Nuxalk Nation celebrates return of totem pole after more than a century

Honking horns greeted a long line of vehicles winding along the snowy highway leading into Bella Coola, about 1,000 km northwest of Vancouver, on B.C.'s central coast last week.

At the helm was a truck carrying precious cargo: a Nuxalk totem pole, taken from the community more than 100 years ago, at long last returning home to its rightful owners.

The honking continued as the convoy made its way into the community, having travelled along the highway after taking the ferry from Victoria, where the totem was in the Royal B.C. Museum for several decades.

"It's kind of surreal," said one onlooker who captured the moment on video. "Home on Nuxalk territory."

"It was one hell of a trip, but we got there," Hereditary Chief Snuxyaltwa (Deric Snow) said when he was speaking to The Current host Matt Galloway about the journey.

Hereditary Chief Snuxyaltwa said about 200 people were in Bella Coola to celebrate the pole's return with blessings and celebration, which will continue with a feast and formal raising of the pole later today.

The journey home was long in both distance and time — a mission Hereditary Chief Snuxyaltwa started several years earlier when he formally requested the pole's return from the museum, and later when he threatened legal action because the process was so slow.

Chief Snuxyaltwa said the pole was carved by his great-grandfather, the late Louie Snow and former owner of the Snuxyaltwa title, in the 19th or early 20th century. It was placed outside the family longhouse in Talleomy (South Bentinck).

It was lost in the early 1900s when Nuxalk members, seeking to evade the smallpox epidemic, relocated about 35 km north to Bella Coola.

It ended up in the Royal B.C. Museum's collection around 1913.

"Our history is embedded in these poles, a great history, and when they're taken, it's almost as if it's like our children were taken,'' Nuxalk member Charlene Schooner told The Canadian Press.

"They are part of our history.''

On Monday afternoon, the Nuxalk Nation will host a ceremony in Bella Coola to celebrate the return of the pole, beginning with dancing in the afternoon, followed by a feast in the evening. 

The totem pole will be unveiled at 6 p.m.