Raven Stealing the Sun Kootéeyaa

The Raven Stealing the Sun kootéeyaa, commissioned by the City of Ketchikan and raised in 1983, honors the Taant'a Kwáan Tlingit, who have inhabited the local area since time immemorial. Designed and carved by Tahltan/Tlingit master carver Dempsey Bob and his nephew apprentice Stanley Bevan, who was Tsimshian/Tlingit, the pole features, from top to bottom, Yeil (Raven), the Sun, the Chief's Daughter, and a Chief wearing a tall hat, with a baby's face in the hat suggesting the Chief's Raven-ness. It tells of a time when the world had no light, when Raven discovered that a powerful chief hoarded the sun, moon, and stars. Raven changed form and appeared as the chief's grandson, then cried until his grandfather gave him the boxes containing the heavenly bodies. Raven then used trickery to open the boxes, bringing light to the Earth in the form of the stars, moon, and sun.

Saxman, Alaska · United States