133 
FUNCTION 
It was erected about fifty years ago in commemoration of Waws, by 
his successor Nirawlet. It formerly stood in front of a large communal 
house, about 60 feet by 50, and 20 feet high,i the name of which was “the 
Grizzly-bear-house” (Kyas-iyaq ), 
CARVER 
The carver of this pole was Lurhawn,* a chief of the Larhsail phratry 
at Gitwinlkul, presumably the uncle of the present chief of the same name, 
also a carver. The technique here, as in several of the older poles, is that 
of a carver of masks rather than of totem poles. The two heads of the 
Grizzlies in particular were handled exactly like masks. 
POLES OF THE EAGLE PHRATRY 
(44) Poles of Qawq, at Kitwanga 
OWNERS 
The three Larhskeek families of the Kitwanga tribe, headed by Qawq,® 
are the only ones of the Eagle phratry among the Gitksans. This phratry, 
taken as a whole, gradually filtered into the Tsimsyan system from the 
north, at a fairly recent date. Among the Gitksan, it has penetrated no 
farther than Kitwanga — the lowest Gitksan village on the Skeena. The 
former home of Qawq’s households was Gitanraet, now Fiddlers creek, ^ 
about 25 miles below Kitwanga, on the Skeena. 
Qawq traces his ancestry back to the Eagle families of Kitsemraelem, 
a Tsimsyan village below the canyon of the Skeena. He still claims as his 
kinsmen there 'Nees-kanwawdzeks, Qastuweene, Trhalarhiet, and 'Nees- 
pehlas. These Tsimsyan chiefs belong to the same stock as the famous 
warriors Legyarh and Skagwait whose historical traditions are among 
the most remarkable and explicit. This Eagle clan, according to recol- 
lection, originated among the Tlingit, at Na’a, now known as Loring, 
Alaska; and because of a feud with the Wolf clan of Nees-laranows, migrated 
southwards. After a sojourn at Bellabella (a Kwakiutl tribe named Wud- 
stse by the Tsimsyan), where a branch of the clan still remains, most of 
the family moved back to the north and settled, a part among the Haidas 
of Queen Charlotte islands, another at Gitsemrselem, among the Tsimsyan, 
and a third part among the Nisrse of Gitrhatin. 
The chief representatives of the Na'a clan (thus named from its place 
of origin among the Tlingit) are: among the Tsimsyan — Legyarh, of the 
Gisparhlawts; Skagwait, of the Gitandaw, and Nees-kanwawdzeks, of 
lAccording to Thorny Namawks. 
*According to three old informants consulted by Diamond Jenness. Donald Grey, a younger man, was under 
the impression that Gitrhawn, a Tsimayan of the Eagle phratry at Kitsalas, had been the carver. 
•The familiar name of Qawq is now Semedeek, the oldest chief at Kitwanga. 
•Near the railway station of Dorreen. 
