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The First Nations of the Pacific Northwest

Mortuary Poles and Graves

Dogfish Mortuary Pole

Carved by Bill Reid with assistant Doug Cranmer (Kwakwaka'wakw)
Totem Park, UBC, Vancouver, BC
ca 1961
Wood, polychrome
Collection of the UBC Museum of Anthropology
MOA #50032/b, 2115/4


Photo: Maria Hitchcock, 2012
Text: http://theravenscall.ca/en/who/life_story/middle_years
Source: Display, Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia

Dogfish Mortuary Pole

Bill Reid and Doug Cranmer carving the frontal board of the Haida Dogfish Mortuary Pole shown above.
Totem Park, UBC
Vancouver, BC
1961
UBC Historical Archives, UBC 3/3/1280

Text: http://theravenscall.ca/en/who/life_story/middle_years
Photo: http://vancouverartinthesixties.com/archive/119

Haida Mortuary Pole

(from top to bottom)
Eagle
Human mother with child/cub
Grizzly Bear father with child/cub

Eagle designed by Bill Reid. Other figures adapted from older carvings inside museum: A50000d and A50002c
Carved by Bill Reid with Douglas Cranmer, 1960 - 1961
A50028



Photo: Don Hitchcock 2012
Source and text: Display, Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia

The erection of the totem pole above. Bill Reid at right centre.

Bill Reid and colleagues erecting a totem pole, Totem Park, UBC
1962


Photo: UBC Historical Archives, UBC 41.1/2108

(Note that either the pole has since been moved, or that many trees have been removed from the site - Don )

Source: http://theravenscall.ca/en/who

Mortuary Pole
Haida: Kunghit
A50017

Fragment: one base section of a mortuary pole; crescent-shaped in cross section and carved in shallow and deep relief. From the top down: top section of a killer whale facing downward; seated bear with small upside down human face between its ears and the human’s arms n the bear's ears. The bear has large eyes and protruding tongue; head of the bear is equal in size to its body. Pole is unpainted.

Stood outside a house which belonged to the lineage of 'Those Born at Songs of Victory Town' of the Raven Moiety of the Kunghit Haida.

Figures probably relate to crests owned by the lineage of the person whose remains were placed in the box on the pole.
Made in Ninstints, British Columbia, Canada and Skunggwai, British Columbia, Canada between 1800 and 1899
Collected by Wilson Duff, Michael Kew, Harry Hawthorn and Wayne Suttles between June 1957 and July 1957
Height 420 cm, width 110 cm, depth 100 cm
Condition: fair
Accession number: 2113/6

Photo and text: http://www.rrnpilot.org/items/17649
Source: Display, Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia

Haida Mortuary Pole

(Note that this pole has replaced an earlier pole in the same position, but is not described on the information boards in the park - Don )

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2012
Source: Display, Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia

This is the pole which was in this position. It has been moved inside the museum. My photo is composed of two photos stitched together in a vertical panorama.

Text below from Stewart (1993):
The focus of the museum's outdoor display is a large six-beam plank house, complete with house frontal pole - a replica of Haida dwellings of the late nineteenth century. Fronting the dwelling, which is made entirely of red cedar, is a tall, complex pole, its design inspired by a pole that once fronted a house at the south end of Skidegate on the Queen Charlotte Islands.

The asymmetrical tail flukes of Dogfish rise above three Watchmen, the central one of which is holding onto the domed head of Dogfish, whose dorsal fin forms the Watchman's nose. In its characteristic downturned mouth, dogflsh has a small Whale.

The next figure shows Frog protruding through the ears of Eagle, which is grasping Sculpin to its chest, holding in its claws the long spines that characterise sculpins.

At the base is Killer Whale, with a blowhole on its forehead; there is a man crouched above the upturned tail flukes, a combination that tells the Nanasimget story.

Photo (right): Don Hitchcock 2012
Photo (left) and text: Stewart (1993)

Haida Tomb

The two side-posts are solid and fixed in the ground. The horizontal piece is hollow, and contains the square box into which the corpse has been tightly packed.

