Haida Gwaii: Tanu (T'aanuu Llnagaay)

On May 26, 2025, the Island Solitude took us from anchorage #2 to the Watchmen site Tanu (T'aanuu Linagaay), sailing eastward through protected passages.  (Click on this and any photo to enlarge.)

At Tanu, our watchman (female) gave us an overview of how the original village would have appeared.

Here is another, even more striking image of how Tanu had been.

As at Skedans, we saw the remains of plank houses.

Mosses, of course, cover everything.

I wish I remembered what she was pointing out here ...

There was also a small graveyard, no photos allowed.

 

Our marked paths took us to a fire pit and lookout.

After our visit, we had sailing to do! Retracing our steps at first, we then sailed much further south to anchorage #3.

This photo, borrowed from the next day, captures the zodiacs tagging along behind.

Another borrowed photo shows the viewing and dining area composing the top deck, with our cap'n, Jeremy, and Carly the chef, keeping an eye on our course.

The next level down was the galley and library, and below that were our cabins.

 

The lack of afternoon photos might have been due to one or more factors: travel time, weather -- Cap'n Jeremy said that we were experiencing one system after another, unusual for this time of year -- or lack of photo targets.

 

The next day generated lots of photos. Stay tuned!

Haida Gwaii: Watchmen

A primary goal of our journey aboard the Island Solitude was to visit all five Watchmen sites within the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, National Marine Conservation Area, and Haida Heritage Site, usually referred to simply as Gwaii Haanas. I must provide some background history, compiled and condensed from various sources.

 

The Backstory

 

The sites lie within the territory of the Haida people, who have lived there for at least 14,000 years. Oral histories say the Haida lived in Gwaii Haanas when the first trees arrived; pollen samples indicate they arrived 14,500 years ago with the retreat of the Ice Age glaciation.

 

From the 1970s through the early 1980s, attempts to expand logging of the old-growth forest, including towering spruce, sparked the first efforts to protect Gwaii Haanas. In 1980, the Haida Nation launched a land claim with the Canadian government, asserting its title to the territory. Also, environmental activists proposed designating much of the archipelago as a protected wilderness, but neither the federal nor provincial government acted, and logging continued.

 

In the fall of 1985, a major forestry company planned to log a fifth of Haida Gwaii’s 60,000 acres of Crown land; the Haida worried that further logging could endanger the local salmon they had long relied on. In October, a Haida chief led a nonviolent blockade of a logging road. Over the next three months, the Haida community and its allies stood fast, even though seventy-two blockaders were arrested.

 

And the Haida succeeded. In 1987, logging ended when Canada and British Columbia signed the South Moresby Memorandum of Understanding. In 1993, Canada and the Haida Nation signed the Gwaii Haanas Agreement. In a decision released on March 31, 2025, the B.C. Supreme Court dismissed a final $75 million lawsuit brought by a logging company.

 

The Watchmen 

The Haida Gwaii Watchmen program encourages young Haida to work alongside elders to protect and teach visitors about Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site. Since the early 1990s, two to four Watchmen have been hired each summer to live at each of five sites, where they remain up to 4 months, acting as stewards of the historic sites and providing historical knowledge and tourist information to visitors. Our Story   A goal was to visit all five Watchmen sites during this voyage -- weather permitting. On the morning of May 25, 2025, we sailed from our anchorage at Moresby Camp to the Watchmen site Ḵ'uuna Llnagaay (Skedans). (Click on any image to enlarge.) All our landings were by zodiac. Here's a photo of the Island Solitude after getting ashore. Our watchmen at Skedans were this woman and her young daughter. White stones/shells mark the paths we're allowed to use. A glimpse of the watchmen cabin. This next photo is what remains of a plank house, a form of construction used by the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest. It is the foundation pit, with rows around the central ground. Our watchman told us it was mandatory to start and finish the digging in one day; otherwise, noise from spirits underground would make the site unusable. Here, an old potlatch pole is held up by one of the trees. Our watchman also introduced us to the traditional Haida moiety system. The Haida nation was divided into two moieties, the Raven and the Eagle. Marriages within the same moiety were prohibited; any children belonged to the mother's moiety, and within each moiety were several clans.   All too soon it was time to depart ... as the saying goes, "time and tide wait for no one." We walked back to the beach and boarded our zodiacs. This visit was a great introduction to Haida culture.   We sailed on, passing many islets. The afternoon began with zodiac cruising, checking out the living organisms in the tidal zones. A starfish under shallow water. Aren't zodiacs great? Later in the afternoon, we went ashore for a walk and for natural history. It's definitely a rainforest. A spruce stump, sporting a cut notch two-thirds of the way up. It was a foothold for the loggers cutting down the tree. A tree with a history ... A bonsai-ish colony atop a fallen tree! The Island Solitude waited patiently. Here's a photo from a large map that the captain and the guide marked up to show our journey. You can see our descent from the upper right (Skedans is off the map to the north) through channels to our anchorage #2, lower left, with a side trip to McEchran Cove -- likely the source of the above photos. Click on any image to enlarge. A very busy first day of the expedition! All the staff -- Captain Jeremy, Mate Theo, NatHab guide Eddy, and Carly the chef -- had proved to be fabulous.

