Rachel Mill works on her paddle blank on the band saw at Wrangell High School’s wood shop on Saturday, Dec. 8. Mill, along with 14 other participants and master carvers Brian and Doug Chilton, cut and finished 30 traditional canoe paddles for use in the rededication of Chief Shakes Island.
A group of 15 participants gathered last weekend at Wrangell High School’s wood shop to cut and form traditional wooden paddles for use in the rededication of Chief Shakes Island in May of next year.
The workshop, which will produce 30 paddles to be used by Wrangell’s delegation to the event, was the brainchild of Shane Gillen and SEARHC natural foods specialist Ken Hoyt.
“We had a pretty good turnout,” Hoyt said. “We had both Brian and Doug Chilton who are master carvers from Juneau and Angoon come to Wrangell help us jump start the process and get the carving off the ground with our paddles, which is an important part of what we want to do ahead of the rededication. We will hopefully have 30 paddles done over this weekend.”
The Chilton brothers – both members of the Tlingit Nation – made the trip to Wrangell to oversee the process of taking rough-hewn slabs of yellow cedar and turning them into paddles. Brian Chilton, who is president of the One People Canoe Society said he saw the workshop as a way of bringing Wrangellites together to make the paddles ahead of the rededication.
“This is for the community of Wrangell,” Doug said. “We put together a workshop with Shane and Ken and the idea was to bring a group together and promoting unity while making the paddles.”
The paddles, which were made from cedar donated by Sealaska Haa Aani, will be stored until the Chief Shakes rededication planned for May 2-4, 2013. The event had originally been scheduled to begin on May 3, but the Wrangell Cooperative Association added an additional day, Thursday, May 2, last week.
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