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Totem poles and houses at ʼKsan, near Hazelton, British Columbia.. Totem poles serve as important illustrations of family lineage and the cultural heritage of the Indigenous peoples in the islands and coastal areas of North America's Pacific Northwest, especially British Columbia, Canada, and coastal areas of Washington and southeastern Alaska in the United States.
Tlingit totem pole in Juneau, Alaska. The totem poles of the Pacific Northwestern Indigenous peoples of North America are carved, monumental poles featuring many different designs (bears, birds, frogs, people, and various supernatural beings and aquatic creatures). They serve multiple purposes in the communities that make them.
A ceremonial pole is a stake or post utilised or venerated as part of a ceremony or religious ritual. Ceremonial poles may symbolize a variety of concepts in different ceremonies and rituals practiced by a variety of cultures around the world. In many cultures, ceremonial poles represent memorials and gravemarkers.
The totem poles carved normally tell a story, and Tlingit artists carve subjects like animals into the totem poles. These pictures are aligned in a column down the pole, in order from top to bottom. The poles are put on outside corners of "traditional dwellings", used to structurally support their interiors, or placed on shores.
The poles are referred to as: Three Persons Along (Nisga'a); the Pole of Sag̱aw̓een (Nisga'a); the Shaking Pole of Kw’ax̱suu (Nisga'a); and House 16: Strong House Pole (Haida). Each of the crest poles tell a family story, as carved figures represent crests that commemorate family history by describing family origins, achievements and ...
Totem poles always tell a story, since the Tlingit culture traditional is an oral culture with minimal written history. Each animal on a totem pole represent family crests or tells a specific story. [ 9 ]
The totem pole is arguably the most complex and grandiose art form in Kwakwaka'wakw culture. Poles are placed outside family houses where they display the family's crests, history, wealth, social rank, inheritance, and privilege. [22] The sequence of characters and symbols sculpted into a totem pole is indicative of past family events ...
The original totem pole had been repainted with successive coats of non-Tlingit colors in an attempt to preserve the pole. [39] The replica, however, used the native Tlingit colors of black, red and blue-green. [39] Totem poles are read from top to bottom, with the topmost figure identifying the owner. [40]