564 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1931 



Feuds over the size of poles at times broke out between semi- 

 independent leaders within a village. The bitter quarrel between 

 Hlaclerh and Sispegoot, on the Nass, will not soon be forgotten, 

 Hladerh, head chief of the Wolves, would not allow the erection of 

 any pole that exceeded his own in height, Sispegoot, head chief of 

 the Finback Whales, could afford to disregard his rival's jealousy. 

 When his new pole was carved, more than 60 years ago, the news 

 went out that it would be the tallest in the village. In spite of 

 HIaderh's repeated warnings, Sispegoot issued invitations for its 

 erection. But he was shot and wounded by Hladerh as he passed 

 in front of his house in a canoe. The festival was perforce post- 

 poned for a year. Meanwhile Hladerh managed, through a clever 

 plot, to have Sispegoot murdered by one of his own subordinates. 

 He later compelled another chief of his own phratry, much to his 

 humiliation, to shorten his pole twice after it was erected; and he 

 was effectively checked only when he tried to spread his rule abroad 

 to an upper Nass village. 



The present crop of poles is the first of its kind to stand on the 

 Skeena, with the exception of a few of the oldest that have already 

 fallen and decayed. The oldest poles of Gitsegyukla (at Skeena 

 Crossing) have stood only since the fire destroyed the earlier village 

 in 1872 ; those of Hazelton were carved after the establishment of the 

 Indian reserve about 1892. But several of the poles in the other 

 villages — including Kitwanga — are many years older; they are 

 particularly interesting, as they illustrate the growth of totem pole 

 carving within two or three generations in the nineteenth century. 



Most of the poles of the upper Skeena were erected in the past 

 40 or 50 years. The oldest five or six may slightly exceed 70 years 

 of age. Not a few are less than 30 years old. It is safe to say that 

 this feature of native life among the Gitksan became fashionable 

 only after 1870 and 1880. Only 6 out of nearly 30 poles at Gitwinl- 

 kul — the earliest of these villages to adopt the art — exceed 50 years 

 of age; and only a few poles at that time stood in the neighboring 

 villages. 



TECHNIQUE AND ITS EVOLUTION 



Native accounts and the evidence of the carved memorials lead 

 to the conclusion that, among the Tsimsyan, carved house-front poles 

 and house-corner posts were introduced first, many years before the 

 first detached columns appeared. Several houses and posts of this 

 kind are still remembered by the elders and have been described; 

 a few are still to be observed, particularly at the lower canyon of the 

 Skeena, though most of them are in an advanced state of decay. 

 The archaic stvle of house decoration was abandoned as soon as the 



