Portrait of Kilipoodken by Heywood Seton-Karr, ca. 1890. Source: Alaska Digital Archives.
I’ve just come across a remarkable sketchbook in the Alaskan digital archives. It covers the wide-ranging travels of one Heywood W. Seton-Karr, a British Army officer, big game hunter, amateur archaeologist, and talented artist (about whom, more below). While I could probably fill 10 blog posts from this sketchbook, (and may do so!) a very interesting find is the portrait sketch above. The caption reads,
Kilipoodken. Ind. [Cheif] of La Fontaine Libooet. H.W.S-K. B.C.90.
This certainly refers to the Xaxli’p First Nation, also known as the Fountain First Nation, one of the Lillooet (not Libooet!) Tribal Council from the central Fraser River region of British Columbia. Since googling for “Kilipoodken” only returns the Alaska Digital archives source, it seems to me possible that this mislabelled portrait is unknown to the Xaxli’p Nation, where it is more than likely some of this Chief’s descendants still live. I hope they find this portrait.
Otherwise, there is much of interest in these sketchbooks. Continue reading
Northwest Coast Archaeology 