When Dale had her Raven book first published in 1975, which featured thirty Raven woodcut illustrations she created in 1963, it received widespread acclaim. "It made me feel very good, when an elderly Tlingit gentleman stopped me on the street one day to tell me that he had bought the book in order to read the stories to his grandchildren," recalled Dale. "He explained that although he knew the stories in Tlingit, he had difficulty translating them into English – and his grandchildren do not understand Tlingit."
Similarly based on a Tlingit story, a follow-up project containing the four woodcut prints in this series was produced in 1975. They depict The True Story of the Discovery of Gold on Bonanza Creek as told to author Frederica de Laguna in 1952. It appeared on part two of de Laguna's three-volume set, Under Mount Saint Elias: The History and Culture of the Yakutat Tlingit, and was originally published by the Smithsonian Institution Press.
"This story particularly delighted me," said Dale, "because it is based on a historic happening of recent times. Skookum Jim came to find the gold that started the Klondike rush, and it is a wonderful subject for woodcuts. Woodcuts are excellent for illustrating stories of this kind, for mythology. The boldness of the medium keeps me from trying to become too realistic."
Available only as a set, the prints were available exclusively from Alaska Northwest Publishing Company (via their Alaska Magazine). Each has an edition of (38) thirty-eight regular prints along with five artist proofs. Their image sizes are 11" x 12" and originally cost $200.00 for the set of four. Today, prints from this series are rarely offered and are exceptionally scarce to find on the second-hand market.
The following illustrations are part of this series – click on any image to learn more. For information on the 1997 book "The True Story of the Discovery of Gold at Bonanza Creek: A Tlingit Legend," featuring illustrations by DeArmond, click here.
