A large and rich history exists in it's harvesting, use, ceremonial uses, medicinal applications. 1 Arnoud H. Stryd, and Vicki Feddema, “Sacred Cedar: The Cultural and Archaeological Significance of Cultural Modified Trees,” Report of the Pacific Salmon Forests Project (Vancouver: David Suzuki Foundation, 1998), 6. Valued for its uniform creamy yellow colour. A few small knots don't matter. Many First Nations decorated house posts, mortuary poles, and memorial poles with intricate carvings of stylized human figures and animals.


Cap the bottle and mix all the ingredients by rolling the bottle with your hands. It lives a long time and there is at least one tree over 1400 years old.

Similarly, some believe a pregnant woman should not braid baskets, lest the umbilical cord would twist around the baby’s neck. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Screws and Nails can leave marks and stains if the wood is outside. Texture/Grain/Colour: Pale brown, tan with sapwood paler. Sanding can be uneven and create ridges where growth rings occur. People tended to use the wood they had around and adjusted their boatbuilding technique to suit the material. * Use to create sacred space (incense, wood shavings or oil diffuser) Both types of cedar are harvested by coastal First Nations to create a variety of implements for daily use and ceremonial purposes.8 Almost every part of a cedar tree can be used, including the roots, the bark, the wood, and the withes (the smaller, more pliable sub-branches of a tree). display_weighted = 1; Northern White cedar is also known as eastern arborvidae, white cedar, swamp cedar, eastern cedar, american arborvitae, arborvitae. Strength and Workability: Northern White Cedar is not a very strong wood being less so than western redcedar. http://www.sfu.museum/time/en/videos/13/ Atlantic White Cedar grows to about 100 feet in height. I don't think it is an ideal boatbuilding material unless helped with fiberglass, but there are lovely cedar boats out there proving me wrong. 1 Not only is cedar a key natural resource in the production of material goods, the tree also plays an integral role in the spiritual beliefs and ceremonial life of coastal First Nations. Like the Western Redcedar it was extensively used by local Native tribes.

Many use Cedar leaves in smudge sticks and I am not sure but that sounds possibly a Native American use for it, as well. Pac Wood Milling offers siding and milled wood. Bentwood boxes, especially those decorated with paint or carvings, were once a valuable trade item along the Northwest Coast. It is a native of Eastern North America and can be found from SE Canada to Texas, and west to the prairies. It has the characteristic resin cedar smell.

Yellow Cedar bark, which has anti-inflammatory properties, was frequently applied as a dressing for wounds, as a tourniquet, or to ward off evil. Like other "cedars" it has many names: Red cedar, eastern red cedar, virginian juniper, eastern juniper, Virginia Cedar, red juniper, pencil cedar and commonly, aromatic cedar. The "Forest of the Cedars of God (Horsh Arz el-Rab)" is a Unesco World Heritage Site and extensive reforestation and management efforts have been made to improve and preserve it. Ministry of Forests. Many knots make for attractive decking but clear lumber is at a premium. The wood they use is cedar. The wood they use is cedar. It is also quite salt tolerant. This means that most cedar makes for somewhat soft planks for boat building. Can be quite irritating and many people who work with it can suffer skin irritation, asthma like symptoms such as difficulty breathing and runny nose. It's attractive colour makes it a wood of choice for novelty items and caskets. It's offered by a few lumber company in small quantity. 8 Arnoud H. Stryd, and Vicki Feddema, “Sacred Cedar: The Cultural and Archaeological Significance of Cultural Modified Trees,” 6. Families often commissioned a carver to create cedar figures for a potlatch, usually as a welcoming gesture to the guests. With its lightweight and rot-resistant wood, Red Cedar is the most versatile and most widely-used plant among coastal First Nations.4 Yellow Cedar bark is softer and more pliable than Red Cedar, so the former is frequently used to make clothing and other fibrous materials, while the latter is used more commonly for architecture and transportation, such as house poles and canoes.5 If you are interested in learning more about the biology of cedar and how to identify them, please refer to the published by the B.C. For many people in the US this is what comes to mind when the word cedar is used.

Yellow Cedar typically grows at subalpine elevations in damp coastal forests ranging from Vancouver Island to Alaska, but is rarely found in inland regions. Once dried it is very dimentionally stable. Massage over bladder/kidneys The Creator recognized the man’s kindness, and declared that once the man dies, a Red Cedar tree will grow where he is buried, and the tree will continue to help the people.6 The Nuu-chah-nulth of Vancouver Island have a similar origin story for Yellow Cedar. * Expectorant – relieves a tight chest. Cedar leaf oil is distilled from leaves and used in medicines and perfumes. Many people would recognize it as the smell of newly sharpened pencil, since the wood is used for pencil making. Cedar trees are very old, wise and powerful spirits. The trees can live very long lives, one is 1800 years old, but they do not grow as large as the Western Redcedar. Number one lumber for pencil making because of straight easily sharpened even grain. Widely used architecturally. Long term contact is known to cause kidney disease and allergic reaction are possible. It is used for applications where it's exceptional rot resistance, easy of working and appearance are prized. Light and rot resistant, it is useful in boat building. Grain/Colour: Grain is very straight and uniform. Traditionally, men were responsible for cutting down a tree, which is a time-consuming and laborious process that involves chiselling and heating the tree with red-hot stones to weaken the wood. When cut it has a bitter, recognizable smell that fades with seasoning.

It occurs in the the North West US, Oregon and North Western California. It is quite tolerant of growing conditions but requires a regular supply of moisture during the growing season. Western Forest Product page on Yellow cedar. connection_default_colour = "#707070"; Unlike Yellow Cedar, Red Cedar is common both on the coast and in moist slopes and valleys of the Interior. About 80% harder than Western redcedar. Easy to work with, stains, glues and finishes well.

First Peoples in Canada. Cedar wood is strong, lightweight, and straight-grained, so it is easy to split and carve, and made into totem poles, masks, and longhouses.

They are also often seen hanging on to cliff edges.

label_default_size = 8; Because of this and because it has been over harvested it is listed as. Also known as California incense cedar, California White Cedar, the Incense cedar is a member of the cypress family that can grow to 150 feet, but is more likely less than 90.

A cedar smudge can have two benefits.
use_feature = 1; The harvesting of cedar bark was typically performed by women.