For Ed Carriere, the new exhibit “Cedar and Sea” at the Columbia River Maritime Museum is a chance to share the story of a craft, which is also the story of a tree.

The Suquamish tribal elder from Indianola, Washington, on the Kitsap Peninsula, learned traditional cedar basket weaving techniques from his great-grandmother, Julia Jacobs, who raised him. At age 14, he made his first clam-gathering basket.

Near the entrance to the exhibit, which opened Friday in the Astoria museum’s center gallery, Carriere pointed to an illustration depicting how Indigenous people along the Pacific Northwest coast have used the western red cedar, what it calls the “tree of life,” for thousands of years.

Baskets and other items like clothing, mats and blankets are made from the tree’s bark. A canoe, like the exhibit centerpiece crafted by Tofino, British Columbia, carver Joe Martin, can be carved from a single log.

Roots can stabilize stream banks for salmon habitat, while boughs — main branches that grow from the tree trunk — are used for incense or medicines.

“We use every part of this tree,” he said.

Carriere, who was named a National Heritage Fellow in 2023 by the National Endowment for the Arts, and Martin, a Tla-o-qui-aht elder who learned to make canoes from his father, Chief Robert Martin, are among the many Indigenous artisans featured in “Cedar and Sea.”

Maritime traditions

The permanent exhibit looks at maritime traditions of tribes up and down the Pacific coast — from southern Oregon to Alaska — through natural materials like whalebone, basalt and abalone, ancient carving and fishing tools and contemporary stories. In all, more than 160 objects are on display.

It’s a project museum staff, in collaboration with Indigenous advisers, Astoria-based Rickenbach Construction, exhibit designers at Bothell, Washington, based Storyline Studio and others have been working on for years.

“This is just a momentous occasion for the museum and for the small army of people who have played a role, played various roles, in bringing this long and complex process to a conclusion,” Bruce Jones, the executive director of the Columbia River Maritime Museum, said at a Saturday reception for the exhibit.

He credited Sam Johnson, who retired at the end of last year after 15 years as the museum’s executive director, for the initial vision and fundraising.

“Sam is a highly-skilled woodworker, tool expert, collector and wooden boat builder, and because of those interests, he became very fascinated … by the way Indigenous people had used natural resources, cedar and sea, to create thriving, vibrant maritime cultures,” Jones said.

“It has been, for me, just a wonderful personal experience,” Johnson said.

Two years ago, Jones said the leadership of “Cedar and Sea” was turned over to curator Jeff Smith. The exhibit’s opening day marked Smith’s 25th year at the museum.

“It has gone by so quickly. I have enjoyed every minute of it and am honored to be involved in creating this next chapter in the museum’s legacy,” Smith said.

He worked on adding more contemporary, personal stories surrounding objects in the exhibit, as told through the words of Indigenous artists.

On one of six video monitors throughout the gallery, Carriere and apprentice Josh Mason, of the Squaxin Island tribe, gather tree limbs for a basket.

“This represents a salmon backbone here, these are hands and fingers, and this is supposed to be the Milky Way up here,” Carriere says on the film, pointing to the woven designs. “We got the cedar tree here. My life story basket.”

At the reception, Carriere said some baskets in the exhibit were challenging to make.

“Creating basketry, it’s a real form of art,” he said. “When you get into basketry, you get into your ancestors — you really learn … how they lived, what they did in the wintertime, how they gathered the cedar limb, the cedar bark, the root, the spruce root. All that, finally that goes into these baskets, and by doing that all my life, I really can understand how my ancestors lived and what they did.”

Honoring connections

“Cedar and Sea” is an expansion of the museum’s Indigenous storytelling after the September opening of “ntsayka ilíi ukuk: This is Our Place,” an adjacent display about Chinook tribal life featuring the photography of Amiran White.

Both exhibits, Jones said, were designed with the intent of honoring connections between Indigenous people and the land.

The two additions come ahead of plans for the construction of a new exhibit hall in 2026 as part of a $30 million expansion project.

For now, Carriere is thankful to see his work, and his traditions, on display.

“I am so thankful for museums,” he said. “To know that in these museums, people are going to come from all over the world, and they’re going to see those baskets, and they’re going to ask questions about them — rather than those baskets sitting in my home, I’m just so thankful that they could be here.”