Photo and text: Collison (1915)
Permission: Public Domain

Haida Tombs at Massett, Queen Charlotte Islands, B.C. The side-posts are solid and sunk in the ground. The horizontal piece is hollow, and contains the corpse. These tombs are now falling through decay.

Photo and text: Collison (1915)
Permission: Public Domain

Bear Memorial

A memorial post consisting of a plain stout post about 3 metres high, surmounted by the large horizontal figure of a bear similar to, but much larger and more elaborately carved (including faces in the nostrils) than the bear (below) in front of Property House. Like the former, this may have been a mortuary figure with a receptacle in the side to receive a box of ashes or a child’s coffin.

(The carving was erected in memory of a chief of the Bear crest. This totem was standing in front of a chief's house at Massett, Queen Charlotte Islands in 1915, Collison (1915) )

Language Group: Haida
Village: Masset, Queen Charlotte Islands
Photo: G. Dorsey, 1897
Permission: Courtesy George MacDonald, Director, Bill Reid Centre for NWC Art Studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC.

Bear Mortuary.

A large figure of a bear stands on top of a large post. It is almost identical to one at Kiutsta in which the bear is hollowed out to receive the bones of an infant. The Masset version was perhaps used only as a memorial post.

Directly behind the mortuary is a marble memorial for A.E. Edenshaw.

Language Group: Haida
Village: Masset, Queen Charlotte Islands
Photo: H.I. Smith, 1919
Permission: Courtesy George MacDonald, Director, Bill Reid Centre for NWC Art Studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC.

Indian village and chief's tomb - Queen Charlotte Island, between 1866 and 1870.

Photo: Frederick Dally
Donation: Tom Knott in 1973
Source: http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/indian-village-and-chiefs-tomb-queen-charlotte-island;rad
Permission: Public Domain

The Namgis Burial Grounds at Alert Bay is an old native cemetery and one of the few remaining locations on the BC coast where totems remain undisturbed on their original site. The grounds of the cemetery are now closed to the public, but the totem poles can be viewed from the roadside.

(note the mix of traditional totem poles interspersed with (presumably later) Christian crosses - Don )

Language Group: Kwakwaka'wakw

Photo: © Adelaide de Menil, 1967
Permission: Courtesy George MacDonald, Director, Bill Reid Centre for NWC Art Studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC.

Totem Pole in the Namgis Burial Grounds at Alert Bay on Cormorant Island, with Christian crosses in the foreground.

Language Group: Kwakwaka'wakw

Photo: © Adelaide de Menil, 1968
Permission: Courtesy George MacDonald, Director, Bill Reid Centre for NWC Art Studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC.

Close up of totem poles in the Namgis Burial Grounds at Alert Bay on Cormorant Island.

(Note the Dzunuk'wa figure, the wild woman of the woods, at the base of the totem pole in the background - Don )



Language Group: Kwakwaka'wakw

Photo: © Adelaide de Menil, 1967
Permission: Courtesy George MacDonald, Director, Bill Reid Centre for NWC Art Studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC.

Totem Pole featuring Dzunuk'wa, the wild woman of the woods, surmounted by a Thunder Bird figure, in the Namgis Burial Grounds at Alert Bay on Cormorant Island.

Language Group: Kwakwaka'wakw

Photo: © Adelaide de Menil, 1968
Permission: Courtesy George MacDonald, Director, Bill Reid Centre for NWC Art Studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC.

Memorial Sculpture: Tsartlip (West Saanich)

Central Coast Salish families held memorial services, like second funerals, a year or more after the death of a loved one. At this time they often commissioned an elaborately decorated casket or effigy to honour respected leaders. These memorials were placed at family mortuary sites.

This memorial sculpture is both an effigy of the deceased and a casket. The monument illustrates two distinctive Central Coast Salish sculptural styles: realistic sculpture in the round (human figures); and highly stylized engraving on the surface of the box (fish).

When burial of the dead, rather than deposition in mortuary houses, became common practice early in the 20th century, mortuary houses and memorial caskets were disassembled and the remains of the dead interred in cemeteries. Tombstones are now commissioned as memorials.

