Sm’oogyit Niishluut – Chief Sidney Campbell next to a carved wooden panel
Benjamin Alfred Haldane, Ts’msyen photographer
Ts’msyen. Date unknown. Exhibition print
From the Sir Henry Wellcome Collection, Photographs of the inhabitants of Metlakatla, British Columbia and Metlaktla
©National Archives and Records Administration, Seattle, United States, nº 297671
In this photo, Niishluut is seated in front of a red cedar panel that he is in the process of carving with a design that represents his personal crest, wil na guguut ’neexł (colliding killerwhales).
In the center of the wil na guguut ’neexł is a bear, a sub-crest of his clan. Together they express Niishluut’s lineage as a chief of the Gisbutwada (killerwhale clan) from the house of Niishluut. This panel was recently located in the Manchester Museum collections thanks to this photograph. Holtka Xsoo – C. Guthrie
