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Totem pole marking the number of potlatches by a powerful leader in the ancient village site of K'uuna Linagaay, aka Skedans, on Louise Island, aka K'uuna Gwaay yaay, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada
Totem poles gracing the ancient village site of K'uuna Linagaay, aka Skedans, on Louise Island, aka K'uuna Gwaay yaay, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada
Totem pole marking the number of potlatches by a powerful leader in the ancient village site of K'uuna Linagaay, aka Skedans, on Louise Island, aka K'uuna Gwaay yaay, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada
An old totem pole is being swallowed by a tree at K'uuna Llnagaay (Skedans) National Historic Site, Louise Island, Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands), British Columbia, Canada. Most of the Haida villagers here died from imported diseases in the 1880s.
Old totem poles remain in situ at K'uuna Llnagaay (Skedans) National Historic Site, Louise Island, Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands), British Columbia, Canada. The rings on the inclined pole represent the number of potlatches held by the clan.
The depression of a 19th century Haida longhouse remains at K'uuna Llnagaay (Skedans) National Historic Site on Louise Island, Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands), British Columbia, Canada.
This log-strewn beach on Louise Island, Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands), British Columbia, Canada, is part of the K'uuna Llnagaay (Skedans) National Historic Site. Haida villages have faced this beach beginning 12,500 years ago.
In the isolated Haida Gwaii archipelago, the Sitka deer (Odocoileus hemionus sitkensis), imported initially as a source of food, have expanded rapidly and caused dramatic changes in the rainforest habitat by destroying the forest undergrowth. The Sitka deer is native to the wet coastal rain forests of Southeast Alaska and north-coastal British Columbia, where their population is controlled by natural predators. There are no grizzly bears, no wolves, coyotes or foxes, no cougars, lynx or bobcat on Haida Gwaii, which are all natural predators for the deer in their original habitat. In this image, A Sitka deer grazes at K'uuna Llnagaay (Skedans), Haida Gwaii, BC.
13/07/2021 www.allenfotowild.com
A small fir tree and a clump of salal have taken root and are growing on the top of a disintegrating totem pole, out of reach of deer, at the deserted Haida village of K'uuna Llnagaay on Louise Island, Haida Heritage Site, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia.
12/07/2021 www.allenfotowild.com
Salal (Gaualtheriqa shallon), a culturally important berry-bearing plant to the Haida people as a source of food and medicine, grows on a disintegrating mortuary pole, K'uuna Llnagaay (Skedans), Haida Gwaii, BC. A century ago, the shoreline would have contained a dense thicket of salal, seedling trees and other vegetation that we would have had to fight our way through to get into the woods, which would have been packed with with ferns, berry bushes, shrubs, and small trees. Now, the deer have destroyed everything within reach. The salal growing on this pole has survived only because it was out of reach of their rapacious appetite.
11/07/2021 www.allenfotowild.com
A moss-covered totem pole lying on the ground and slowly returning to the earth, K'uuna Llnagaay (Skedans) Gwai Haanas, BC. The disintegration of the memorial statuary is recognized by the Haida culture as a part of its natural life cycle.
10/07/2021 www.allenfotowild.com
All that remains.
A pit in the ground and two giant western red cedar beams are all that remains of the ~30 Haida longhouses at the village of K'uuna Llnagaay (Skedans). A panoramic photo of Skedans by the early photographer George Dawson in 1878 shows large numbers of frontal poles (large totem poles containing the round front entry of longhouses), mortuary poles and memorial poles, and they are also featured in several pieces of art from ~1912 by the famous Canadian artist, Emily Carr.
The remains of more than 50 pieces of monumental sculpture can be seen here and, even though they are carved from rot-resistant cedar, they last only about a hundred years before they begin to disintegrate. The disintegration is recognized by the Haida culture as a natural part of a pole’s life cycle.
A memorial pole for a Haida chieftain, with rings marking many potlatches, slowly returns to nature at the Haida village of K'uuna Llnagaay (Skedans), Louise Island, Gwaii Haanas, Haida Gwaii, BC. A potlatch is a culturally important gift-giving feast among the native peoples of the Pacific Northwest, with distribution of property and gifts to affirm social status and promote social cohesion. As part of a policy of cultural assimilation, which included the culturally genocidal residential school program, the Canadian government made potlatching illegal in 1885, and the prohibition was not lifted until 1951.
07/07/2021 www.allenfotowild.com
A diverse selection of dried sea weeds and beach rocks lies at the high tide line, K'uuna Llnagaay (Skedans), Louise Island, Gwaii Haanas, BC. Sea wrack is an important ecological link between land and sea, providing food for beach animals and, as it decomposes, nutrients for kelp and other offshore plants.
this pole came from Skedans village, also known as K'uuna Llnagaay
