Yuquot Whalers' Shrine

Near Yuquot on Vancouver Island, this sacred ceremonial site was central to Nuu-chah-nulth whaling traditions with roots stretching back at least 4,000 years. Used for purification rituals and passed through a Yuquot chief’s family, it was recorded by Western visitors as early as 1785 and remained culturally significant despite later disputes over the exact form of its rites. The shrine held carved human and whale figures and human skulls. Removed in 1904 and sent to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, it later became a major case in debates over salvage anthropology, museum collecting, and Indigenous repatriation before its return to the Mowachaht/Muchalaht in March 2025.