Totem Poles of the Pacific Northwest Art Projects Elementary

What are totem poles?

House frontal poles exterior the Haida Heritage Centre, Kaay Llnagay, BC. Photograph (c) 2010, Robyn Hanson.

Totem poles are monuments created by First Nations of the Pacific Northwest to stand for and commemorate ancestry, histories, people, or events.  Totem poles are typically created out of red cedar, a malleable wood relatively abundant in the Pacific Northwest, and would be erected to be visible inside a community.

Nigh totem poles display beings, or crest animals, marking a family unit'due south lineage and validating the powerful rights and privileges that the family unit held.  Totem poles would not necessarily tell a story and then much as it would serve to document stories and histories familiar to community members or particular family unit or clan members.

A totem pole typically features symbolic and stylized human, creature, and supernatural forms.¹ Totem poles are primarily visual representations of kinship, depicting family crests and clan membership. For example, some Kwakwaka'wakw families of northern Vancouver Island belonging to the Thunderbird Association volition feature a Thunderbird crest and familial legends on their poles. Other common crests among coastal Beginning Nations include the wolf, eagle, grizzly bear, thunderbird, killer whale, frog, raven, and salmon.² Wealthy and influential families may take more than 1 crest. Totem poles tin also exist created to award a detail event or of import person.

Of all the material civilization produced by littoral Offset Nations, the totem pole is likely one of the most recognizable cultural symbols of the Pacific Northwest. The array of unlike totem pole styles and designs reflect the rich diversity of the Commencement Nations histories and cultures that produced them. This section will explore the significant and purpose of totem poles, how they are constructed, stylistic variations, and their significance in cultural revitalization initiatives amidst Get-go Nations.

Pole types

Most totem poles stand between iii to 18 metres alpine, although some can reach over 20 metres in height. _^three Different types of totem poles are erected to serve diverse architectural and ceremonial purposes. Nearly longhouses had house posts, carved with homo or animal forms, to support the main beams of the edifice. Similarly, some longhouses featured a house frontal pole, which would be located at the main entrance and often contained an opening for passage into the house.Mortuary poles, which independent the remains of the deceased in grave boxes, served as both a tomb and a headstone. Likewise, a memorial or commem orative pole was often created to honour an important deceased person, usually past his or her successor. Memorial poles tend to be the tallest type of pole, peculiarly among the Tsimshian of the Nass and Skeena Rivers in key British Columbia. Less ordinarily, some First Nations carved "shame poles" to ridicule neighbouring groups who had unpaid debts. Shame poles were more mutual in the nineteenth century, but today, some Showtime Nations cock these poles as a course of protest against the loss of Ancient territory or for other political grievances. I well-known shame pole, which stands in Cordova, Alaska, was carved past Tlingit fisherman Mike Webber to protest the environmental disaster and political mishandling of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound.^iv

The totem pole designs that most people recognize today were, for the virtually part, developed in the last 200 years.⁵ Well-nigh historians and other experts agree that totem pole carving did not reach its top until the nineteenth century, when many littoral Outset Nations were involved in the fish and fur merchandise with Europeans. During this time, coastal Commencement Nations caused new tools that enabled them to construct more than elaborate poles. Most poles, fifty-fifty though they are made from rot-resistant cedar, last just most a hundred years before they begin to disintegrate.^six This disintegration is recognized as a natural role of a pole'southward life bike.

Carving a pole

Carving a totem pole requires not just artistic skill, but an intimate understanding of cultural histories and forest ecology. Almost totem poles are made from Western crimson cedar, a rot-resistant tree that is straight-grained and easy to carve.^seven Earlier a cedar tree is harvested for a totem pole, many littoral Start Nations communities will perform a ceremony of gratitude and respect in honour of the tree. Several trees may be inspected before a particular tree is called for its beauty and character. According to Roy Henry Vickers, an artist of Tsimshian and Haida beginnings, "each tree is like a human being; it has its ain personality and uniqueness."⁸

Traditionally, totem pole carving was done by men, although today both men and women accept become skilled carvers. Many totem pole carvers have honed their skills since childhood, typically from watching their fathers and uncles carve from cedar wood. After a tree is felled, the wood is debarked and shaped using implements such as adzes, axes, chisels, etching knives, and chainsaws. Other artists debate that technological innovation is an important office of cultural transformation and growth.nine  Whatsoever their personal preference, artists utilize these tools to create the swirling, oval shapes common in coastal First Nations artwork, also known as "ovoid" blueprint.¹⁰  An artist will oftentimes pay close attention to the grain and colouration of the wood to capture the sense of life and motion in his or her etching. After the woods is carved, some artists paint their poles, or choose to leave the pole unpainted. Many poles are coloured using synthetic paints, and some are painted with natural pigments derived from footing charcoal and ochre.¹¹

Cultural styles

For a practiced visual reference of different totem pole styles, please refer to this photographic drove [PDF] produced by the Majestic B.C. Museum.

