In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, carvers began to produce compact sculptural groups of figures of animals and men. Some of them are very complex, with many figures crowded together in contorted positions. Incidents from myths were often depicted. This group has the bear as its main figure, holding a man in its jaws and a cub on its lap. The meaning of the various figures is not clear, but it is likely that the group illustrates incidents from the "Bear Mother" myth. (Holm, Crooked Beak of Heaven, 1972)

In the Spirit of the Ancestors-This model pole reproduces the figures from a late 19th century pole from the Haida village of Howkan in Southeast Alaska. The pole displays the wasgo, a supernatural sea wolf at the bottom, holding a killer whale; the bird-in-the-air who assisted the hero in capturing the wasgo; the young man who captured the wasgo and wore his skin; and the shaman mother-in-law of the young man who took credit for his work, holding her circular puffin-beak rattles.