About Eechdaa
Dave Ketah Jr. · Hinyaa Tlingit · Artist · Teacher · Culture Bearer
The Grandmother
Born and raised in Ketchikan, Alaska, Dave Ketah Jr. was given his Tlingit name — Eechdaa — by his paternal grandmother, Eva Ketah. She was the one who quietly, persistently, kept the culture alive. She spoke Lingít to him as a child. She took him berry picking. She immersed him in the traditional foods and rhythms of Hinyaa life — even though she herself had been forbidden from speaking Lingít in school, and had chosen not to teach the language to her own children as a form of protection.
Eva planted seeds she wouldn’t live to see grow.
The Disconnection
Eechdaa left Alaska roughly 32 years ago and settled in Portland, Oregon. He built a career as a Building Construction instructor at Benson Polytechnic High School — one of Portland’s most prestigious technical magnet schools. He married, raised two children, and lived a full life in the Pacific Northwest. But the connection to his Tlingit heritage remained dormant, surfacing only in occasional, incomplete attempts to reconnect.
The Awakening
Then the pandemic changed everything. In 2020, Eechdaa read Emily Moore’s book Proud Raven, Panting Wolf: Carving Alaska’s New Deal Totem Parks — and discovered his great-grandfather’s name, Walter Ketah, listed as the head carver at Klawock Totem Park. He called his father. His father hadn’t known either.
That discovery cracked something open. Eechdaa enrolled in online Lingít language classes at the University of Alaska Southeast — tuition-free courses made possible by Sealaska Heritage Institute. He started as a beginner and progressed to advanced Lingít. He began studying Formline design. He picked up carving tools for the first time since a middle school class with artist Doug Hudson in 1983.
What followed was an extraordinary period of prolific creation.
Artistic Practice
Eechdaa works primarily in red and yellow cedar, creating masks, drums, rattles, combs, paddles, bowls, spoons, boxes, staffs, and canes. His work is rooted in traditional Tlingit Formline design — the interplay of ovoid and U-forms, the tension between positive and negative space, and the deep cultural narratives embedded in each piece.
In 2022, he was selected as the first Alaska Native Artist-in-Residence at the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka, where he conducted public demonstrations and taught Formline Basics workshops. That same year, his work was featured in the 17th annual “In The Spirit” exhibition at the Washington State History Museum, and he joined Stonington Gallery in Seattle — one of the Pacific Northwest’s premier galleries for contemporary Native art.
The Totem Pole Trail
In summer 2025, Eechdaa was selected as an apprentice to Haida master carver Lee Wallace for the Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Kootéeyaa Deiyí (Totem Pole Trail) — a landmark $2.9 million project to install 30 totem poles along Juneau’s waterfront, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The circle was complete. Wallace specifically noted Eechdaa’s family carving lineage: “Dave’s great-grandfather was the head carver over in Klawock Totem Park. So here we are, generations doing a project together.”
The Mission
Eechdaa seeks to join those who carry Tlingit tradition, language, and creativity forward while raising up the next generation of culture bearers. Through his carving, his language study, his teaching at Benson Polytechnic, and his community workshops, he walks the path his grandmother quietly laid — one word, one cut, one student at a time.
For commissions, collaborations, or speaking engagements, please get in touch.