Ts'áak (Eagle) Says Hello Again !

hello, my dear friends!

I was poking around at my local charity fundraiser again today looking somewhat fashionable yet also very socially awkward & I happened upon a necklace made in the haida style with a few inscriptions on the back- 'yunkws', 'frederick', & 'canada'. knowing the purpose of only one of those words I took to the internet as soon as I got home, & was able to find a jewellery store by the name of 'frederick design inc.' that worked with native pacific coast artists, but now seems to have closed.

prior to finding the store, though, I searched far & wide for the bird depicted on the pendant (or more specifically, the meaning of 'yunkws', as I had assumed it to be the name of an animal in an indigenous language); initial results said that it was 'eagle', while another source had it listed as 'raven'. this is no small deal, as haida clans are either of the 'eagle' or 'raven' lineage- I really didn't want any ambiguity given its important cultural role either way. additionally, there is (to my very unfamiliar eye) no clear distinction between the patterns used in depictions of either bird in haida art; at least not to the extent that they could be used to distinguish any specimens. searching further through dictionaries (which yielded no results), I finally turned to the website (or what remains of it on the wayback machine) of the 'frederick design' store, which had listed the exact eagle design that is now in my posession.

thus, one could perhaps assume that the 'yunkws' enscribed on the back means 'eagle', right?

wrong.

in fact, I was suspicious from the start, as I was more familiar with the haida word for eagle being 'ts'áak' (I downloaded a french canadian keyboard for that a... please appreciate it), having incorporated the word into the creative writing part of my english assignment- which I mentioned to some degree in a previous blog post. none of my searches turned up anything for the word 'yunkws' itself, either!

taking a look through the store's website reveals that, actually, the word 'yunkws' is the 'name' of sorts of the (gitxsan) artist who created the pendant. searching in the gitxsan dictionary provides a definition for 'eagle'- 'x̱sgyaak'- which presented a dilemma as I tried to decide whether to use 'ts'áak' or 'x̱sgyaak' in the title of this post- I ultimately decided on the former, as I'm more familiar with it, & the style of the pendant is best known as being haida (to me at least? I may be wrong). what it doesn't provide, though, (along with the rest of the internet) is a meaning for the name 'yunkws', which I'll be taking as a sign to respect his privacy (& so I won't be sharing his face, though it is on the website). 

what I will share, though, is a photo of me wearing the necklace! 

as I'm sure you can see, the pendant really needs a good clean... it's made of (lead-free) pewter, which is actually meant to be of a silvery colour ! luckily, though, pewter seems easy to clean- when I do that, it'll be as part of a ceremony of sorts, so that I can also activate it (I bought an activated ring from that same fundraiser & it has a wonderfully powerful energy!), & possibly encode it (i.e. set an energetic intention) if I see fit. to me, ts'áak almost seems trapped in His dark-grey form, & I want to set His spirit free so that He can enjoy being Himself again- which is to say that I'm a little reluctant to introduce any energy of my own.

I'm so overjoyed & blessed to now be able to carry ts'áak & His spirit with me at all times!