Haida: Their Art and Culture

Jean Johnston was a freelance writer in Mitchell, Ontario.

For students of the Haida culture, this book is a useful compendium with photographs, drawings, and explanatory notes as well as brief biographies of the leading Haidas. Much of the material had previously been collected for Argilitte: Art of the Haida, by Leslie Drew and Douglas Wilson (Hancock, 1980). This has been supplemented by a search in the almost untapped source of the Newcombe papers in the British Columbia Archives.

Most Canadians are aware of the Haida, whose base was on the Queen Charlottes, as being an artistic people, but few know much of their culture. Jacinto Caamano, Spanish naval officer, who discovered the Haida in 1792, commented that of all the Indians along the coast, one couldn’t meet kinder people, more civilized in essentials.

This little book is like a museum wrapped up in a handy package.