A Meeting of Chiefs - POSTER

A Meeting of Chiefs - POSTER** All posters have various text around the border Edition Date: October 1987 Artist: Roy Henry Vickers Medium: Poster Image Size: 20. 5" x 14" Poster Size: 26. 25" x 21" Story I Stegyawden, a Tsimshian Indian name meaning painted goat, is a mountain on the Skeena River near Hazelton, British Columbia. The mighty Skeena itself is known to its first travellers, the Tsimshian Indians, as Ksian, meaning juice from the clouds. Many stories and legends are

Story

I Stegyawden, a Tsimshian Indian name meaning ‘painted goat,’ is a mountain on the Skeena River near Hazelton, British Columbia. The mighty Skeena itself is known to its first travellers, the Tsimshian Indians, as K’sian, meaning ‘juice from the clouds’.

Many stories and legends are told of Stegyawden and K’sian. One in particular refers to the legendary village of Temleham, located at the base of Stegyawden on the banks of K’sian. Its people were so powerful and influential, and the surroundings were so majestic, spiritual, and beautiful that the village of Temleham became known to all Indian Nations as a significant and proper place to meet. Chiefs from all West Coast Indian Nations would travel many perilous miles to congregate at Temleham.

Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Bella Coola, Kwakiult, and Nuu Cha Nulth - all would attend. Many elaborate and impressive feasts were held. Friendships and alliances developed, and differences were settled.

Temleham was appropriate. It was the location that the ancients had chosen and created to serve as a place of peace for all nations.

In the swirling mists of the mighty K’sian, one can, even today, sense the presence of those wise chiefs. Their spirit and wisdom live on, and their beautiful West Coast of Canada remains a majestic and spiritual meeting place, a proper setting for A Meeting of Chiefs.

(This painting was commissioned by the Province of British Columbia on the occasion of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Vancouver in October 1987. The original painting was presented to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by the honorable William Vander Zalm, Premier of the Province of British Columbia. Limited edition prints were presented by the Provincial Government to the Commonwealth Heads of State.)