Squamish First Nations Sun Star wall mask measures 28 x 28 x 4, four rays surrounding the Sun’s face at center. Signed and dated 1993, $850.

The Native Sun Symbol represents life-giving abundance with its warmth radiating healing and peace. The sun was freed and given back to the earth by the Raven, who released it out of its confining box. Since then it has given all humankind warmth, light, and life. It was once believed that one could reach the sun by climbing a chain of arrows and that one would get down by sliding down the rays.
Thank you spiritsofthewestcoast.com

This artist is a member of the Squamish Nation, which consists of descendants of the Coast Salish Aboriginal peoples, originating from the greater Vancouver area, Gibson’s Landing and Squamish River watershed.

Squamish is a town north of Vancouver, in British Columbia, Canada. It’s at the northern tip of the island-dotted Howe Sound, and surrounded by mountains like the Stawamus Chief, a huge granite monolith.

Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim is one of the 10 languages within the Coast Salish branch. The Squamish People, who are the Indigenous Peoples that speak Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim, are often referred to as the Squamish Nation today.

The first documented Squamish contact with Europeans was with Captain George Vancouver in 1792. Disease, which developed as a result of direct contact with European settlers along the West Coast of Canada, drastically reduced the indigenous Kwakwaka’wakw population during the late 19th-early 20th century. Kwakwaka’wakw population dropped by 75% between 1830 and 1880. The 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic alone killed over half of the people.