Photo Gallery

The Haida myth retold finds its most beautiful visual expression in this 2m- (6.6 feet) high sculpture in white cedar created by artist Bill Reid for the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver. Dedication festivities for this masterpiece were held in 1980.

Bowl made of soapstone dating from the pre-Columbian period of 400-1200 A.D., found in the Fraser Valley near Aldergrove, presumed to have been the property of a Coast Salish shaman. (Lent by J. Yoshioka; 19 cm; MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

A Haida canoe paddle from the 19th century. (150 cm; MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

A Halibut hook made of yew wood, bent by means of a steaming technique and then hardened. The bone barb is attached by means of a cedar bark string. Collected from the Haida, but of a type used by the Makah. (16 cm, MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

A Haida halibut hook adorned with the figure of a chief wearing a potlatch hat engraved with a frog. (31 cm, over 110 years old; MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

Rattles also belonged to the insignia of a chief. This old raven rattle has two special features: First, a human face is carved onto the upright tail feathers and, second, the tiny human figure is holding two large mountain goat horns. (35 cm; MOA; A5254)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

This frontlet, from the Niska-Tsimshian village of Greenville located on the Nass River, shows a crouching bear. It is inlaid with colorful haliotis. (19 cm, MOA, A6810)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

Haida copper with etched and painted bear motif. The copper plate is more than 100 years old. (74 cm: MOA, A7102)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

bowl for food in the shape of a frog. (23 cm: MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

This small wooden figurine measures 23 cm (9 inches) and presumably represents a shaman who is wearing his face mask and is holding two sea otters. (MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

Argillite totem pole from the last century. From top to bottom, there is a bear, a raven with a frog on its wing, the figure of a chief and a hawk with a killer whale in its talons. (36 cm, MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

This thunderbird frontlet, inset with haliotis shell, was the property of a chief of the Tlatlasikoala Kwakiutl, from Hope Island off the northern tip of Vancouver Island. He acquired it from the Bella Coola. (20 cm: MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

The Atlakin mask dance plays an important role in the ceremonial life of the Kwakiutl. Atlakim beings are forest spirits of the most diverse appearance. Their chief is Xamsalilala. He is the first to appear and summons the other 39 spirits, one after the other, into the ceremonial hall. This Xamsalilala mask, also shown on the dust jacket, was carved in the 1940s by the famous chief and artist Willie Seaweed (1873-1967), a Nakoaktok Kwakiutl from Blunden Harbor, located on the mainland opposite Port Hardy. Bill Holm dedicated an exhibition and a book with the title "Smoky Top" (Vulkan) to this famous chief and artist. (27 cm, MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

This 3.6-meter-tall (12-foot-tall) ancestral figure, carved from the wood of a red cedar, served as a house post in the interior of a Koskimo Kwakiutl house in Quatsino. The lower portion shows two slaves carrying a plank, which presumably served as the seat for a chief. A killer whale and coppers are depicted on the figure. (MOA)

These house posts was collected in 1893 in Kitimat at the upper end of the Douglas Channel. They belonged to the Haisla Kwakiutl. (173 cm: MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

These house posts was collected in 1893 in Kitimat at the upper end of the Douglas Channel. They belonged to the Haisla Kwakiutl. (159 cm: MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

In this bentwood box, measuring only 32 cm (13 inches), a Haisla shaman from Kitamaat stored his utensils. The lid is decorated with opercula, the "plugs" of a sea snail shell. (MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

This soul catcher, representing the two-headed sea monster Sisiutl, belonged to a Haisla shaman from Kitlope, located on the Gardner Canal. If the shaman was successful in recovering the patient's lost soul during the healing ritual, he would keep it in the body of the small human figure, whose head is removable, and return it to the patient. (16 cm; MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

A hamatsa bird mask with movable beak. This monster raven serves Bakhbakwalanooksiwey, the cannibalistic creature of the north. Carved by Mungo Martin, one of the best-known artists and chiefs of the Fort Rupert Kwakiutl, (103 cm, MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

Thanks to the twined-weaving technique, this Nootka whale-hunting hat is waterproof. Jessie Webster (born 1909), a Nootka artist in Ahousat, located on Flores Island, wove this fine piece out of cedar bark fiber and dyed grasses. According to her account, this is a Maquinna hat, named after the powerful chief of the Mowachaht Nootka at the time of contact with James Cook. (26 cm; MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

Argillite pipe. Two sailors and two dogs are connected by an anchor chain. The hole for tobacco is located left of the middle. The wooden mouthpiece is inserted on the outside right. Such pipes were a typical mid-19th-cehtury trade item. (42 cm; MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

Haida argillite platter made in the 1880s, showing two killer whales. The rim is inlaid with opercula, sea snail plugs. (42 ern, MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

This silver bracelet, depicting Raven Yel with the Sun, is attributed to an anonymous Tsimshian artist. (5 cm, MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

Woman mask with lip plug and tattoos. - Bill Reid, Haida. (22 cm; MOA)
MOA = Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver