Model Totem Pole

Item number Nb9.51 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

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Data
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Description

Model totem pole with owl(?) situated on top of humanoid. Flat back and round base. Hole in bottom of base indicates that object may be incomplete. Red and black water colour on unfinished wood.

Specific Techniques

The black paint was made out of pulverized black stone mixed with salmon egg, and the burgundy/red pigment was made with pulverized red rocks, salmon eggs, and sometimes mixed with red dye made from alder that the artist's wife used to dye cedar bark. Paint is not watercolor, but native pigments made from minerals and tannins.

Narrative

Dick Snow’s grandson, Chief Jeffrey Snow (7ANISPUXALS), remembers that his grandfather carved these miniatures for sale, rather than something like masks, to prevent non-Native people from disrespecting the Smayusta (family-owned ancient origin stories) of the objects. Jeffrey Snow, along with Marshall Hans (Komokwa, also Dick Snow’s grandson), remember Dick Snow making his own pigment paints out of mineral rocks that he gathered himself from around the Bella Coola Valley. Dick Snow sold his carvings right from his house in Bella Coola, filling a curio cabinet in his living room with work and turning it to face out in the window. Customers would come and look in at his offerings, buying the work directly from him.