Coming home: A history of the Nuxalk totem and its return to Bella Coola
Restitution and repatriation of a long-lost totem pole will take place Feb. 13 in Victoria. That’s when the Royal BC Museum will return the Snuxyaltwa totem to the Nuxalk Nation of Bella Coola.
Then in 1913 the totem was removed from the burial site and taken to Victoria where it became part of the RBCM collection for over 100 years. According to Yulm, his great grandfather Louie was a powerful man. “He had four wives and had the rights to a significant territory. A chief had up to ten wives, depending how rich he was,” Yulm explains. “So my grandfather had a lot of half-siblings.”It began with the Cariboo gold rush of 1859 that brought thousands of outsiders to Bella Coola, eager to get to Barkerville. Then in 1862 the smallpox epidemic wiped out thousands of Nuxalk people.
“Even though the world was against our existence as a people he remained strong and did not conform,” Tallio says. “This is why he’s a person we look up to in Nuxalk history.” Yulm and others say it was stolen. The RBCM says they purchased it for $45, but the Nuxalkmc weren’t in a position to argue.
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