Ni'isjoohl totem pole | |
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![]() The pole located within the National Museum of Scotland | |
Type | Totem pole |
Material | Pacific red cedar |
Height | 36 feet (11 m) |
Created | c. 1860 |
Culture | Nisga'a |
The Ni'isjoohl totem pole is a memorial pole created and owned by the Nisga'a people of British Columbia, Canada. The pole had been held in the National Museum of Scotland and its predecessors for almost a century before being returned to the Nisga'a Nation. It is held by the Nisg̱aʼa Museum in Lax̱g̱alts'ap.
Commissioned in the 19th century by a member of the House of Ni'isjoohl, the pole was removed to Scotland in the 1920s by Canadian ethnographer Marius Barbeau at the request of the Royal Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. While efforts had been made to facilitate its return, the National Museum of Scotland did not agree to return the pole until 2022. The following summer, the removal began, and the pole arrived in Lax̱g̱alts'ap in September 2023.
The pole is the second in Europe to be returned to its Indigenous creators in Canada,[1] following the return of the G'psgolox totem pole at the Swedish Museum of Ethnography in 2006.[2]
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