"Throughout her life the newborn baby girl, born before the coming of the sailing ships from far-off lands, would rely on the magnificent cedar as an integral part of her life on the Northwest Coast. The child would grow up to respect the cedar tree above all others, believing in its spirit and power. She would refer to the cedar's supernatural spirit as "Long Life Maker" and "Rich Woman Maker" because it provided the necessities for a comfortable and full life."
I have read and observed how the birch tree serves the people of the Great Lakes, the Bison takes care of the people of the plains and this provides a similar - no waste, use it all, understand the species account of the trees that provide for all the materials that the people of the coast could need in their daily lives from canoes to woven mats.
But like the bison, this rich treasure is not as abundant any more. "Great cedar trees, with clear, true grain, are becoming difficult to find as more of them succumb to the logger's saw, yet there is no other tree that can provide so generously, so totally and so beautifully."
The catalog of uses is extensive, but most impressive are all the line drawings that detail the collections and the processes used to make all the items. This is both an anthropologist delight and a beginning how to for those who would like to revive the traditional arts.
For me the true delight is in the extensive inventory that the trees provided and the reverence for the tree itself. "In the early times, native people felt that even the sump left after felling a cedar contained life and a spirit."
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