This is Tongass Voices, a series from KTOO sharing weekly perspectives from the homelands of the Áak’w Kwáan and beyond.
Master Carver Wayne Price has carved 15 dugout canoes, and he’s been instrumental in bringing the art of carving boats back to Lingít people.
Now, he’s working on a dugout canoe — or yaakw — for Goldbelt Heritage Foundation in Juneau.
Several carving students and apprentices are working alongside him under a big tent in Lemon Creek, using adzes to chip away at the inside of the dugout.
For some of them, it’s their first time. Price carved his first canoe about four decades ago.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Wayne Price: When I first finished that one, we threw it in the water, and I paddled from Skagway to Chilkoot, and that was in the 80s. How cool is that? You know, that’s the first dugout back in the waters in a long, long, long, long time. You know, I was just young and ignorant and dumb, just jumped in and took off, and we made it. We happened to make it.
That was the beginning of bringing dugouts back to our communities where they belong, where people have a chance to use it.
My name is Wayne G. Price. My Lingít name is Kaajis.yoodzi.áxk. I come from the village of Kake, Alaska on my mom’s side, and Klukwan on my dad’s side.
We have a pretty select crew, and they worked real hard, through — no matter how windy, tarps blown away, pouring down rain. We kept going.
Everything we’re doing is a tribute to the ancestral heritage that we’re trying to keep alive.
You got to imagine 40 to 60 dugouts in front of each community, all up and down the coast, all made out of a tree. The Northwest Coast is famous for ocean-going dugouts, and that’s a tough, tough pair of shoes to fill.
And you know, because a lot of people can claim to make a dugout, you also have to make it safe, because your kids are going to be in there, your wife’s going to be in there, your husband will be in there.
I never had a mentor, and everything I’ve learned is by repetition. And I’m still learning. You know, this is my 16th dugout, and I’m still learning. You still learn this and that about each individual dugout.
And that’s with my apprentices, they’re all going to be next. They’re going to be next. When you look for a dugout to be built, you’re going to be looking in their direction, and they’re going to know. They’re going to have all the knowledge that it takes to be able to successfully put a yaakw on the water, safely.
They’re learning. They’re learning every step of the way. And I’m very proud of them. They’re doing a fantastic job. I look forward to in the future that we could have several yaakws in every village again.
What a good time that’s going to be.
Working on my 16th dugout. Nine of them are still in the water, being used today, all over in the Yukon and then Southeast Alaska. I’m the only one that can say that.
Nothing easy about a dugout. It’s hard work. It’s hard work making them. It’s hard work making them float. It’s hard work to keep people safe. It’s hard work outfitting them and pulling.
All I’m doing is trying to accomplish what’s been done for time immemorial. So I’m just trying to match what has already been done. I don’t know who figured it out first. I’d like to meet him someday.