Totem Pole | Replica

Item number R-199 from the The Burke: University of Washington.

Public

Item Records

This page shows all the information we have about this item. Both the institution that physically holds this item, and RRN members have contributed the knowledge on this page. You’re looking at the item record provided by the holding institution. If you scroll further down the page, you’ll see the information from RRN members, and can share your own knowledge too.

The RRN processes the information it receives from each institution to make it more readable and easier to search. If you’re doing in-depth research on this item, be sure to take a look at the Data Source tab to see the information exactly as it was provided by the institution.

These records are easy to share because each has a unique web address. You can copy and paste the location from your browser’s address bar into an email, word document, or chat message to share this item with others.

Data
Data Source

This information was automatically generated from data provided by The Burke: University of Washington. It has been standardized to aid in finding and grouping information within the RRN. Accuracy and meaning should be verified from the Data Source tab.

Exhibit Label

This is a replica of a pole that once stood in front of the house named "House Passers-by Always Looked Up At" in the village of Haina (New Gold Harbor) on Maude Island in the Queen Charlotte Islands. It was erected around 1870 by "He Whose Word Is Obeyed," belonging to the clan of Those Born on the Stasaos Coast, and displays both his crests and those of his wife, "The Sound of Coppers Clanging," of the Pebble Town Eagles. From bottom to top the figures represent: a killer whale, its upturned tail decorated with a bird head; a woman, identified by the labret in her lip, grasping the whale's dorsal fin and wearing a ringed basketry hat; two watchmen figures at her sides; Tsamaos, the personification of a supernatural river snag who capsizes the canoes of the unwary; a heron with its wings enclosing a human figure who grasps the heron's tail feathers; a man wearing a whale skin with flippers, dorsal fin, and tail; and two watchmen at his sides wearing ringed basketry hats who warn the owners of approaching visitors of danger.This replica was carved by Bill Holm, 1971, based on photos of the original pole, which no longer survives.