Xeitl X'een Thunderbird Screen Alaska State Museum ~ Juneau, Alaska
Thunderbird House (Xeitl Hit), Shangookeidi Clan, Yakutat Tlingit.
In southeast Alaska, Tlingit clan history was preserved in precise detail between generations. Stories of their origins & early activities were passed orally over thousands of years. Elders coached young people to commit to memory these histories. Accuracy was very important. These histories are also represented in songs, personal & place names, & as symbolic crests on regalia, totemic carvings, & other decorated objects. To this day, clan history, tangible & intangible is considered sacred property.
This screen documents the history of the Thunderbird House of the Yakutat Tlingit. In the early 20th century, clan leader Frank Italio, Kuchein, commissioned the screen from artist Woochjix'oo "Eesh (In Everybody's Arm-Father), a L'uknax.adi man. The Shangookeidi clan claims the thunderbird crest through their ancestors' contact with the creature. At the center of the screen is the sculptural carving of the Thunderbird, & painted below this figure are two Shagookeidi ancestors. These figures may be young men, whose fatal encounter with a thunderbird's feather is memorialized in a clan song. Four stylized raindrops fall down the sides of the screen, & two long black clouds float above the thunderbird's wings. The faces all around represent hailstones, falling on the Thunderbird's mountain home.
Xeitl X'een Thunderbird Screen Alaska State Museum ~ Juneau, Alaska
Thunderbird House (Xeitl Hit), Shangookeidi Clan, Yakutat Tlingit.
In southeast Alaska, Tlingit clan history was preserved in precise detail between generations. Stories of their origins & early activities were passed orally over thousands of years. Elders coached young people to commit to memory these histories. Accuracy was very important. These histories are also represented in songs, personal & place names, & as symbolic crests on regalia, totemic carvings, & other decorated objects. To this day, clan history, tangible & intangible is considered sacred property.
This screen documents the history of the Thunderbird House of the Yakutat Tlingit. In the early 20th century, clan leader Frank Italio, Kuchein, commissioned the screen from artist Woochjix'oo "Eesh (In Everybody's Arm-Father), a L'uknax.adi man. The Shangookeidi clan claims the thunderbird crest through their ancestors' contact with the creature. At the center of the screen is the sculptural carving of the Thunderbird, & painted below this figure are two Shagookeidi ancestors. These figures may be young men, whose fatal encounter with a thunderbird's feather is memorialized in a clan song. Four stylized raindrops fall down the sides of the screen, & two long black clouds float above the thunderbird's wings. The faces all around represent hailstones, falling on the Thunderbird's mountain home.