Totem Poles
To the first European explorers, the intricately carved and painted posts dotting the Pacific Northwest coast were intriguing but impenetrable symbols of a strange new world. To the First Nations communities who produced them, they were vital elements of economic and social life. Today, as in centuries past, totem poles have commemorated lives and events, validated hereditary rights and privileges, and preserved family histories.
No one knows for sure how long the First Nations peoples of the Pacific Northwest have been carving totems. Various oral and written sources suggest that the practice predates contact between the tribes and Europeans. Descriptions of totems have been found in the records of eighteenth century European explorers, but because they are left to deteriorate naturally, there are few totems left today which were carved before 1800. Red cedar, the wood from which totem poles are usually carved, decays relatively quickly in the damp Pacific climate, and it is customary to let nature take its course.
The styles and meanings of totem poles differ widely according to the cultures that create them - the Haida, Tsimshian, Nuxalk (Bella Coola), Nuu-Chah-Nulth (Nootka), Coast Salish, and Central Coast peoples. Some totem poles, known as house posts, are built to stand within houses, supporting roof-beams. House frontal poles, found in Haida villages, are connected to the fronts of houses, often with a doorway carved into the base of the totem through which people can enter. Still others stand on their own to welcome visitors to the community, commemorate important individuals, families, and events, and even, in totems known as mortuary poles, protect individuals’ remains in a special compartment.
Totem pole carvers enjoyed special standing in their societies because of their skills as artisans. When a chief or an influential family commissioned a totem, they could request that certain images be represented on the pole, although the carver had the final say on the style of each pole. Designs were first drawn onto a carefully selected log using charcoal, and then carved into the wood with a variety of different tools. Paint was produced by combining differently coloured ground minerals with salmon eggs. Figures depicted on totem poles could symbolize people or events, and house-front totems were usually meant to convey the wealth and standing of the family living inside.
Traditionally, the raising of a totem was part of a potlatch ceremony. The potlatch, unique to the Aboriginal peoples of the Pacific Northwest, is a ceremony for the redistribution of wealth within the community. Customarily, along with singing and dancing, participants in the potlatch would exchange materials such as foodstuffs, tools, and textiles. In particular, the hosts of the potlatch demonstrated their wealth and prominence by giving these gifts to their guests.
Scaffolds were built to help the community raise the heavy totem. Poles were placed in deep holes which had been previously prepared, and then hauled up with ropes, sometimes by hundreds of men. Once the totem pole had been raised and its carver paid, the artist might perform a dance for the gathered community.
Totem pole production flourished for a short time in the decades after first contact with Europeans. The importation of iron and steel tools from Europe and China allowed artists to create more intricate carvings, and to produce poles more quickly. The fur trade also brought new wealth to coastal communities, enabling influential families to commission totems more frequently and to hold grand potlatch ceremonies.
This flourishing of totem creation did not last long. As the once-booming fur trade crumbled in the latter part of the nineteenth century, many in the Pacific First Nations communities fell into poverty. Those who had once been patrons of the totem carvers could no longer afford to commission pieces from the artists.
At the same time, widespread European settlement throughout the Pacific Northwest saw the gradual assimilation of Aboriginal communities into European culture. Some Europeans feared First Nations peoples and their beliefs. Though totems were never worshipped by the peoples who created them, some European Christians wrongly believed that the poles were revered as heathen idols. Christian missionaries to the First Nations villages encouraged converts to destroy existing poles and urged carvers to stop making new ones. Other settlers looked upon Aboriginal culture as a curiosity, misunderstanding the importance of the totem poles to the families and communities. Many totems were taken by non-Aboriginal collectors and sold to museums or other collectors across Europe and North America.
In 1884, in an effort to further the assimilation of Aboriginal peoples, the Canadian federal government, condemning the ceremonies as wasteful and unchristian, put in place a ban on the potlatch ceremony. The Indian Act of 1885 stated that anyone who hosted a potlatch, or encouraged another person to host one, would be liable to imprisonment for between two and six months. With the loss of this traditional ceremony to celebrate the raising of a new totem, fewer and fewer were created.
The potlatch ban was not lifted until 1951. Interest in totems and other aspects of Aboriginal culture had been growing throughout Canada. Scholars were eager to study the traditions of First Nations peoples, and to learn more about the cultural significance of totems to their communities. In this climate of acceptance and interest in Aboriginal customs, more artists began to create new totems. Carvers such as Ellen Neel and Mungo Martin taught their skills to younger generations of artists, who continue to produce totems in the traditional style.
Today, totem poles can be seen throughout British Columbia. Many Haida totems remain on the Queen Charlotte Islands, and Ninstints is widely regarded as one of the best-preserved totem villages in the world. In Vancouver’s Thunderbird Park, more contemporary examples stand waiting to be explored by visitors. The First Peoples galleries at the Royal BC Museum are home to historical and modern examples of these important elements of Aboriginal culture. The centuries-old practice of totem carving, both an art and an essential part of the organization of First Nations communities, is alive and well today in British Columbia.
Contributed by Helen Button
— 2008 University of Western Ontario Practicum Student with The History Group Inc.
