The Yuquot Whalers' Shrine

About this book

In 1905 George Hunt at the insistence of anthropologist Franz Boas acquired a remarkable collection of materials from the Mowachaht band of the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) for the American Museum of Natural History. An assemblage of 92 carved wooden figures and whales 16 human skulls and the small building that sheltered them the shrine had for centuries stood in Yuquot or Friendly Cove on the remote west coast of Vancouver Island visited only by chiefs and their wives. Since its removal to New York it has been represented in anthropological and historical writings film television and newspapers. In this fascinating study Aldona Jonaitis investigates and reconstructs the history of the shrine both before and after it was acquired for the museum. Clues to the shrines complex historytraced to the mid-17th centuryand meaning are provided by historical and anthropological writings photographs stories the Hunt-Boas correspondence and the artifacts themselves. Jonaitis addresses important contemporary issues including the Mowachaht bands desire to have the shrine repatriated for display in Yuquot.