trade with Russian, Spanish, British, and American maritime fur traders and whalers throughout the 19th Century, with their most lucrative endeavor trading for sea-otter pelts, first initiated by British Captain George Dixon in 1787. However, by 1830 dozens of ships had been captured by the tribe, and they began to make use of European weapons they acquired, using cannons and canoe-mounted swivel guns. After being forcibly annexed by the British through gunboat diplomacy in 1853, the 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic caused massive deaths among the tribe, with the population of the main island of Haida Gwaii reduced from over 6,000 to just 829 in a year. Nearly every other village was completely wiped out, with just two others (Massett and Skidegate) remaining. The 1885 Potlatch Ban and the forced Christianization of First Nations people further decimated their culture, with most children sent to residential schools by 1911. In 1985 members of the Haida nation protested the ongoing logging of old-growth forests on Haida Gwaii, establishing a blockade that resulted in worldwide media attention and raised awareness and support for the Haida across Canada. In 1987 the Canadian signed the South Moresby Agreement, establishing the Gwaii Haanas National Park, which is cooperatively managed by both Canada and the Haida Nation. The Haida’s robust and highly stylized art form, a leading component of Northwest Coast art, has been integral in revitalizing their culture and society. Transformation masks were worn ceremonially, used by dancers to represent various spirits in a multitude of ritual dances, and are considered some of their finest works of art, usually depicting an animal transforming into another being as a symbol of reincarnation. While artists frequently expressed themselves in large wooden carvings (totem poles), Chilkat weaving, and ornate jewelry, by the 21st Century many artists had also begun producing paintings, prints, and even manga written in Haida. In April 2024, the tribe finally received full autonomy and control of more than 200 islands off Canada’s west coast, an unprecedented acknowledgement for the rights and history of Indigenous Peoples in the Americas.