Robson, John (1846 - 1924)

In the late 1860s Robson succeeded his uncle as Chief Giatlins, a Raven lineage chief in Skidegate. He was a noted carver of totem poles (late 1860s to approx. 1885?). He also produced many house models and works in argillite, and was one of seventeen Haida artists who were noted as having worked on a set of model houses from Skidegate that were commissioned for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Robson married Qwa'Kuna, the widowed mother of Charles Edenshaw. Having taught Edenshaw and worked on a number of poles with him, there is an obvious similarity in their styles.