When it was no longer in use, this sculptured assemblage was purchased by Harlan I. Smith for the National Museum of Man (now the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec) in 1929.

Canadian Museum of Civilization, VII-G-354 (a-g); artist unknown

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2012
Source: Display, Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia

Family Memorial: Musqueam

This box is an outstanding example of the high relief sculptural style used by Central Coast Salish artists to decorate grave boxes and mortuary houses in honour of respected members of important families.

The engraving on the pedestal represents sillhqey, a two-headed snake that is associated with spiritual power. On the front panel, in high relief, are four animals identified as sxwamatsan, fishers. Effigies of these animals are featured in a ritual of spiritual cleansing, a prestigious hereditary family privilege. Their representation here proclaims the family's high status.

In earlier times Central Coast Salish people wrapped their dead in blankets, and placed them in boxes or laid them to rest in family mortuary houses. In 1935 the owners of this box dismantled their family mortuary house and grave boxes and interred the remains of their members. The family sold the box to Harlan I. Smith for the National Museum of Man (now the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec). Proceeds from the sale were used by the family to purchase a stone monument for a new gravesite in the Musqueam cemetery. The box is currently on loan to the Museum of Anthropology. This memorial is exhibited with approval of the Musqueam Indian Band.

Canadian Museum of Civilization, VII-G-359 (a-g); artist unknown.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2012
Text: http://www.rrnpilot.org/
Source: Display, Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia

Ancestor Figure

Kwakwaka'wakw: 'Namgis
A1800

Carved wooden figure sitting with knees drawn up. The head is oval shaped with large ovoid eyes, protruding nose and open mouth. The upper lip and chin are painted black; a red band is painted across the face, the bridge of the nose and around the lips. Arms that hang down to the sides are attached separately to the body.

The figure represents Gumbegdles, a chief who found food for his tribe in a severe winter (G.H. Raley).

Made in Alert Bay, British Columbia, Canada and 'Yalis, British Columbia, Canada before 1894
Collected during 1894
Owned by George Henry Raley before November 1948
Received from H. R. MacMillan (Funding source) and George Henry Raley (Seller) during November 1948
Material: wood, paint and metal
Manufacturing Technique: carved, adzed, darkened and painted
Height 146 cm, width 83 cm, depth 36 cm
Condition: good
Accession number: 1960/199

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2012
text: http://www.rrnpilot.org/items/5075
Source: Display, Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia

Grave Figures

Human grave figure with exaggerated features standing upright. Right hand on breast and left hand on abdomen. Face carved in relief, wide downturned nose, open mouth, large deep eyes and heavy brows. Remnants of skin and hair on head nailed to head. Light brown paint around eyes, nose and jaw, also traces of white paint around mouth, nose and eyes. Formerly had hair and eyebrows of bear fur. Faint red band around forehead. Also strip of hairless skin on right groin.

In his description of Coast Salish grave figures, anthropologist, Paul S. Wingert notes that they: 'have long oval heads, thin columnar necks, and sloping shoulders. [They] also have tapering torsos, well marked groin lines, and similarly carved hands and fingers… [Facial features have] individualistic details [such as] high pointed nose and deep creases at the sides of the mouth and higher forehead and long broken nose (1949:42).'

Identification Number: A1781
Material: skin, paint, cedar wood and metal
Manufacturing Technique: carved and painted
Height 1625 mm, width 475 mm, depth 240 mm
Condition: fair
Current location: Case 006
Accession number: 1960/186
Culture: Tla’amin Nation
Previous Owner: George Henry Raley
Received from: H. R. MacMillan (Funding source) and George Henry Raley (Seller) during November 1948
Creation Date: before 1900

Photo: Don Hitchcock, 2012
Text: http://www.rrnpilot.org/items/5249
Source: Display, Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia

Grave figure with exaggerated features standing upright. Face carved in deep relief. Heavy brows, formerly had hair and eyebrows of bear fur. Some white paint left on chin and cheeks. Large deep eyes, wide downturned nose, opened mouth, and pronounced breasts. Remnants of strips of skin (hair lost) attached to forehead. Arms alongside body and hands on hips. Wide legs. Skin remnants also attached to the loins.

