Features

Barbara K. Adamski | features@otherpress.ca

Ninstints:
of Anthony, /

Lisa Terepocki
OP Contributor -

I’m being watched. I see wide eyes = After oe
an@ sharp teeth but hear nothing host, we cc

except the rhythm of waves. The :
saa of the past still clings to

 

 

a of humankind.
After a wet 40-minute ride to
Skung Gwaii, we end up in a small

   
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
     
 
 
  
  
    
   
 
   
   
  

ded shore of green moss and
ee. trees. The air feels

of ravelal and

of Haida watch-
ye EMhernmos tip of BC

Charlotte Islands, so we are seeking

‘Kunghit Island. On the VHF radio
we call out to “Old Squaw” a fom

 
 
   
 

because of a series
epidemics. The Haida pe
“inhabited the territories

    

=

  
 

| d occupiec PNinsades were
known as ee Haida.

Cohen has lived j in Re Hasbour
_ since: 1983. Raised in New York City, name o
she travelled to the Queen Charlotte
slands at me age gf 25, fell in love

After spendi
halibut /and geal

islands, Cohen ie

    

 

Harbour other people
and, out o s of an aban-
doned wh: in the har-
bour, built se

We take our skiff to shore to be

greeted by Cohen, a tall, thin woman
with long brown hair and kind eyes.
She is close 50 years old, but her

  
  
  
 
    
 
 

figh wealth build

24 | OtherPress

     
   
 

trust between the two moieties.”

beavers, wolves, bears, humans,
1 eth of black

“poles can’t be read like books

  
        
 
  
  
  
 
   
 
  
 
  
  
  
 
  
 
 

lene Tee dic would “hist “el”
from the Eagle moiety to |

  

July 2004

 

make a pole with the Raven crest
it. If an Eagle chief was building
house, the Ravens made the pole.
This was a sign of friendship an

  
 
   
  
    
   

 

On the nine frontal poles st
standing, there are eagles, rave
killer whales, halibut, salmon, frogs,

even bears with upside-down
humans in their _ mouths
Unfortunately, no one knows exa

the story behind these poles. “Tot

explains George MacDonald,
anthropologist and director of
Seattle’s Burke Museum of Natural
History & Culture. “It’s impossible
to know what each totem pole really
means without knowing the history
of the people and the family that
owned it. And we'll never know

those details because Ninstints was so

ickly wiped out one giscaiay

imately 30 totem poles a 20 long-
houses. “Back then the poles. were

  

painted. The lips of animals would’ve
been

brown or black,” says

Hesseltine. “Tongues would be

bright red.” io

Now, all that colours the poles are
n seedling pe

 

Hon eopls at worn cedar.
der over to three that are "standing
together in front of the thick green

forest. On one of the poles, a raven’s

beak has broken off, and two crea-

tures on the bottom have eroded
yond distinction. The other two
poles here are mortuaries, and the
tops that once seryed as coffins for
the chiefs’ bodies are now rotting
wooden cavities.
rom the Ninstints totem

opologists know of only

 

Continued on Pg 25