Totem-Pole

Item number E333921-0 from the National Museum of Natural History.

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Notes

From card: "Old Kasaan, east coast, Prince of Wales Id., s.e. Alaska. Stood in front of "furthest forward house," K!atE-nE (K!at-nes, " front house") owner, Nesteu or Nastao, erected c. 1877. Totems from top down: two cloud-hatted watchers of high rank; head of bearded man, Nenki'lslas "Great One in the Sea"; eagle; killerwhale woman, with labret, tail turns up in front of pole; killerwhale, the face between his ears said to be his fin (informant Fannie Jones called this a shark "k!at, not the killerwhale). Literature: M. Barbeau: "Totem Poles, vol. II, p. 575. A.P. Niblack "The Coast Indians ... Rept. U.S.N.M., 1888. 6/12/68 - Many additional views of this specimen in the field are available in the SOA Archives [National Anthropological Archives]. GP"Catalogue card lists a number of (old) black and white photo negative numbers for this artifact, however as of 2019 Smithsonian Institution Archives Photo Services could not locate any of these negatives in their files, and the Department of Anthropology does not have any prints made from these negatives in their files.