In his description of Coast Salish grave figures, anthropologist, Paul S. Wingert notes that they: 'have long oval heads, thin columnar necks, and sloping shoulders. [They] also have tapering torsos, well marked groin lines, and similarly carved hands and fingers… [Facial features have] individualistic details [such as] high pointed nose and deep creases at the sides of the mouth and higher forehead and long broken nose (1949:42).'

Made before 1900
Received from H. R. MacMillan (Funding source) and George Henry Raley (Seller) during November 1948
Identification Number: A1780
Material: paint, cat-tail grass, skin, cedar wood and metal
Manufacturing Technique: carved and painted
Height 1680 mm, width 555 mm, depth 390 mm
Condition: fair
Current location: Case 006
Accession number: 1960/185
Culture: Tla’amin Nation
Previous Owner: George Henry Raley
Received from: H. R. MacMillan (Funding source) and George Henry Raley (Seller) during November 1948

Photo: Don Hitchcock, 2012
Text: http://www.rrnpilot.org/items/5278
Source: Display, Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia

This photo was posted on a facebook page with the annotation:

Erik Menathey
My great x4 Grandfather Chilena standing with Tia'amins last known carved mortuary poles believed to be above the Dam across from the Mill.
Two old longhouses in the background, and they are armed with a few rifles. Looks to me like it may be above what is Shinglemill now ?

Another page with the same photo reads:

Erik Menathey
A picture of my great x4 grandfather Jose Gallegos at an old village site near Powell Lake above the falls.
The pic came from a lady whose father was a contractor who was building the mill in the late 1890s - 1900s



Tiy’ap thote (Erik Blaney), an executive council member of the Tla’amin Nation wandered the hills and bluffs of tiskʷat (tee-squat) for years, searching for two long-lost mortuary poles. tiskʷat is a former village site of the Nation that was illegally sold by British Columbia in 1873.

A mortuary pole is made to mark a gravesite and to represent those who have passed on.

The next step in Tiy’ap thote’s search for the poles came from an unlikely source. A photo from a woman in the state of Pennsylvania.

She got the photo from her father, who used to work in the area around Tla’amin territory and helped build the Powell River paper mill. It was this photo that would soon be crucial to the rediscovery of the poles.

( Presumably the photo referred to is this one above - Don )

But the answer to the century-long question was closer to home. It was a place Drew Blaney, Tiy-ap thote’s brother, had visited many times. Blaney also happens to be Tla’amin culture and heritage manager. Blaney was on a trip with Elders in 2022 when the poles caught his eye.

( Presumably this refers to the poles on display in the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia - Don )

Labelled as poles from the Stó:lō Nation, he said he’d seen the poles before and fought through bad cell service to text his brother for a photo of the poles. After examining them, Blaney and Sue Rowley, director of The University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology (UBC MOA) came to the conclusion that the poles were mislabeled and were actually the missing Tla’amin poles.

According to Rowley the poles ended up in the collection of Reverend George H. Raley, a residential 'school' principal. Parts of his collection ended up in the UBC Museum after he passed away. Due to this, Rowley said the collection didn’t come to them with much documentation.

Because of this, the poles stood in the museum for over 60 years, with no mention of their true origins, something the museum has since worked to rectify by changing the labels to show they are from the Tla’amin Nation.

According to Tiy’ap thote, the poles are 'The only ones in existence from our territory that we know of right now. So I believe preserving these ones and really documenting the history of them, how they came to be and educating our youth on the importance of them is something we’re going to do through the new cultural centre that’s being built and we’ll have them on display there.'

The new cultural called Ɂəms ʔayɛ (uhms aya) or 'Our House' is the first longhouse in Tla’amin territory since the last one that burnt in the 1918 fire, according to Drew Blaney. Tla’amin broke ground for this development Feb. 20, 2024 and expects it to be completed in the next 18 months.

The center will have facilities to teach community members the ʔayʔaǰuθəm (ayajuthum) language and a commercial kitchen to prepare traditional foods and feasts. For the poles, the cultural center will incorporate a small museum space that will house them, alongside other cultural belongings for decades to come.

