KEET SHAGOON SCREEN

Commissioned for the Seattle Art Museum. Tlingit house screens represent protective spirits that have become crests to various clans– i.e. the Raven, Killer Whale, Bear, etc. They protect the clan’s at.oow (sacred objects) and the people in the house. The house screen separated the chief and his family from the rest of the clan in their communal living. If there is a doorway on the screen, it usually is in the belly of the crest, the chief would ‘bring out’ the sacred objects as if emerging from the womb of the crest (Raven, Bear, etc.).