Gitanyow (Kitwancool) village and native art

Gitanyow is 20 KM north from Kitwanga and the southern end of BC Highway 37. The village is on a short side-trip loop. I arrived in the midst of heavy rain in June 2007. There was some flooding on the access road.
On first approach it is difficult to distinguish the totem poles from the electricity poles. They surround the new cultural centre situated on a high river bank. There is a small native cemetary to the east. If there were no totem poles this would be a typical Western Canada reserve.

But it does have some famous totempoles. In some cases the poles that we see now are copies of old poles that have collapsed into the earth. In other cases they are copies of totems sent to museums in Vancouver and Ottawa. In other instances they are the old original.