Replica House Frontal Pole (RBCM 20129)

This pole is a version of one that stood in front of a house named Rock Slide House in Hlḵinul Llnagaay (Cumshewa village), Haida Gwaii. Rock Slide House, built after 1878, replaced an earlier house named House That Makes a Great Noise. The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago purchased the original pole in 1901, and then in the 1930s sold it to the Salvation Army, who erected it in a children’s camp in Illinois. A collector acquired it in the 1960s. The Canadian Museum of History purchased it in 1982. Since 1996 it has stood in the CMH’s Grand Hall in Gatineau, Quebec (VII-B-1796 a, d). 

This new version of the pole from Hlḵinul Llnagaay was carved by three exceptional Northwest Coast artists: Gerry Marks (Haida), Richard Hunt (Kwakwaka’wakw) and Tim Paul (Nuu-chah-nulth) and raised in the traditional manner in front of the new Carving Studio in Thunderbird Park on June 9, 1984, Charley Wesley, Chief of Cumshewa, in attendance. The Carving Studio was structured like a six-beam Haida house. It replaced a previous studio that was destroyed by fire and was itself taken down in 2009 when it became structurally unsound. With the permission of the Cumshewa chief, the pole remains standing, now with no house behind it, in Thunderbird Park.

The crests of the owner of Rock Slide House are shown on the pole. The three Watchmen at the top look out to sea and call out warnings at the approach of enemy canoes. Next is Cormorant, with human arms with feathered elbows. The Killer Whale below has a woman clinging to its tail and a small upside-down human figure, whose face forms the whale’s blowhole, riding on its back. They illustrate the story of Nanasimgit, whose wife was abducted by a whale. At the bottom, Grizzly Bear is shown with two human-like cubs, referring to a story about a woman who married a bear and gave birth to half-human, half-bear children.

Do you have a story to share about this item? Add your voice to the community.