Chief Edenshaw

Albert Edward Edenshaw, whose hereditary name is rendered Eda'nsa or Edenso, was born about 1810 in the northern Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) and rose to become one of the most powerful Haida chiefs of the nineteenth century, a leading chief of the Sdast'aas Eagle lineage with seats at Kiusta and later Masset. He was a skilled ironworker, coppersmith, canoe-maker and carver as well as a shrewd trader who cultivated relations with European ships and the Hudson's Bay Company.

Edenshaw was a central Haida figure of the era of the 1851-52 Queen Charlotte Islands gold excitement, when the discovery of gold at Gold Harbour (Mitchell Inlet) drew American vessels north and the Haida asserted control over the diggings. In September 1852 he was aboard the American schooner Susan Sturgis as pilot when Masset Haida seized and burned the vessel; accounts of his role differ sharply, with some crediting him with saving and ransoming the crew and others, including suspicious colonial officials, accusing him of complicity. The episode made his name known throughout the colonies.

Later in life Edenshaw settled at Masset, was baptized with the name Albert Edward after the Prince of Wales, and trained his nephew and heir Charles Edenshaw, who became the most celebrated of all Haida artists. He died in 1894, remembered as a chief who navigated the collision of Haida power and colonial expansion.