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Native Artist Alexander Clifton Ridley

Alexander Clifton Ridley is a Canadian, Ts'msyen (Tshimshian) artist born in the Pacific coastal village Gita'ata (Hartley Bay), eighty-five miles south of Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada. This is the land of Salmon and the white Spirit Bear.

He was born to the Eagle Clan and was given the Ts'msyen name Yu'nis. He has family connections in Lax Klan (Kitkatla), Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) as well as Metlakatala, Alaska. He has been a fisherman all his life, and his love of the sea is reflected both in his art and his rural lifestyle. Clifton has been carving since the 1970's and spent a couple of years carving at Ksan. When not fishing or traveling, Cliff lived in Hartley Bay most of his life, in the house that he was born in. He is fluent in the Ts'msyen language, learned from his parents and grandparents.

He recently moved to Dodge Cove, on Digby Island. It is a small community, across the harbour from Prince Rupert. The historic community is on the site of Kanagatsiyot, a Ts'msyen native village of the Gispaxloats people, which is thousands of years old. Cliff currently works in his house and carving shed which both have a view of the harbour, snow covered glacial mountains, and the city of Prince Rupert