About the Artist

"Also known as 'Redwood Creek Indians' or 'Mad River Indians' were an Athabaskan tribe, speaking a dialect similar to the Hupa and Chilula, who inhabited the area on or near the supper Redwood Creek and along the Mad River except near its mouth, up to Iaqua Northwestern California, before contact with Europeans.

Little is know of the Whilkut culture beyond its similarity to that of the Hupa and that they were considered by the Hupa and Chilula as a poorer, backward, less settled hill people.  . . . Only 50 remained in the 1910 census.  In 1972 only a remnant was left, perhaps only 20 to 25 individuals."