Drew Blaney wonders 'if those poles could tell a story, what would they share with us?'

Because of Blaney and his brother Tiy’ap thote’s work among others, the poles will be part of telling the enduring story of tiskʷat and will help teach Tla’amin’s history to the next seven generations.

Photo and text: British Columbia Institute of Technology, bcitnews.com/documentary-the-path-to-reclamation/

Powell Lake, the site of the original location of the two poles shown above, is a lake in the northern Sunshine Coast region of British Columbia, Canada, adjacent to the city of Powell River, which sits on the low rise of land forming a natural dam between the lake and the Strait of Georgia. The lake flows to the ocean through Powell River and features Goat Island, a large mountainous island. It serves as a reservoir for a small hydroelectric generating station which was built to serve the city's paper mill; and also as a water supply for that paper mill. The damming was completed in 1911. Its surface was raised 10 metres; from 46 to 56 metres above sea level. After damming, the lake consisted of six interconnected basins. The lake is also meromictic, containing fresh water down to approximately 100 metres depth, after which the water is saline. The salt water was trapped in the lake some 10 000 years ago due to retreating glaciers, which raised the land around the lake.

According to John Hackett, Hegus ('Chief' in the Sliammon language) of the Tla’amin Nation, the Tla’amin people had, at that time, a main village called Tis’kwat located in that exact spot. But the people started seeing European settlers coming into their territory, setting up camps and eventually starting to log and extract resources from the area. However, any evidence will likely be found under the waters of Powell Lake after its level was raised by ten metres after the construction of the dam.

Photo: Google Maps
Text: Wikipedia

This is apparently a grave figure, and is also in case 006 with the other two figures above.

I have been unable to find it in the MOA archives.

Made of wood, with paint, it shows an apparently lightly bearded man holding a lizard like creature.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2012
Source: Display, Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia

Salish graves, Chapman's Bar, British Columbia

Collection of Glenbow Museum NA-843-40

Photo: Engraved by Edward Whymper
Source: http://www.glenbow.org/media/coast_lp_grade_1-3.pdf

References

1. Barbeau, M., 1950: Totem Poles, 2 Volumes, National Museum of Canada, Bulletin No. 119, Anthropological Series, No. 30, Ottawa: Department of The Secretary of State. 1950.
2. Brown, P., 2011: We Are The Wuikinuxv Nation, UBC Museum of Anthropology Pacific Northwest sourcebook series © Wuikinuxv Nation UBC Museum of Anthropology, 2011 University of British Columbia 6393 N.W. Marine Drive Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z2
3. Collison, W., 1915: In the Wake of the War Canoe, Toronto: Musson Book Company.
4. Coull, C., 1996: A Traveller's Guide to Aboriginal B.C., Whitecap Books (April 1996)
5. Duff, W., 1959: Histories, Territories and Laws of the Kitwancool, Anthropology in British Columbia Memoir No. 4 (Victoria: Provincial Museum of British Columbia, 1959)
6. Galois, R., 1994: Kwakwaka'wakw Settlements, 1775-1920: A Geographical Analysis and Gazetteer, Volume 1 of Northwest native studies series, UBC Press, 1994
7. Grant, P., 2001: Wish You Were Here: Life on Vancouver Island in Historical Postcards, Horsdal and Schubart
8. Hawthorn, A., 1979: Kwakiutl Art, University of Washington Press (January 1, 1979)
9. Jonaitis, A., 2006: Art of the Northwest Coast, University of Washington Press, October 1, 2006
10. Martin, J., 2009: Making settler space - George Dawson, the Geological Survey of Canada and the Colonization of the Canadian West in the Late 19th Century , Ph D. thesis submitted to Queen's University Kingston, Ontario, Canada, September 2009
11. Mayer, C., Shelton A., 2010: The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, University of Washington Press, February 15, 2010
12. Savard, D., 2005: Changing Images: Photographic Collections of First Peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast Held in the Royal British Columbia Museum, 1860-1920BC Studies, no. 145, Spring 2005
13. Stewart, H., 1993: Looking at Totem Poles, Douglas & McIntyre, Canada, 23 September 1993

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