Haida Gwaii: Arrival

Well, it's been a while since I posted -- but now, we're starting on Haida Gwaii.

 

On May 22nd, 2025, Joan and I flew to Vancouver, BC, to begin our Haida Gwaii adventure with Natural Habitat Adventures (NatHab). We spent the night at the airport hotel (Fairmont) due to airline schedules. The Vancouver airport was clean and pleasant, but has the helter-skelter layout of a facility that's long outgrown its origins. In one lobby, there is a sculpture, the Spirit of Haida Gwaii, honoring the indigenous culture of those islands. (Click on any image to enlarge.)

From Vancouver there's one daily flight in the early afternoon to Sandspit, the landing strip on Moresby Island, where our NatHab guide met us. Travel tip: if you can't find your passport, lift the seat cushion you've been sitting on. It could be under there.

 

Now we were at 53° north, give or take a smidge.

That evening we walked from our neat but modest lodgings to an in-home restaurant, the first in Canada to be allowed to forage for wild ingredients, including herbs and other ingredients buried in the backyard to age.

Some of us glimpsed a black bear moseying through the back lot.

The next day, we took the ferry to Graham Island, a (long) stone's throw north of Moresby.

Our first stop was grocery shopping for the expedition. The signs were bilingual, one side in English and the other in Haida; Northern Haida (X̱aayda Kil) is spoken around Masset, and Southern Haida (X̱aad Kil) around Skidegate and the southern islands.

Next, we visited the Haida Heritage Center, at Ḵay 'Llnagaay. Photography is not allowed inside the museum, but outdoor exhibits are fair game.

Very tall totem facing the sea; note the tables and figures near the bottom of this photo.

Canoes, cut out of a single tree, were how the Haida and other indigenous groups in the region traveled, for long distances -- more here.

This mask allowed the dancer to transform from a raven to a human by pulling a cord.

The indoor portions of the museum were fascinating, including geology (Ice Ages!), history, and culture (bentwood baskets). As you might expect, some aspects were tragic, including the European introduction of smallpox (likely deliberately), which reduced the population to as low as 600.

 

After we visited the museum, we drove to the Spirit Lake trailhead (GuuhlGa Siiwaay K'yuu).

The walk offers glimpses of many birds, such as eagles, and significant plants, including devil's club and culturally modified trees.

The trail was rehabilitated in 2021 and 2022, but there's still a warning about one bridge.

From the lake we drove, bumps and all, down old logging roads to reach the embarkation point for our sailing.

Just offshore was the Island Solitude, our remarkably comfy home for the next several days. Zodiacs carried generous provisions aboard, and then ferried us over.

Orientation, unpacking, and dinner followed. Our "expedition" had begun. 

Living Memory: Around Pojoaque

 April 17th and 18th, 2025, were the final days of our Crow Canyon Archaeological Center's "Living Memory" tour/exploration. For cultural reasons, there were few opportunities for photos, which this blog often relies on. Hence, text.

 

Our visits took place in the general area of the Pojoaque lands, north of Santa Fe. Here's an outline of the Tewa-speaking pueblo territories in that region. (Click on any image to enlarge.)

On the 17th, we met Fermin Lopez, the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer at the Pueblo of Pojoaque, at the Buffalo Thunder Resort/Casino. (This pueblo has had its ups and downs in the past, including abandonment and resettlement.)

United with our escort/guide, we drove past a largely shuttered horse farm and, after parking, took a short hike across an arroyo and up a hill. The landscape spread out before us. Fermin pointed out cultural landmarks and answered questions from us and our expert, Scott Ortman, an associate professor at the University of Colorado, and former Director of Research and Education at Crow Canyon.

We drove back to the casino for a cool indoor sack lunch, followed by a visit to the golf course behind it.

The green areas are the watered in-bounds part of the course.

