14 
gradually invaded larger spaces on the pole, to the detriment of plastic forms. 
The garish colours on the recently restored carvings at Kitwanga are 
modern and unauthentic, and they do not in any way represent native 
art or paint. They date back to 1925-26. Weathering in time will restore 
their original character and rich hues. 
It can be said, from evidence not adduced here,^ that the Nass River 
people made totem poles at an earlier period than the upper Skeena tribes. 
Many families on both sides were mutually related. Several of the Git- 
winlkul villagers have their hunting grounds on the upper Nass. And the 
Gitksan used to travel every spring to the lower Nass for ulaken fishing* 
or to trade pelts or dried fruit in cakes with the coast tribes. A strong 
cultural influence from the more progressive tribes of the coast thus resulted 
in the course of time. It is, besides, a trait of all these aborigines that they 
were keen and gifted imitators, and fond of novelty. 
The Tsimsyan of the lower Skeena, on the other hand, never were 
addicted to the art of carving totem poles. When, long ago, they were 
moved to commemorate an historical event of first magnitude, they erected 
a tall slab of stone — not a totem pole as they would have done nearer our 
times — which still stands at Kitsalas canyon, at the former village of 
Gitksedzawrh, north of the river {See Plate XXXII). Only a few poles 
ever stood in their ten villages — two or three in as many places® — -with 
exception of Kitsalas, the canyon. Three houses there had carved house- 
posts; and one of these may have contained eight. There are, besides, 
less than ten tall poles on both sides of the canyon, some of which have 
fallen'^ and partly decayed. These carvings at Kitsalas may be traced 
back to the influence of the Gitksan and indirectly, the Nisrse. The poles 
erected at the Tsimsyan village of Port Simpson, which was established 
by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1833, have mostly all decayed or been 
destroyed. Yet they were all erected after 1857, since an early painting 
of “Fort Simpson in 1857’’ and reproduced in Arctander’s Apostle oj 
Alaska (page 53) contains no trace of a totem pole. 
If the Tsimsyan as a body were not swayed by the modern fashion 
of erecting carved memorials to their dead, they retained until fairly late 
the older custom of painting in native pigments their heraldic symbols 
on the front of their houses. Although not a single totem pole seems ever 
to have stood in the village of Gitsees, near the mouth of the Skeena, five 
house-front paintings were still clearly remembered and described to us 
a few years ago.® And we were told that many houses in the other neigh- 
bouring tribes® were decorated in this style, which at one time may have 
been fairly general all along the coast. To use the words of our best 
Tsimsyan informant, Nees-yaranaet,”^ “There were more paintings than 
poles in the early days.” “This was true also among the Gitrhahla (on 
iThe autlior intends eventually to prepare a monograph on the totem poles and house-front paintings of the Nass 
River tribes and the Tsimsyan. 
*Tho place now is called Fishery bay. 
’There are said to be two now decaying on the ground near Shames; tliere were that many at Gitsemrffilom 
and at Ginaihdoik. 
<A few of these were recently restored and re-erected. 
*By Nees-yaranset (Herbert Wallace), of Port Simpson, B.C. 
•Geenarhangeok, Gitwilgyawts, Gisparhlawts, Gitlen, and others. 
^Old Herbert Wallace, head-chief of the Gitsees tribe, who belongs to the Raven phratry. lie is domiciled 
at Port Simpson. 
