The U.S. Postal Service will officially release the "Raven Story" stamp at 11 a.m. Friday at the Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau.
The stamp, designed by Juneau-based Rico Lanáat' Worl, a Tlingit and Athabascan artist, depicts Raven freeing the sun, stars and moon.
The ceremony will be streamed live through the heritage institute's YouTube channel.
The Postal Service said Antonio Alcalá, who served as art director on the project, reached out to Worl about creating the stamp after seeing his work for sale at the National Museum of the American Indian gift store in Washington, D.C.
The stamp, the first ever illustrated by a Tlingit artist, depicts Raven just as he escapes from his human family and begins to transform back into his bird form, the Postal Service explained.
"Art is kind of integral to indigenous culture. It has always been around me, it's always been integral to my life. ... I've always been involved in being creative," Worl said in an interview last year with the Sitka Sentinel newspaper.
The artwork includes Raven flanked by the stars as he makes his escape from a clan house.
"It's more focused on this exciting moment of trying to pull off this heist. And I wanted to show some of that drama and excitement from the story," Worl said.
"Raven is trying to grab as many stars as he can, some stuck in his feathers and in his hands or in his beak. Some falling around him. It's a frazzled moment of adrenaline," he said.
"Partially still in human form, as depicted as his hand still being human, as he carries the stars away. I think it depicts a moment we all have experienced, the cusp of failure and accomplishment," Worl wrote on his blog.
"Because it was a national platform, I wanted to be able to give a good access point for a non-Tlingit audience to be able to learn about the culture. And that story is a foundational story for a lot of Tlingit ideology and ways of being," Worl said.
The stamp will be available at post offices and online at usps.com.
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