Tsonoqua/Dzunkukwa "Wild Woman of the Woods" Totem

Tsonoqua/Dzunukwa, “The Wild Woman of the Woods,” is an important ancestor figure to the Kwakwaka’wakw people of British Columbia. A giantess that fills important cultural roles during the potlatch, she is best known as a wealth-bringing being to those who encounter her and as a creature that parents tell their children stories about to make them behave and not venture far from the village – as she is also a cannibal and has been known to snatch stray children from the woods. She is the female counterpart of the male Bak’was, the Kwakwaka’wakw “Wild Man of the Woods.” Tsonoqua is analogous to the Coast Salish Sasq’ets, better known as Sasquatch, the Nuxalk Sniniq (female) and Buks (male), the Tsimshian Ba’oosh, the Haida Gagiit, the Athabaskan Hairy Man (or Woman), and the Tlingit Tl’anaxéedáakw. She is also what a lot of folks would call Bigfoot. This pole is carved in a Coast Salish style but shows several Kwakwaka’wakw influences, so is perhaps better termed a female Sasq’ets pole. This pole shares a lot of stylistic elements with work by the Coast Salish Horne family and was perhaps carved by one of them. The features of the face that identify this pole as a Wild Woman are the tightly squinted eyes, the prominent cheekbones, and the pursed red lips that depict her making her telltale whistling call. Large breasts are created by “split-u” formline elements on her chest, motifs which are repeated (unpainted) on her arms and legs. Her hands and appropriately large feet are rendered naturalistically, and she is depicted in a kneeling position. A very fine example of Northwest Coast carving.