Book Raven's Cry by Christie Harris Illustrations by Bill Reid
Raven's Cry is a Northwest Coast classic — a moving and powerful work that is a fictionalized retelling of the near destruction of the Haida Nation.
The Haida are a proud and cultured people whose home is Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) off the coast of northern British Columbia. Until the first Europeans arrived in 1778 the Haida were the lords of the coast. The meeting of cultures was a fateful one: the Europeans had the advantages of firearms and immunity to their own deadly diseases. In just 150 years the Haida and their culture were pushed to the edge of extinction.
Christie Harris recreated this tale of tragedy and the ultimate survival of Native Spirit with dignity beauty and ethnographic accuracy.
CHRISTIE HARRIS (1907-2002) was the winner of four major book awards and wrote a total of twenty books.
BILL REID (1920-1998) worked in the Northwest Coast indigenous tradition and was influenced by his Haida roots.