The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Wood totem pole carved with figures with squared bodies, placed one above the other and painted red and cream. The figures have wide mouths, furrowed eyebrows, and tuck in their knees and elbows. Stacked from bottom to top are two otters, an owl, a whale with a popsicle-stick shaped fin gripped by another figure, the downward facing mouth of another whale, the pointed beak of a raven, and a small oval-shaped figure at top.

Totem Pole

c. 1880

Northwest Coast, Tlingit, 19th century

carved and painted wood
Overall: 189.2 x 8.8 cm (74 1/2 x 3 7/16 in.)
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1989.89
Location: Not on view

Description

Native American villages of the Pacific Northwest were marked by great totem poles that proclaimed the rank and ancestry of their owners. This small model pole was once owned by a Tlingit storyteller, a member of the coho salmon clan, of the raven tribe. Because the pole has been stored indoors, its carving and bright, original colors are undamaged by the elements. Reportedly, this totem pole illustrates several stories. Kushda-Kaw, the land-otter, is the pole's lowermost figure; above him is his wife. The wife transforms herself into an owl (the third figure from the bottom) and flies into the trees to keep watch. Kushda-Kaw then lies in wait to frighten and harass unwary passers-by. Above the owl is a finback whale carrying a friend out to sea for fishing. Near the top of the pole is a whale with red lips who has swallowed his enemy, the raven. The tiny figure at the pole's summit is a spirit-woman, the raven's lover. She will cut the whale open to rescue him.
  • Dr. Wallace A. Martin
  • E. H. T. “The Year in Review: Selections 1989.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 2 (February 1990): 38–78. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 77, no. 203 www.jstor.org
    Fortenberry, Diane, ed. The Art Museum. London; New York: Phaidon Press, 2017. Reproduced: P. 228, no. 1
  • The Year in Review for 1989. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 6-April 15, 1990).
    CMA 1990: "Year in Review: Selections 1989," Bull., 77 (Feb. 1990) p. 77, no. 203, repr.
  • {{cite web|title=Totem Pole|url=false|author=|year=c. 1880|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1989.89