Model totem pole

This model pole may have been made by the carver, Skidegate artist John Cross. In the 1870s, Cross was trained in tattooing and later turned his talents to argillite carving. The figures are (bottom to top) Bear Mother holding two cubs with a frog at her feet, a dogfish and fish swimming under her, a raven wearing a hat with a potlatch ring, and an eagle or thunderbird gripping a fish (salmon?) in its talons.