From Encyclopedia Britannica Online:
totem pole, carved and painted log, mounted vertically, constructed by the Indians of the Northwest Coast of the United States and Canada. There are seven principal kinds of totem pole: memorial, or heraldic, poles, erected when a house changes hands to commemorate the past owner and to identify the present one; grave markers (tombstones); house posts, which support the roof; portal poles, which have a hole through which a person enters the house; welcoming poles, placed at the edge of a body of water to identify the owner of the waterfront; mortuary poles, in which the remains of the deceased are placed; and ridicule poles, on which an important individual who had failed in some way had his likeness carved upside down.
The carving on totem poles separates and emphasizes the flat, painted surfaces of the symbolic animals and spirits depicted on them. Each pole generally has from one (as with a grave marker) to many (as with a family legend) animal images on it, all following standardized forms which are familiar to all Indians of the Northwest Coast; beavers, for example, always include cross-hatched tails, and eagles show downward curved beaks.
The word totem refers to a guardian or ancestral being, usually supernatural, that is revered and respected, but not always worshipped. The significance of the real or mythological animal carved on a totem pole is its identification with the lineage of the head of the household. The animal is displayed as a type of family crest, much as an Englishman might have a lion on his crest, or a rancher a bull on his brand. More widely known, but in fact far less common, are the elaborately carved tall totem poles that relate an entire family legend in the form of a pictograph. This legend is not something that can be read in the usual sense of the word; only with an understanding of what the symbols mean to the Indians and a knowledge of the history and customs of the clan involved can the pole be interpreted. Each animal or spirit carved on the pole has meaning, and when combined on the pole in sequence, each figure is an important symbol constituent of a story or myth. An exact interpretation of any set of symbols, however, would be almost impossible without the help of a knowledgeable narrator from the family.
The totem pole was also a sign of the owner’s affluence, for hiring an artist to make a pole was an expensive proposition. The carving of totem poles reached its peak in the early and middle 19th century, when the introduction of good metal tools and the wealth gained from the fur trade made it possible for many chiefs to afford these displays. Few examples of this period remain, however, as the moist coastal atmosphere causes the cedar poles to rot and fall in about 60 to 70 years.
Excerpt From New World Encyclopedia:
Totem poles are monumental sculptures carved from great trees, typically Western Redcedar, by a number of Indigenous cultures along the Pacific northwest coast of North America. The word "totem" is derived from the Ojibwe word odoodem, "his totem, his kinship group" (root -oode).
After the movement of European settlers to the region, cultural and religious concepts clashed with those of the indigenous people. Primarily due to ignorance, Christian missionaries and explorers assumed that totem poles where used for worship, banning them as paganism. It was not until the latter part of the twentieth century that the practice and tradition of carving poles was renewed. The beauty and story telling power of the totem pole garnered increase respect and demand throughout Northern America and the world in the late twentieth century and continues to grow in the twenty-first century. The unity of the creation and humankind is one of the most compelling messages conveyed through this artist expression.
History
The beginning of totem pole construction started in North America. Being made of wood, they decay easily in the rain forest environment of the Northwest Coast, so no examples of poles carved before 1800 exist. However eighteenth century accounts of European explorers along the coast indicate that poles certainly existed at that time, although small and few in number. In all likelihood, the freestanding poles seen by the first European explorers were preceded by a long history of monumental carving, particularly interior house posts. Early twentieth-century theories, such as those of the anthropologist Marius Barbeau who considered the poles an entirely post-contact phenomenon made possible by the introduction of metal tools, were treated with skepticism at the time and are now discredited. [...]
Totem pole construction underwent a dramatic decline at the end of the nineteenth century due to American and Canadian urges towards Euro-American enculturation and assimilation. Christian missionaries reviled the totem pole as an object of heathen worship and urged converts to cease production and destroy existing poles. Also, as the fur trade declined the incidence of poverty on the coast increased, reducing the incidence of totem pole construction. Fortunately, in the mid-twentieth century a combination of cultural, linguistic, and artistic revival along with intense scholarly scrutiny and the continuing fascination and support of an educated and empathetic public led to a renewal and extension of this moribund artistic tradition. [...]
Style
Poles of all types share a common graphic style in which symbolic animals and spirits are represented. Two distinct systems of art were developed for two-dimensional and three-dimensional figures, but both were maintained within the common graphic style. This style was developed by Northwest Coast Native Peoples over many thousands of years, as evinced by stone and bone artifacts uncovered in archaeological studies which display clear examples of the same design motifs.
Meaning and purpose
The meanings of the designs on totem poles are as varied as the cultures which produce them. A totem is any animal, plant, or other object, natural or supernatural, which provides deeply symbolic meaning for a person or social group. A totem is revered and respected, but not necessarily worshipped.
