Paddle carved from a single piece of light coloured wood, with a raven painted along one side of the blade and onto the throat. Paddle has a flattened ovular blade, thick cylindrical throat, and flattened shaft that flares outward at the top. Shaft has wide notches carved into it, below barrel-shaped grip; grip painted black. Painted raven is made up of formline design elements; done in dark blue, dark red, light blue, black, bronze, and green-blue. Raven's head is pointed downward, touching bottom edge of blade, wings are held close to body, and tail feathers are straightened. Bulbous face- with thick brows, a large nose, and open mouth- painted across upper half of wing. Eyes of raven and face, circle on upper half of tail, and sides of grip are covered with a crushed black mineral. Artist inscription written on back centre of blade: "Raven Led the Way" JADE HANUSE 2023 © Anuximana JH; rest of back is undecorated.

Museum Purchase: Indian Collection Subscription Fund, Rasmussen Collection of Northwest Coast Indian Art.

item is from the Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection

In 1968, George Phebus did a survery of the Department's totem poles, some of which did not have catalogue numbers written on them. At that time, he made his best guess as to which number went to which pole. He assigned catalogue no. E18925 to a Bella Coola/Nuxalk pole with bear/owl/beaver figures. However, the description in the accession records for totem pole #205851 more closely matches this pole, so its number has been changed from 18925 to 205851. Robin Wright has confirmed the Bella Coola/Nuxalk attribution of this pole. ET14953 and ET14957 also match the accession record descriptions of other parts of this pole, so they have been changed to # 205851 as well. - Sally McLendon and F. Pickering 11-2-2006.As of 2006, pole consists of 5 separate sections: bear/owl/beaver section (which actually consists of two connected pieces); eagle crest top section; mountain goat? section; head section; torso section. See info. in accession record from collector for why this is so. Note from collector/donor Iver Fougner in accession file indicates this is from "the lower Indian Village, Bella Coola, B.C.".IN 1990 THE LARGEST SECTION OF THIS TOTEM POLE (WHICH CONSISTS OF TWO CONNECTED PIECES) WAS ON EXHIBIT (under incorrect Catalogue No. 18925) IN NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM EXHIBIT HALL 9/11 WITH THE FOLLOWING LABEL: "TOTEM POLE. PROBABLY BELLA COOLA. THE FIGURES REPRESENT (FROM TOP TO BOTTOM) A BEAR, AN OWL, AND A SQUIRREL [sic]." As of 2004, this section of totem pole was on exhibit in left side of NMNH Imax Theater lobby. 2009 exhibit label identified pole as made by Tlingit, Bella Bella, or Bella Coola [though Bella Coola is most probably correct], and identified crests as, from top: bear, seated owl, beaver.Clyde Tallio (Nuxalk) of the delegation from Bella Bella, Bella Coola and Rivers Inlet communities of British Columbia made the following comments during the Recovering Voices Community Research Visit May 20th - 24th, 2013. The very top figure always represents the form in which your ancestor came from the upper world and it depicts your male lineage. The next figure underneath usually represents the mother, grandmother, or wife because she is uplifting her husband with all that she's brought to him. At first when we got here, I thought we were looking at a Heiltsuk piece because Nuxalk are fully painted, they're not supposed to leave any spot unpainted.Starting from the top down, the 5 currently separate component parts of the pole would be put together in this way: eagle section, bear/owl/beaver section, mountain goat section, human head section, human torso section (head goes with/on the torso, though currently in two separate pieces). The back of the wing of the eagle section has the number 367523 scrawled broadly in a blue drafting pencil. The accession number for the Fougner collection is 36752. Possibly the additional 3 was a part number?2018, Bear, owl, beaver section of pole is on exhibit in NMNH Sant Ocean Hall.

Five whale teeth tied to a leather thong. Broken in two pieces. One piece (part a) has two large teeth of similar size. The other piece (part b) has three teeth, two small and one medium in size.

Wood dagger carved in the shape of a barbed arrow head. Cedar bark is tied to the shaft. Head of dagger is painted red while three horizontal red bands are painted on the shaft.

Rectangular wooden chest front with black and red painted expansive design. Design is bilaterally symetrical and heavily stylized. Eight sets of holes along left side, with some remnants of rope fibre.

Carved mask of human face with thick black painted eyebrows. Eyes are round holes in recessed areas; nose is blunt; mouth is open. A small notch is in the in edge above the forehead.

A carved human face mask with protruding round cut out eyes, a hook nose and an open horizontal-slit mouth. Unpainted wood with dark stain in some areas.

Model canoe (a), with 2 figures (b-c), 2 paddles (d-e), 1 mast (f). Outside of canoe painted with Norhtwest coast designs. Figure b is seated and has long hair with crosshatching and is wearing a red stove pipe hat. Figure c is seated, has a prominent nose and is wearing a black hat with six raised scallops. Parts d and e are carved paddles with "T" shaped handles. Paddles painted black with three sets of red diagonal lines. Part f is a carved mast, with carved ends. Both figures have stamped/incised letters on bottom.