Orca Chief

Front Cover
Harbour Publishing Company, Limited, 2015 - Art - 40 pages

Orca Chief is the third in a series of Northwest Coast legends by Roy Henry Vickers and Robert Budd. Their previous collaborations, Raven Brings the Light (2013) and Cloudwalker (2014), are award-winning national bestsellers.


Thousands of years ago in the village of Kitkatla, four hunters leave home in the spring to harvest seaweed and sockeye. When they arrive at their fishing grounds, exhaustion makes them lazy and they throw their anchor overboard without care for the damage it might do to marine life or the sea floor.


When Orca Chief discovers what the hunters have done, he sends his most powerful orca warriors to bring the men and their boat to his house. The men beg forgiveness for their ignorance and lack of respect, and Orca Chief compassionately sends them out with his pod to show them how to sustainably harvest the ocean's resources.


Accompanied by almost exclusively new illustrations by Roy Henry Vickers, this next installment of the Northwest Coast Legends will captivate readers young and old with its vivid imagery and remarkable storytelling.

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About the author (2015)

Roy Henry Vickers is a renowned carver, painter, printmaker and storyteller. He is the illustrator and co-author of Harbour Publishing's popular children's First West Coast Book series and Northwest Coast Legends series, the latter of which were all shortlisted for the Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award: Raven Brings the Light in 2014, Cloudwalker in 2015, Orca Chief in 2016 and Peace Dancer in 2017. His other books include Storyteller (2014) and Voices from the Skeena (2019). He lives in Hazelton, BC. Robert (Lucky) Budd holds an MA in history and has digitized many high-profile oral history collections including that of the Nisga'a First Nation. In addition to co-authoring the award-winning First West Coast Book series and Northwest Coast Legends series, he is also the author of Voices of British Columbia (Douglas & McIntyre, 2010)--a bestseller which was shortlisted for the 2011 Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award--and its sequel, Echoes of British Columbia (2014). He currently lives in Victoria, BC.