House Post (RBCM 2106)
House Post
In 1911 the posts no longer supported the roof beams of a big house. They stood among newer dwellings built in the European style, some of which incorporated the wide hand-adzed boards from the old big houses. The post shown here is RBCM 2106. Charles F. Newcombe photograph, PN 4966.
One of the house posts (RBCM 2107) photographed by Charles F. Newcombe at Ittattsoo in 1911. PN 515.
House posts RBCM 2108 (foreground) and RBCM 2109 (background) at Ittattsoo in 1911. The indentations at the top of the posts held the roof beams of the original house. Charles F. Newcombe photograph, PN 4965.
The house post that is now RBCM 2109 stands beside an old house structure with hand-adzed boards and a huge roof beam formed from a single log. Newer dwellings in the European style can be seen in the background. Charles F. Newcombe photograph, 1911, PN 14142.
Traditional houses near Port Albion (Ittattsoo) opposite Ucluelet about 1900. The house posts originally supported the roof beams of such a structure. Photograph by Dr McLean, Newcombe collection, PN 1185.
The three posts are at the back of the inauthentic house structure in this 1952 photograph of Thunderbird Park. I-29799.
One of the three house posts at the back of an open-sided structure in Thunderbird Park. E. W. A. Crocker (Trio) photograph, PN 11685.
John Smyly’s drawings of the four house posts from Ittattsoo.
This post is one of four that stood in a house built about 1880 near the Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ (Ucluelet) village of Ittattsoo, also known as Port Albion. Each of the posts represents an ancestor of the house’s owner, whose name was written in English as Atsek. This one depicts a chief of the family's ancestral village at Long Beach. All four posts were purchased for the museum by Charles F. Newcombe in 1911.
Along with three Kwakwaka’wakw house posts and a Kwakwaka’wakw carving of a Sisiyutł (a supernatural double-headed serpent), three of the house posts from Ittattsoo, badly repainted, were once part of an open-sided structure erected in Thunderbird Park in 1941 that was a pastiche of a Northwest coast big house. The fourth post (RBCM 2109) stood in Thunderbird Park beside the structure. They were later moved inside the museum and restored.
The Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ Nation is one of five Nuu-chah-nulth Nations who signed the Maa-nulth Final Agreement, a treaty with the governments of Canada and British Columbia. It came into effect in 2011. Two of the house posts from Ittattsoo currently in storage at the Royal BC Museum (RBCM 2107 and 2109) are among the belongings that will be repatriated to the Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ upon request. The other two posts, one of which is in storage (RBCM 2108), and this one, which is on display, will remain at the Royal BC Museum.
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