They may seem incongruous, but it's an example of the pueblos' early experiences with sovereignty, of diverse methods of moving forward. Our group stayed on the dry-area paths between holes; this photo is at the edge of a parking lot.

The tension here was between economic development (tourism) and altering the natural features, perhaps disturbing ancient sites. One path took us up a short climb to a gap, facing west. Along the way Fermin, a fierce advocate of preserving indigenous traditions, continued to provide us with background and insights.

 

After dinner back in Santa Fe, our group took a walking tour through the edge of town along the Santa Fe River. The clouds glowed.

As dusk fell we reached the Louis Montano Park, beautifully decorated in honor of Santa Fe's Aztec roots.

The 18th was the last full day of our trip. We drove north again, to Cuyamungue, an area across the highway from Buffalo Thunder. Then we drove a distance along a dirt road and walked further up a riverbed, encountering artifacts and even one tarantula. At times three pre-contact village centers were in sight. The drive back out was challenging, but we emerged without the need to push the cars.

 

Less than two miles north, we visited the Poeh Cultural Center and Museum, in particular for their Pottery Exhibit.

After lunch, our group visited the Old Pueblito, including the tribal headquarters. Fermin walked us through the site, explaining the features of the location, and lingering feuds over water rights between Anglos and the indigenous, as well as disputes between different pueblos. At one point we passed through a barbed wire fence with the assistance of Scott and Fermin. Near the end of our visit, Fermin notified the tribal police of possible picture-takers walking along a pueblo road (possibly related to the Good Friday pilgrimage). The young man took his job seriously.

 

That evening, we had our farewell dinner at the Hotel Santa Fe, in the Amaya dining room. This was an elegant treat!

 

Joan and I had one more small adventure on the 19th, departure day. Our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until the afternoon. One of the Crow Canyon Staff Members, David, let us accompany him on a short hike to check out a nature trail north of town for a future trip that would include bird watching. A drizzle fell, and as the drive to the trail gained altitude, it turned into snow. I hope David gathered all the information he wanted before driving us to the airport.

Joan and I greatly enjoyed the "Living Memory" program of the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. 

Living Memory: Tsama Pueblo and Abiquiu

On April 16, 2025, our Crow Canyon Archaeological Center tour headed north for multiple visits: the Tsama Pueblo site, the remains of the Santa Rosa de Lima church, and a ceremony at the Penitente Morada in Abiquiu. We started out with an hour's drive to the north-northwest. (Click on any image to enlarge.)

The Tsama Pueblo is an ancestral village site, a few miles south of Abiquiu, inhabited from the 1200s until the arrival of the Spanish. April Brown, Southwest Regional Director of the Archaeological Conservancy, was there to admit us to the site. (It required cutting a strand of barbed wire because the gate was stuck!)

 

Our expert, Scott Ortman, handed out two maps, one an outline of what had been discovered,

and another pointed out significant alignments of the site with the sun's annual journey.

On the ground, at first it doesn't look like much ...

The view looking north is similar ...

but there was a lot to observe,

and Scott explained a great deal of what is known about the cultural life of the pre-Spanish Tewa people who lived here, including their version of a moiety system: every Tewa belongs to either the Winter or Summer moiety/clan, and each moiety has specific responsibilities, such as seasonal ceremonies, and particular rules, such as rank and marriage prospects. It was an engaging presentation.

 

From there, we drove to the Abiquiu Inn for a fabulous al fresco lunch. We were a touch early, so lunch ran long, but the excellent food was worth the wait.

 

Next, in the early afternoon, we visited the nearby roadside ruins of Santa Rosa de Lima. The settlement plaza was abandoned in 1747, but the church remained in use until the 1930s.

The marker

Approaching what's left of the church.

Scott stands in front of the entrance.

A cross is aligned with the entryway.

Then it was a short drive back to Abiquiu, where we attended a ceremony at the Penitente Morada, a recently restored 18th Century meeting house/chapel of the Penitente Brotherhood. These laymen are recognized for their community charity and religious practices, including penance rituals. Usually, outsiders are not allowed within the morada... but Scott can open many doors. I was definitely not hauling out my camera while within the pueblo, but I've scraped this photo of the morada from the web:

Today, two days before Good Friday, the brotherhood sang/recited the stations of the cross in Spanish. We observed quietly, sitting on a bench along the wall. Afterward, they returned to English, entertained questions, and asked us for the names of those for whom we would request a blessing. To be present within this sanctuary was a rarity among rarities.

 

Our little group had a lot to talk about over dinner back in Santa Fe.