Totem poles may recount familiar legends, clan lineages, or notable events. Some poles are erected to celebrate cultural beliefs, but others are intended mostly as artistic presentations. Certain types of totem pole are part of mortuary structures incorporating grave boxes with carved supporting poles, or recessed backs in which grave boxes were placed. Poles are also carved to illustrate stories, to commemorate historic persons, to represent shamanic powers, and to provide objects of public ridicule.
Some of the figures on the poles constitute symbolic reminders of quarrels, murders, debts, and other unpleasant occurrences about which the Indians prefer to remain silent… The most widely known tales, like those of the exploits of Raven and of Kats who married the bear woman, are familiar to almost every native of the area. Carvings which symbolize these tales are sufficiently conventionalized to be readily recognizable even by persons whose lineage did not recount them as their own legendary history. (Reed 2003).
Totem poles were never objects of worship; the association with "idol worship" was an idea from local Christian missionaries. The same assumption was made by very early European explorers, but later explorers such as Jean-François de La Pérouse noted that totem poles were never treated reverently; they seemed only occasionally to generate allusions or illustrate stories and were usually left to rot in place when people abandoned a village.
The vertical order of the images is widely believed to be a significant representation of importance. This idea is so pervasive that it has entered into common parlance with the phrase "low man on the totem pole." This phrase is indicative of the most common belief of ordering importance, that the higher figures on the pole are more important or prestigious. A counterargument frequently heard is that figures are arranged in a "reverse hierarchy" style, with the most important representations being on the bottom, and the least important being on top. Actually there have never been any restrictions on vertical order, many poles have significant figures on the top, others on the bottom, and some in the middle. Other poles have no vertical arrangement at all, consisting of a lone figure atop an undecorated column. [...]
Construction and maintenance
Erection of a totem pole is almost never done using modern methods, even for poles installed in modern settings on the outside of public and private buildings. Instead the traditional ceremony and process of erection is still followed scrupulously by most artists, in that a great wooden scaffold is built and hundreds of strong men haul the pole upright into its footing while others steady the pole from side ropes and brace it with cross beams. Once the pole is erected a potlatch is typically held where the carver is formally paid and other traditional activities are conducted. The carver will usually, once the pole is freestanding, perform a celebratory and propitiary dance next to the pole while wielding the tools used to carve it. Also, the base of the pole is burnt before erection to provide a sort of rot resistance, and the fire is made with chips carved from the pole. [...]
The beliefs behind the lack of maintenance vary among individuals, but generally it is believed that the deterioration of the pole is representative of natural processes of decay and death that occur with all living things, and attempts to prevent this are seen as somehow denying or ignoring the nature of the world. [...]
[...]
Artists and Stories
In early July of 2002, Lummi tribal member Jewell Praying Wolf James (Indian Name: tse-Sealth, a lineal descendant of Chief Seattle) began carving an old growth cedar log donated by Crown Pacific Limited Partnership of Portland, Oregon. Mr. James, a Northwest Coast Spirit Dancer, master carver and President of the House of Tears Carvers, volunteered to carve a traditional Healing Pole to be placed on September 7 in Arrow Park, in the Sterling Forest, on an 80-acre site dedicated to the memory of those who were killed at the World Trade Center. The 20,000-acre Sterling Forest, one hour north of Manhattan, is the sister forest of the Arlecho Creek forest, located one hour north of Seattle in Washington State.[3] [...]
Totem poles of note
The title of "The World's Largest Totem Pole" is or has been claimed by several towns along the coast:
There are disputes over which is genuinely the tallest, depending on constraints such as construction from a single log or the affiliation of the carver. The 173 feet tall totem pole in Alert Bay is comprised of two pieces of 168 and 5 feet. Competition for making the tallest pole is still prevalent, although it is becoming more difficult to procure trees of such heights.
- Alert Bay, British Columbia — 173 ft (56.4 m), Kwakwaka'wakw
- Vancouver, British Columbia (Maritime Museum) — 100 ft (30.5 m), Kwakwaka'wakw, carved by Mungo Martin with Henry Hunt and David Martin
- Victoria, British Columbia (Beacon Hill Park) — 127.5 ft (38.9 m), Kwakwaka'wakw, carved by Mungo Martin with Henry Hunt and David Martin
- Kalama, Washington — 140 ft (42.6 m), carved by Chief Lelooska
- Kake, Alaska — 137.5 ft (41.9 m), Tlingit
The thickest totem pole ever carved to date is in Duncan, British Columbia, carved by Richard Hunt in 1988, and measures over 6 ft (1.8 m) in diameter. It is carved in the Kwakwaka'wakw style, and represents Cedar Man transforming into his human form.
