Mortuary Pole: Sea Lion, Man
Kasa'áan (Old Kasaan)

Haida

This totem pole is a story of Stone Ribs, a legendary Haida, who transformed into a sea lion. The top of the pole is the tip of the sea lion's nose, breaking upward through the water as he swims safely home. Ovoid shapes on each side represent the joints of the flippers and prominent ribs are carved in the back of the pole.

Stone Ribs was a strong and capable warrior. As the weather whipped up one day, he was cautioned not to go out in his canoe. Believing himself stronger than the water, he went out anyway. As the weather intensified and the ocean swelled, Stone Ribs began to drown. The Killer Whale people, watching, recognized that he was too important to die. (In the Native world, animals live in their particular world as people; it is just in our world that they appear to us as animals.) The Killer Whale people rescued Stone Ribs and brought him to live in their world at the bottom of the ocean.

While there, he helped them hunt seals to stock up for the winter. Eventually he told them that he needed to go back and help his own people prepare for the winter. When they were reluctant to let him go, Stone Ribs took a seal pelt and wrapped himself in it so tightly that he became a seal. This way he was able to break up through the surface of the water, successfully returning to his people.

Loan to Ketchikan Museums: Alaska's Heritage in Peril Collection
87.2.50.15