FOLK/Dance Git-Hoan Dancers, Traditional Tsimshian dance

Saturday: Noon Penobscot, 3 p.m. Children’s Area; Sunday: 5:15 p.m. Penobscot, 1:15 p.m. Children’s Area

The Git-Hoan Dancers perform the dances and songs of the Tsimshian people from the Pacific coastal areas of northern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. Most of the group’s members, who now live in the Seattle area, trace their roots and ancestry to the Tsimshian village of Metlakahtta in southeast Alaska. They share a commitment to presenting the traditional dances of a culture once on the verge of extinction.

The Tsimshian, like other coastal peoples such as the Haida and Klingit, were seafaring, depending for subsistence upon deep-sea codfish and halibut as well as the salmon and candlefish that come upriver in spring. They also hunted seals and sea lions. Dancing in their striking carved wooden masks, the Git-Hoan (which means “people of the salmon”) Dancers convey the stories of Tsimshian culture: legends of Mouse Woman and the Cannibal Giant, the Shaman and Killer Whale, chief of the sea.

Tsimshian master carver, linguist and leader David Boxley, who founded and directs the group, has devoted most of his life to reclaiming a culture that had been all but lost to him and his people. Boxley was raised in Metlakahtta by his grandparents who were both full-blooded Tsimshian, and from them he learned the language and tribal traditions.

In 1979, Boxley began a personal study of the ethnographic materials and carvings of his ancestry and committed himself to mastering the traditional carving methods of the Tsimshian people. He is now regarded as one of the finest carvers of Tsimshian totem poles, bentwood boxes, rattles, panels, bowls and masks. In his work, he depicts the myths and legends of Tsimshian culture through intricate designs carved in cedar and alder, as well as in hand-screened print reproductions of his original paintings. A number of other members of the group are also accomplished traditional Tsimshian artists.

“We come from a sophisticated, exciting culture that produced probably some of the world’s finest art,” says Boxley. “The Tsimshian culture was a highly developed culture in social, economic and artistic terms. The people who live now – the descendants of those people who created that amazing beauty – are doing their best to keep it going. What we have to offer is important. We’re not out there playacting on the stage. We’re not just acting out a legend. This is who we are.

“I don’t want our culture to be a novelty, encased in museum glass. It’s not dead. It’s alive. We still feel the pride.”