III · The Sentinel Tradition 05 / 12

Carved in Cedar

A single trunk becomes a sentinel

Each effigy is split and shaped from one cedar log, carved with iron adzes over weeks of measured reduction until the ancestor emerges.

Quartz eyes that never close

White stone inlays are pressed into hollowed sockets, giving each figure an unbroken gaze across the ridgelines it was raised to guard.

Weapons carved to rank, not use

Spears, bows, and blades are proportioned to the ancestor's standing in the community — symbolic authority rendered in cedar grain.

Terraces that hold the dead in place

Figures are mounted on leveled stone platforms along cliff faces, forming vertical cemeteries visible from the valley floor below.