Amanda Frayer artisan // illustrator // designer

The symmetrically shaped spruce is the quintessential Christmas tree in Europe and the United States. In fact this wood came from a discarded Christmas tree that I found in my neighborhood. I collected and seasoned it myself.

Spruce trees appear in many legends. In a Cherokee creation myth, spruce is among the trees that passed the endurance test and were given the power to remain green all year long. Spruce forests also give the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia their distinctive color. They naturally release tiny hydrocarbons which react with ozone molecules to produce a bluish haze.

There was a unique spruce with golden needles that grew on the banks of the Yakoun River in British Columbia. It had a startling color that stopped people in their tracks. The Haida Indians called it Kiidk’yaas, which means Elder Spruce Tree. According to legend, an old man and a young boy were fleeing from their village, as it was buried with snow to punish the wicked. Against the old man’s warnings, the boy, like Lot’s wife in the Bible, looked back upon the destruction and was turned into Kiidk’yaas.

Kiidk’yaas was a fantastically rare type of sitka spruce. So rare, in fact, that it warranted its own scientific name: Picea sitchensis Aurea. The first part is the Latin name for sitka spruce. Aurea is Latin for “golden” or “gleaming like gold,” but it can also mean “beautiful” or “splendid.” Sixteen stories tall and more than twenty feet around, the golden spruce was unique in the botanical world.

In 1997, Thomas Hadwin, a logger turned environmentalist, cut down Kiidk’yaas as a statement. He wanted to bring public attention to deforestation. In his mind, we were missing the forest for the tree, and that tree was the Kiidk’yaas. It’s felling sent shock-waves through the Haida Indian community.

But Kiidk’yaas lives on! A group of botanists who had taken cuttings from the tree, grafted them onto an ordinary sitka spruce. The resulting saplings, like their parent, had golden needles. They offered one of the young trees to the Haida, who planted it nearby the original Kiidk’yaas.

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Believed to bring the wearer: enlightenment, grounding, healing, hope, intuition, protection, well-being, versatility

Other associations: sixth chakra, earth elements and animals, dreams

Spirit animals: mallard duck, grouse