Historical northern Northwest Coast winter villages originally bristled with large carved poles facing the beach. Poles were commissioned and owned by individual chiefs, and illustrated the history and power of their noble families. Still standing in the abandoned Haida village of Ninstints, these examples are mortuary poles, designed to hold the body of a high-ranking person behind a carved and painted plaque in the cavity at the top. The right-hand pole shows an eagle standing on a seal, while the main figure on the left-hand pole is a bear; both poles are over a hundred years old.
