Totem poles
Totem poles are significant and large wooden sculptures primarily carved from the trunk of western red cedar, with some reaching heights of up to 80 feet or more. These poles serve diverse functions within Indigenous cultures, including freestanding installations in front of homes, interior house posts, and memorial structures, each crafted to tell stories that honor ancestral lineage or commemorate historical events. Rather than serving as mere decorative objects, totem poles are often seen as family crests that depict important mythic or historical narratives, linking clans to their rights, privileges, and social standings. The intricate designs and imagery, featuring iconic representations of animals and supernatural beings, carry deep cultural meanings that are recognized within their specific communities.
The art of totem pole carving thrived in the mid-1800s, aided by the introduction of metal tools, but faced significant decline due to colonial policies, disease, and cultural suppression, particularly after the potlatch ceremonies were outlawed in 1884. However, a resurgence of ethnic pride and cultural revitalization efforts since the mid-20th century have revitalized this tradition, leading to renewed interest and appreciation for totem poles as expressions of Indigenous identity. Today, they can be found in various settings, from local communities to international venues, reflecting both their historical significance and contemporary artistic value.
Totem poles
Tribes affected: Northwest Coast tribes
Significance: The cultural hallmark of the native peoples of the Northwest Coast culture area is the totem pole, a meticulously carved column representing family history, social rank, and ethnic identity
Totem poles are among the largest wooden sculptures ever created. Typically carved from the single trunk of a western red cedar, they reached up to 80 feet in height in the nineteenth century, with one twentieth century piece from Alert Bay in British Columbia being an astounding 173 feet high.
There are different types of carved poles that are usually collectively referred to as “totem poles.” These include freestanding poles erected in front of houses or along village beaches, interior house posts that make up part of the framing, and frontal poles set alongside the main entrance. A dramatic variant of this latter type has an entrance right through the pole itself. A pole by the Haida at Ninstants, for example, depicts a grizzly bear devouring a human being, and the entrance passes right through the bear’s stomach. Funeral customs are also reflected by the erection of memorial poles, grave markers, and mortuary poles which contain the ashes or support a box with the remains of the deceased chief. Not all tribes had all types of pole.
The images on the poles are not really “totems.” They are best seen as valuable family crests which depict a mythic or historic event in their past. This might include the encounter of a clan ancestor in the origin times with a supernatural creature, who bestowed upon him the right to use his crest as well as entitlements to hunting and fishing territories, wealth, or other distinctions. Sometimes historic events were recounted, such as how one Native American clan outsmarted another or how a rival chief had been humiliated. These stories helped to legitimize social standing for the chief, his clan, and his children and to lay claims to new rights. By socially manipulating crest images on totem poles and other works of art, chiefs energetically competed for rank, prerogative, and privilege.
Although abstracted and complex, crests could usually be identified by the inclusion of conventionalized features. Beaver always had a cross-hatched tail and two large incisors. A toothy “V”-shaped smile with spines over the eyes revealed Sculpin. Similar iconic devices disclosed Sea Grizzly, One-Horned Goat, Giant Rock Oyster, Fog Woman, Lightning Snake, Thunderbird, and a host of others.
The carving of totem poles flourished in the mid-1800’s because of an influx of metal tools and commercial paints. Along with these aids, however, came acculturative forces that led to the virtual extinction of the art form by the early 1900’s. The potlatch, a ceremonial feast central to the erection of totem poles and the telling of their stories, was outlawed by the Canadian government in 1884. Disease as well as missionary and other pressures undermined the social and ceremonial fabric that supported carving.
A resurgence of ethnic pride has reversed this trend. A revised Canadian Indian Act of 1951 dropped the ban on potlatching. Church-related groups such as the Alaska Native Brotherhood gave up resistance to traditional ceremonialism. Training schools for artists were established, and totem poles once again began to be raised. Carving began to be accepted as art rather than merely as an ethnic curiosity, and poles can now be found from museums to malls and internationally from Germany to Japan.