Certain aspects and themes related to the house call for some elaboration in order to better understand the setting within which all Haida art was created and used. The house was the centre of Haida social, political and economic life. He was most impressed by the houses built by the Haida: Their houses are exceptionally well constructed, and the custom of erecting the carved column in contact with the front of the house and cutting a circular doorway through both, seems to be nowhere so universally practiced.Īccording to ancient myth, the house was one of the main contributions that the Raven made to Haida life after he stole the idea from the Beaver. Later, in the 1880s, he returned for a number of years to photograph and record them in detail for the Smithsonian Institution. The most extensive early reconnaissance of north coast Native villages was carried out by Ensign Albert Niblack, who first visited them during tours of duty with the U.S. Generally the house owned by the town chief was larger than the rest and stood near the middle of the village. Double-row villages were quite common, but villages with up to five rows of houses existed only in myth time. Permanent Haida villages consisted of one or more rows of houses strung along a beach.
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