Spotlight: Sandhill Crane

Within the Lower Fraser, one of the last strongholds for the Sandhill Crane is found within the Pitt-Addington Wildlife Management area, part of the Katzie First Nation’s lands. According to Katzie oral history, the Sandhill Crane is one of the most important animals in their culture and is highly revered, with the name for the crane being “haha´w” meaning “superior in everything.”

Each year in March, thousands of Sandhill Cranes would stop over in their lands along the Pitt River and stage prior to moving north, and so the Katzie termed March the “month of the crane” or “ li-´mƏs.”

Close to Sheridan Hill, Khaals (the creator) came upon the two sandhill-crane sisters, Swaneset’s first wives, still digging up Arrowleaf potato. He asked them, ‘Do you eat these potatoes that you dig up?’

‘Yes, we have nothing else to eat.’ ‘Very well. You shall become birds.’ They laughed at him mockingly, but he added, ‘You laugh, but now you shall fly, you shall become Sandhill Cranes. Henceforth, you shall roam over the meadows as you do now.’ He raised his hand and transformed them into cranes. So now cranes laugh and dance after they root up the ground, just as the two sisters laughed and danced when they dug up their Arrowhead potatoes.

— Extract from Suttles, W. 1955. Katzie ethnographic notes.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK April White is a Haida artist who lives in Powell River is involved in conservation work, and uses her creative skills for those efforts. She is currently promoting ethics and Indigenous rights with herring fisheries on the coast. Her sandhill crane image reveals how life goes forward, with a frog going down the bird’s gullet, a baby, and the continuation of life. For more artwork visit: www.aprilwhite.com