Totem Poles

from the Totempolar Region, the mountain-bordered coastline from southeast Alaska to coastal Washington, the indigenous Northwest Peoples—the Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Kwakwaka'wakw, Bella Coola, Salish, and others—carved their legacies in columned sculptures of cedar. The iconographie symbols of their sophisticated abstract art, later to be known as “form line,” were visual documentations, a primal form of “written” language for communicating significant cultural and historical events. It is factual that songs, dances, oratory, painted and woven clothing, house fronts, ceremonial utensils, canoes, and other at.óow (Tlingit clan identity) were also records of history to these West Coastal Tribes. Nevertheless, it is the totems standing majestically, bearing witness through the ages that these coastal people have for the most part identified with; and those of other cultures have recognized as symbols of the Northwest culture.

The Northwest Peoples' intricate hierarchical civilizations were divided into clans and caste systems, and were contingent on the knowledge of tribal and family lineage as the foundation of their status, and on the right of proclamation of certain crests to be displayed artistically in songs, dances, and narrative accounts. Witnesses were required to authenticate the claims; wealth would be accumulated to pay these witnesses in the ceremony known as a potlatch, the vehicle employed to establish this worldview. It is surmised that house posts and memorial poles were predecessors of the totem poles, for the first explorers noted external totems in small numbers. The availability of metal tools in abundance revolutionized totem art, as the wealth from the fur trade with Europeans established the means for the various clan chiefs to commission totems for their potlatches, thereby launching an artistic renaissance in totem art.

Totem poles have been categorized as follows:

• Some totem poles celebrate clan history. Legends belonging to a clan could tell how the clan came to be. Some totem legends deal with the seasons, such as “Fog Woman,” who is a symbolic representation of the fog that arrives in the summer with the salmon run, signifying the beginning of the Tlingit New Year. Also within the Potlatch oratory the locations of where the clan had settled are given. The symbols on the totems then remind the witnesses of the chronological order of history concerning the clan.
• Some totems served as memorials to the deceased. Chiefs and other high-caste clan members had the means to accumulate the wealth required to honor their deceased with a memorial pole; this in itself was a record in time of the numbers of high-caste members honored within a tribe, as well as a testament to the clan's wealth. Illustrated upon the poles are the clan's at.óow (crests); through the years a clan might add a crest, perhaps through marriage. Older poles would therefore lack that crest, and the newer pole would thereby bear witness to the advent of the acquired crest; or in the case of shamans, the [Page 1374]representation of spirit helpers, for example, the owl memorial totem at Saxman, Alaska.
• Some totem poles serve to commemorate historic deeds or events. When an extraordinary event occurred, such as the advent of the Europeans, which is represented on a Kasaan totem with a man in European garb standing on the water from whence he arrived, a totem would be commissioned with the crest of the chief who was active during the event and with symbols of the event or deed, thereby giving a date for this occurrence.
• Some totem poles convey ridicule, shame, or revenge. The ridicule pole concerns an unpaid debt due a person or clan. A totem is a costly item, so the debt due the clan would likely be a huge amount in order to warrant the pole's commission. The magnificently sculpted Three-Frog Pole in Wrangell, Alaska, is such a totem; there is a shroud of mystery over the payment, so when a replica was commissioned by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) for Wrangell Park, there was outrage in the Native community that this debt was being resurrected. The shaming pole is usually interchangeable with the ridicule pole since the commissioning clan intends to shame the debtor into remuneration; except in cases where shame is the primary objective, such as the lewd pole once placed in front of the longhouse that used prostitution as the means to support their potlatches; this occurred during early colonization. Finally, the balancing in righting a wrong was complex in these societies; for instance, should one of low caste slay a high-caste person of another clan, the person blamed for the murder would not be required to die, but one of his high-caste kinsmen had to balance the loss. A former grave post at Kake, Alaska, illustrated a European man on top, a Native man second down, with pertinent crest and other symbols below them. This totem is a testimonial representation of a requisite due for the slaying of their clansman; the fact that a totem was commissioned may presume that a European of the clansman's caste is required for the “eye for an eye” judgment. Whether a ridicule, shaming, or revenge totem, a public record was required to give substance to the case and to remain for all time, or until the situation was settled.

In the 20th century a growing concern arose over the limited time left to gather tribal knowledge from dwindling numbers of elders, and to save the tribal languages that were dying. The efforts in this fight against time resulted in today's Northwest Natives experiencing a resurgence of their cultural identity and arts. Today, restorations of older totems are being administered, such as at the Klawock Totem Park in Alaska; also the Repatriation Act of 1990 initiated more totems being returned to the Native Peoples and replicas being carved; for instance, the Burke Museum's return of two “Kats the Bear Hunter” house posts [Page 1375]to the Tongass Tribe, for which master carver Nathan Jackson and son Stephen each carved a replacement pole to be displayed at the Burke. In addition, new totems are also being carved, such as the commemorative poles of Liberty and Freedom at Washington, D.C., by Salish carver Jewell “Praying Wolf” James for the victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001. And, in 2007, at Cordova, Alaska, Alutiiq/Tlingit carver Mike Webber sculpted a shaming pole for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and the damages that resulted.

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