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Its style and character, its bold high relief, belong to a period when polels 
were essentially carvings, paint being used as a mere accessory for effect. 
The eyes and eyebrows were painted black, the nostrils and lips red; and 
the feathers of the Eagle may have been painted white. The figure of the 
Eagle does not seem as genuine as the others; and the carver may have had 
in mind to imitate the American Eagle. 
Although the few carved figures on the newer pole are good enough, 
they belong to the more recent type introduced by Hlamee of Gitwinlkul, 
after paint began to replace carving as a means of expression. The figures 
as a result are thinner — except for the Eagle at the top — more conventional, 
and far less interesting. 
(45) Poles of Tewalasii, at Kitwanga 
OWNERS 
Tewalasu’s family is one of the three subdivisions of the Eagle group 
of Kitwanga. It seems to have branched off the parent stem under the 
name of its present leader somewhat earlier than the family of Sqaysen. 
Its members occupied a separate house, next to that of Qawq, on the 
Ta’awdzep fortress. 
Tewalasu owns two totem poles, which stand at the upper end of the 
front row at Kitwanga. 
DESCRIPTION 
The older of the two poles (Plate I, figure 2; Plate XXIX, figure 1) is 
named Dog-salmon ( Qanees ). Its figures consist of two large fish, the 
Il)og-salmon, head downwards; and three human beings; the upper one, 
fish spear in hand; the second, holding on to the tail of the salmon; and 
the smaller one, at the bottom, being sw'allowed by the salmon. 
The second pole (Plate I, figure 3; Plate XXIX, figure 2; Plate XXVIII, 
figure 4) is that of On-top-sits-the-Squirrel (HaneedcehUisenhlik). Its 
figures are; the Squirrel (Tsenhlik); a human being, possibly the chief of 
the household in whose memory it was erected, Tewalasu, holding the Mar- 
ten (^Atku) in his hands; The-Eagle’s-nest ( Anluhlkehl-hrskycek ) or the 
Small-eagle-on-beams (Hrskycegem-ralp-ran)^ which was formerly carved 
on the front gable-ends of the roof beams; the Starfish (Kamats); and a 
human being with Starfish on his hands representing Kweenu’s coat-of- 
arms; Kweenu being a close paternal relative of Tewalasu and belonging 
to the Larhsail phratry, at Gitwinlkul. 
ORIGIN 
The Squirrel and Dog-salmon crests in Kitwanga are used mostly by 
the family of Tewalasu. Their origin goes back only to the time when 
the ancestors of this family lived farther down the river, among the Tsim- 
syan. The Dog-salmon emblem seems the older of the two, since it is 
still used by one of the related Kitsalas’ families, that of Raraotsren, on 
the Gitrhtsffirh side of the canyon. 