The cultural variations of totem pole styles are complex and go beyond the purview of this department, but a few generalizations can be made nearly regional characteristics. The Declension Salish of the Lower Fraser tended to cleave house posts rather than single stand up-alone poles. These business firm posts would oft announced on the interiors of longhouses. In the cardinal declension, the Haida of Haida Gwaii and the Tsimshian carved towering totem poles, often reaching over 100 feet tall, which were commonly erected beside a longhouse. Coast Tsimshian poles often had horizontal line breaks betwixt totem figures, while Haida poles had closely intertwined designs with a shallow relief. In dissimilarity, the Kwakwaka'wakw poles featured securely etched surfaces and jutting wings and beaks.¹² The famous Stanley Park totem poles, although located on Coast Salish territory, include totem poles from all over coastal British Columbia, including Haida, Salish, Kwakwaka'wakw, Nisga'a, and Nuu-chah-nulth designs.

Despite the prominence of totem poles in the Pacific Northwest, there are some common misconceptions about the meaning and purpose of poles. Some mistakenly believe that First Nations worshipped totem poles as idols or sacred objects that contained the souls of deities, or revered them equally talismans that could ward off evil. This misconception may have been the result of cultural misunderstandings among Christian missionaries, who mistakenly believed totem poles were used in shamanistic rituals. For a useful listing of truth and fiction most totem poles, please visit author Pat Kramer'due south website here, or the Tyee'due south splendid article "Totem Poles: Myth and Fact."

Socio-cultural importance of totem poles

From their earliest origins to today, totem poles concur a significant socio-cultural role in many Start Nations communities. Most First Nations commemorate the raising of a totem with a totem pole raising ceremony, which is often held concurrently with a feast or potlatch. Delight click hither for a video of a totem pole raising anniversary at the University of Alaska Southeast. At these ceremonies, the significance of the pole and stories of the crests are told, and visitors witness the events, including the correct of a family's claim to the crests depicted.^xiii Every bit totem poles may be erected to commemorate the life of a master, or may be deputed to gloat an important milestone or issue, the reason for the pole'southward creation is shared and celebrated in such ceremonies.

Photo (c) 2009 Robyn Hanson

For many years in the history of British Columbia, the presence of totem poles in the province came under threat by non-Aboriginal settlers who predominantly viewed the poles as paganistic, and an impediment to colonial efforts to Christianize and "civilize" First Nations people. Colonial officials attempted to assimilate Aboriginal peoples by banning cultural expressions and practices, such as the potlatch in 1884, based on the expectation that Aboriginal peoples would and then adopt Christian traditions. Forth with the outlawing of ceremonies, thousands of items, such as ceremonial regalia, were forcibly taken from Aboriginal peoples and sent to museums and private collectors throughout Northward America and Western Europe. This included totem poles. Much of this discriminatory legislation was non repealed until 1951, although the relocation and repatriation of stolen materials is ongoing.¹⁴

In 1872, Chief G'psgolox commissioned artists Hemzid and Wakas to carve a pole in memory of the chief's deceased married woman and children. Starting in the early 1920s, the federal government adopted a policy of salvage anthropology and, fearing the decline of Indigenous art, began to buy out totem poles from communities living along the Skeena River. In 1927, Iver Fougner, an Indian Agent in Bella Coola, wrote to the Section of Indian Affairs asking permission for the Swedish Delegate of British Columbia to purchase the Yard'psgolox Pole.¹⁶ I 24-hour interval in 1929, the pole was severed and taken from the Haisla village of Misk'the states while the villagers were abroad on a fishing trip.¹⁷ The pole was then shipped to Sweden, where it remained in storage until 1980, when it was finally put on display at the national Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm.

Eventually, the Haisla learned of the pole's whereabouts in 1991, and began the long journeying of repatriating the pole. The Haisla and the museum negotiated a plan for repatriation: the museum agreed to render the pole, and the Haisla would carve a replacement. Finally, in Apr 2006, the pole returned to Vancouver. On July i, 2006, the Haisla officially welcomed the pole dwelling house to Kitimat. It was the start pole in Canada to exist repatriated from overseas. Louisa Smith, a spokesperson for the Haisla master, summed up the emotion of the twenty-four hours: "The repatriation of the Thou'psgolox totem pole has been a journey of a hundred years and thousands of miles…Our children and future generations volition exist able to see, bear on and experience a piece of their history, reclaimed by a nation against all odds."¹⁸

This story is documented by director Gil Central in a National Moving-picture show Board (NFB) documentary entitled Totem: The Return of the G'psgolox Pole. You lot can view the film in its entirety on the NFB website, hither.

