The Meier Faces

This pair of faces were found carved on opposite sides of a single piece of pumice at the Meier site. Who is depicted -- real, imaginary, or legendary people, or possibly spirits -- is unknown. It is possible that a male is depicted on one side of the rock, and a female on the other; but we just don't know.

It is interesting to compare these faces with the one depicted in Paul Kane's painting of a Chinookan house interior, near Ft. Vancouver (only a few miles from Meier) in 1846. Sometimes, I like to think that Kane may have painted the interior of the Meier plankhouse...

House interior painted by Kane, 1846.

You may note that on the Virtual Meier Site home page, I have superimposed the Kane face on the front of my reconstruction of the Meier plankhouse: this is pure artistic license, however it was not uncommon on the Northwest Coast for the house facade to have been similarly decorated by a large representation of an important local deity or ancestor spirit.

Images Copyright 1998 Cameron McPherson Smith