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Early Park Title

Coast Salish Pole

Coast Salish (Songhees) Pole, 1912
Carver: William Clallam

This pole was made in 1912 for a member of the Songhees First Nation by a carver from Port Angeles, Washington, named William Clallam. According to a 1939 article in the Daily Colonist newspaper, it commemorated a man known as Old Sam who lived in the Victoria area before 1843. The pole was photographed standing in front of a house on the New Songhees Reserve, Esquimalt, in 1920. It was acquired by the provincial museum in 1940. The Eagle at the top of the pole was removed and placed on an uncarved column in Thunderbird Park (it appears to the right of this pole on the map). A carved Salmon that was below the Eagle is no longer with the pole.
RBCM 5043.

 

Coast Salish Pole



Raven, identified in museum records as a guardian spirit of the owner’s dead brothers.
Bear, another guardian spirit of the owner’s dead brothers.
Killer Whale, with head pointing downward. This is the guardian spirit that gave the owner his personal dance. 
Human, wearing a feather headdress and a braided belt, and holding a mask. Thunderbird Park guidebooks of the period describe this as a Sisiyut? head and the braid around the figure’s waist as a belt made of Sisiyut? skin that gave the wearer magical powers. The mask is, however, a Nuu-chah-nulth Serpent headdress. Old Sam, whose histories are portrayed on the pole, may have been Nootka Sam. If so, the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) headdress refers to his ceremonial rights.

Wolf, seen from the back with head facing upwards. Although Thunderbird Park guidebooks refer to this figure as a Mink whose power enables a person to walk under water, the figure is likely a Wolf, another important Nuu-chah-nulth ceremonial right. 
RBCM 5043.

Coast Salish Pole in Thunder Bird ParkThunderbird Park, 1950s. BC Archives B-07297.
Coast Salish Pole in SituNew Songhees Reserve, 1920. Charles F. Newcombe photograph. RBCM PN 822.
Coast Salish pole in situNew Songhees Reserve, 1920. Charles F. Newcombe photograph. RBCM PN 823.
Coast Salish pole in situNew Songhees Reserve, 1928. William A. Newcombe photograph. RBCM PN 920.
Close up of a Coast Salish pole in situNew Songhees Reserve, 1928. William A. Newcombe photograph.
Close up of a Coast Salish pole in situ

RBCM PN 920.
Coast Salish Pole in Thunder Bird ParkThunderbird Park. Trio Crocker photograph. RBCM PN 11687.
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