For generations, Get-go Nations peoples take made major efforts to maintain their cultural traditions in the face of assimilationist policies. Following the repeal of discriminatory legislation in 1951, a new generation of artists began to learn and promote the artistry of totem pole carving as a form of cultural revitalization. Famous totem pole carvers include Henry Chase (Kwakwaka'wakw), Mungo Martin (Kwakwaka'wakw), Martin's grandson Doug Cranmer (Kwakwaka'wakw), Ellen Neel (Kwakwaka'wakw) and Bill Reid (Haida), who all take works exhibited at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC and some at the Imperial B.C. Museum in Victoria.¹⁵ Other First Nations sought to repatriate totem poles that accept been taken abroad by non-Aboriginals as collector items or "curiosities," as well as poles previously sold to Indian agents and museum collectors.

In the early 1990s, the Haisla people of the Kitimat area in B.C. began the process of repatriating a mortuary pole that had been taken away from their customs in 1929. The pole had been taken without consent by an Indian Amanuensis who sold it to a Swedish museum. Despite the passage of nearly eighty years, the Haisla persevered and succeeded in their quest to repatriate the 1000'psgolox Pole.

By Alice Huang.

Recommended resource

Online resources

Totem Pole Raising Anniversary – University of Alaska Southeast
http://vimeo.com/11303883

Totem Poles – National Pic Lath
http://www.nfb.ca/explore-by/keyword/en/totem_poles/

Totem Pole Photos – SFU Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
https://www.sfu.ca/archaeology/museum/exhibits/virtual-exhibits/northwest-coast-totem-poles.html

Totem Poles-The Bill Reid Heart- Simon Fraser Academy
https://www.sfu.ca/brc/art_architecture/totem_poles.html

Books & articles

Black, Martha. "Totem Poles in the Royal BC Museum." Royal British Columbia Museum. Victoria, B.C. http://staff.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/WARSAW.pdf

Jensen, Vickie. The Totem Poles of Stanley Park. Vancouver: Westcoast Words and Subway Books, 2004.

Kramer, Pat. Totem Poles. Calgary: Distance Publishing, 2004.

Jonaitis, Aldona, and Aaron Drinking glass. The Totem Pole: An Intercultural History. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2010.

Ramsay, Heather. "Totem Poles: Myth and Fact." The Tyee. 31 March, 2011. http://thetyee.ca/Books/2011/03/31/TotemPoles/

Stewart, Hilary. Looking at Totem Poles. Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 1993.

Endnotes

1  Marjorie M. Halpin, Totem Poles: An Illustrated Guide (Vancouver: UBC Printing, 1981), 16.

2  Edward Malin, Totem Poles of the Pacific Northward Coast (Portland: Timber Press, 1986), 45-51.

3  Halpin, 23.

iv  William Yardley, "Recovery Still Incomplete After Valdez Spill," The New York Times (New York, NY), May 5, 2010.

5  Halpin, 24.

half-dozen  Halpin, 23.

vii  Hilary Stewart, Cedar (Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre: 1984), 25.

8  Roy Henry Vickers, Spirit Transformed: A Journey from Tree to Totem (Vancouver: Raincoat Books, 1996), 26.

nine  Aldona Jonaitis and Aaron Glass, "Totem Poles and Contemporary Tourism," in The Challenges of Native American Studies: Essays in Celebration of the Twenty-Fifth American Indian Workshop, eds. Barbara Saunders and Lea Zuyderhoudt (New York: Cornell University Printing, 2004), 80.

x  Halpin, 35.

eleven  Vickers, 60.

12  Halpin, xl.

13  Halpin, 18.

fourteen Rene R. Gadacz, "Potlatch," The Canadian Encyclopedia, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/potlatch (accessed 22 December 2020).

fifteen Halpin, 25.

16 "1000'psgolox pole returns home afterwards 77 years, Showtime totem ever to be repatriated from overseas," Ecotrust Canada, https://www.terracestandard.com/news/highway-of-tears-memorial-totem-pole-to-exist-raised-on-kitsumkalum-territory-west-of-terrace/(accessed 22 December 2020).

17  "Totem: The Return of the G'psgolox Pole- Moving-picture show Description," National Pic Board of Canada, https://world wide web.nfb.ca/film/totem_the_return_of_the_gpsgolox_pole/ (accessed 22 December 2020).

eighteen Ecotrust Canada.

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Source: https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/totem_poles/