page_title: Indigenous uses of yellow cedar
section_title: Wood
hierarchical_section_title: Indigenous uses of yellow cedar / Wood
caption_attribution_description: English: This is Bill Reid's famous and massive "The Raven and the first Men" sculpture which is situated in a commanding position within UBC's Museum of Anthropology building in Vancouver, Canada. It was first unveiled in 1980. The original 1980 museum plaque states that this yellow cedar sculpture represents the Haida legend of the raven discovering men in a clamshell, on a beach at Rose Spit, in the Queen Charlotte Islands (or 'Haida Gwaii' today) of British Columbia, Canada.
context_page_description: Yellow cedar is a culturally, economically and environmentally significant species to the Pacific Northwest and was used extensively by indigenous peoples throughout the region.
context_section_description: Yellow cedar's common name comes from the color of its wood, which is pale yellow. The wood is durable, fine grained, contains a natural preservative, and does not split as easily as red cedar, making it very suitable for carving. it is also lightweight, pliable, yet strong, and was used to make paddles, fishing floats, rattles, ceremonial masks, speaker's staffs which were used as a badge of office for an announcer at events, bentwood bowls, totem poles, and longhouses. Bentwood boxes were made by using steam to bend a single plank of red cedar into four sides of a box, and then using yellow cedar pegs to join the corner. These boxes were highly prized and thus were a valuable trade item. They could be used to hold and store goods, or as coffins for the deceased. Salish Hunters used yellow cedar saplings to make bows which were also used in trade.
caption: Bill Reid Raven (UBC-2010a)
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