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This article appeared in Discovery Magazine 1997 |
Staffs, Canes and Walking Sticks Figure1: 
Walking sticks help people around the world negotiate
the ups and downs of living in a three-dimensional world. But sticks have
also been used by many cultures for purposes other than orthopedic aids.
In Europe, bishops and other church officials have carried ceremonial staffs,
and houses of parliament are officially opened by the movement of the Speaker’s
mace. Western European males in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries
"wore" decorative canes as fashion accessories.
It is also known that Northwest Coast First Nations used elaborately decorated ceremonial staffs in public events as a symbol of the office and status of the chief. It is assumed the use of ceremonial staffs by First Nations originally developed independently of European uses. A recent research project gave me the chance to survey collections of canes and staffs at the Royal BC Museum and other museums and locate historical records to discover the relationship between staffs in the two cultures. My survey also covered the production, use and meaning of decorated walking sticks. Ceremonial staffs were used by many Northwest Coast cultures, carried as a symbol of the office and status of chief. These beautifully-carved, often-tall cylinders were also referred to as speaker’s staffs, as they were held by an individual speaking on behalf of a chief. While most Kwakwaka’wakw speaker’s or chief’s staffs are about shoulder height, the staff shown in figure 1, with its magnificent, painted heron and whale crest, is only just above waist height (113 cm). Figure
2: 
Historical photographs reveal staffs used in other
ways. In 1865, Governor Frederick Seymour ordered malacca staffs from British
India with cast-silver heads for the purpose of "presenting a staff of office
to each friendly tribe." A series of photographs discovered in the Provincial
Archives shows three men, identified as Interior Salish, wearing fringed,
leather coats, and one man holds a Seymour staff (figure 2). The Museum
has a Seymour presentation staff in its modern history collection.
Staffs are defined as carved or decorated cylinders usually higher then the holder’s waist and held mid-shaft. Canes are much shorter, held by a handle at the top of the shaft and were used in everyday life. I found evidence, however, that aboriginal men, like Europeans, used canes as a fashion accessory. In a photograph taken at the ceremony transferring the Old Songhees Reserve to the province in exchange for land in Esquimalt, Chief Michael Cooper is "wearing" a cane which appears to be of non-aboriginal manufacture. Figure
5: 
Well-known aboriginal artists such as Charles Edenshaw
(b. 1835, d. 1920) made highly decorative canes for sale, for a market of
non-aboriginal customers. In figure 4, you can see two cane shafts with
carved, entwining snakes leaning against the wall of Edenshaw’s studio.
The Museum has four made-for-sale canes attributed to Edenshaw in our ethnology
collection, including an exquisitely made cane with a wooden shaft of carved
snake and inlaid-diamond motifs, an engraved silver collar showing a female
raven with a bent beak and a beaver-crest handle of walrus ivory. (figure
5). Figure
6: 
Another unusual piece of his is a carved elephant-head
cane (figure 6), collected by Judge James Swan of Port Townsend in 1883.
Judge Swan recorded that Edenshaw’s inspiration for the cane handle came
from an image in The Illustrated London News of Barnum’s elephant, Jumbo.
This artifact came to the Museum in 1979 by a very circuitous route, including
once being in the collection of the Canadian folklorist and recorder of
Tsimshian oral history, Marius Barbeau.
In my research, I also identified examples of canes made for and used by First Nations that combine the European concept of a cane as an item of men’s apparel but are decorated with images drawn from aboriginal heraldry. The Museum has Charles Edenshaw’s personal cane, the handle of which is a carved ivory beaver, his family crest. This cane differs from his made-for-sale pieces as it is a very robust and functional walking stick and used for negotiating the streets of Massett. Figure
7: 
Figure 7 is an interesting example of a cane made for
use by a First Nations individual. It is documented as Bella Bella (Heiltsuk)
in origin and may be the work of Daniel Houstie, but was collected in Bella
Coola. C.F. Newcombe records that it is a "Chief’s stick (mi la)." The carved
shaft includes a lizard-like creature and a whale. The handle is a stylized
human with a bent and probably very sore back! A very clever image for this
stout and practical walking stick.
The Museum is very fortunate in having a wonderful collection of 55 staffs, canes, walking sticks and many historic photographs which record the use of these artifacts by people up and down the coast. It is my distinct pleasure, with the help of dedicated volunteers to study these fascinating artifacts. Alan Hoover is Manager of Anthropology at the RBCM.
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