Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest
The North American Northwest Coast Indians of the past had no written language. All they left behind was their material culture, their artifacts, and their things. Yet, these artifacts are a great legacy. They tell us as much about the culture as a written record. Through the study and analysis of artifacts, we can gain valuable knowledge and insight into the creators of their culture. Objects are visual records of what their makers considered important or significant, and we learn from these objects. All of the west coast tribes were considered rich by other Indian nations. What made these tribes so wealthy? It wasn’t the discovery of oil. It wasn’t the discovery of gold or silver. What made them so wealthy was food-an abundance of food and safe, sturdy shelter. Two thousand years ago, the Puget Sound Indians used to tell visiting tribes that sometimes the river was so packed with salmon you could walk across it on the backs of fish without getting your feet wet. Clams were thick on the beaches. There was an abundance of all kinds of fish and seafood. The woods were full of elk, deer and other animals. There were blackberries and raspberries and salmonberries and nuts. Cedar trees were everywhere. The Native Americans used cedar to build their homes and to carve everything from canoes to eating utensils. Softened cedar bark was used to make shoes, clothing, blankets and towels. These early people were clever. They created a way to dry food so it could be stored safely. Once they could store food, they could relax a bit during the winter months. That gave them the time to develop a gracious lifestyle.
The Inhabitants
Five major linguistic groups or tribes inhabit the Totempolar Region. The totem nations in Alaska were the Tlingit and Haida. The Quilliute and Coast Salish nations were in what is now Washington and Oregon, and the Kwakiul, Nootka, Bella Coola and Tsimsyan were British Columbia. Physically and culturally, the tribes were similar and intermarriage was frequent. However, the tribes were not organized into a nation. All tribes were divided into a four-class social system composed of royalty, nobility, commonality and slavery. Royalty consisted of a chief and his first nephews who would succeed him. The nobility class consisted of younger nephews and their families, plus people who distinguished themselves in some way. Commonality or common people were the free men related to the nobility by blood but who were poor. Commoners could rise to a higher social station through the accumulation of wealth. Rivalry with this group
was intense. Slaves made up the lowest social group. These were men and women who were either born into slavery or captured in slave raids. The clan was the strongest group within the tribe. A clan was a group of people bound together by a tradition of first ancestors. A chief headed each clan. Hereditary descent was recognized from the maternal (mother’s) side of the family. Male children at a very early age were sent to live with and be raised by their maternal uncle. The children bore his name, his totem symbol and inherited all the uncle’s property, wives, and debts owed him upon his death. Living conditions fitted social station. All classes of a clan lived in the same community longhouse, which resembles a roofed village with a communal fire.
Longhouse Living
These longhouses were built of thick cedar planks and were huge. Some were about 100 feet long and 25 feet wide, with low roofs for easy heating. The only openings in the entire building were the entrance door and a hole in the roof to allow smoke to escape. If the tribe built the longhouse, the Chief occupied the rear of the house followed by the nobility class. Less desirable areas belongs to the commoners and slaves slept in the entranceway. If an individual built the longhouse for his own family, he lived in that longhouse along with his wife, children and grandchildren. As each member of the family grew to adulthood and married, they were assigned space for their family within the family longhouse. When the owner of the house died, this arrangement was ended. Either the house was given away to someone outside of the family or it was burnt to the ground. It was believed that if the family remained, the spirit of the departed might be either bothered by them or worried about them. To avoid the possibility of this, the family had to move and live elsewhere. These longhouses commonly featured totem poles that displayed the family crest, wealth and ownership. Northwest Coast Native Americans, unlike most other Native Americans, placed great importance on ownership acquisition of property and the flaunting of wealth. The number of totem poles, blankets, capes, furs, carved boats and copper disks one owned, measured wealth.
Art Style
The Native American artist practiced a conventional art style. Conventional art follows certain formal rules or
What is a totem?
A totem is a symbol that each Native American family, or clan, adopts. Each clan uses a different animal as its totem.
Totem Poles
Totem poles, those giant red cedar poles elaborately carved with images of animals and people, can be thought of as three-dimensional family histories; histories that began in the time before people lived on earth, when birds and animals spoke to each other; histories that tell of journeys from distant places, marriages and births, supernatural transformations and heroic deeds. The totem pole provided a means of communicating their stories, myths and legends. The totem pole is an arrangement of symbols or memory devices in sequence created for the purpose of recalling a story or event. These symbols function as a form of “writing” conveying meaning. Further, these stories convey symbolically a visual expression of what the Indian culture means. Totem poles were a sign of success and wealth of the native cultures that evolved along the coast, whether Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Nisga’a, Gitksan, Kwakiutl and other people sheltered by a benevolent forest, blessed with a food filled sea. The tribes living along the wooded shores and rivers of the pacific Northwest could afford the luxury of permanent village sites and ornamental art. Totem poles embody their tribal, clan, family, and individual identities, and serve as visual reminders of the past and present.
Totem poles appear in six different settings, which are common to all major tribes of the Pacific Northwest. 1. House Pillars and false house pillars supported the rafters in the longhouses. 2. Mortuary poles were simply painted poles on top of which were placed a box containing the ashes of the deceased. Later, the ashes were removed and replaced with a totem. 3. Memorial poles were raised to honor both the living and the dead. 4. Heraldic portal or family poles were placed in the middle front of a house with a hole near the base, which served as a doorway. The pole was carved with the mythological history of the clan within. Its purpose was to advertise and exalt the lineage. 5. The Potlatch pole was designed to record and validate important events. Potlatch, in Indian, means “story master”. These are the tallest (60’-80’) and the most elaborately decorated poles. They are distinguished by having one to three high-hatted watchmen at the top. Beneath the watchmen is the chief’s totem, then his myth and then his wife’s totem. 6. The Ridicule or Shame pole was erected to force some person of high standing to meet or recognize an obligation. Many white men are carved on these poles. Another form of shaming a person was to carve his totem upside down. There are no hidden meanings in a totem pole, however there are many cultural ones: hence those outside the culture may not be able to make the connections. Totem poles are social and have no religious meaning; they share nothing in common with idols, are never worshipped and never figure in religious ceremonies. The symbols only serve as memory devices to recall a story. These stories reflect the unifying factors of the culture and therefore, to read a totem pole, it is necessary to understand Native American mythology. Totem poles are read from top to bottom. The principle character, clan, or family symbol was placed on top. Following this are the characters and objects, which recall the legend and at the base of the pole is carved the wife’s clan symbol. Carvers / artists had no say in their work. They were hired to do exactly as directed by the totem pole’s owner. After the owner selected his tree, the first step was to hollow it out. This made the tree more mobile. The tree was marked off in equal sections. Sometimes different carvers were used for different sections. After carvings were completed, a uniform texture was applied to the entire surface by scooping out dime sized uniform chips. Totem poles were painted with a type of fish egg tempera and colors were limited to subdued shades of red, black, green and blue. European paints were introduced in 1830 and poles produced after this time displayed a variety of brighter colors. In 1820,
the Northwest traders introduced the iron adze. As a result of this addition, the period from 1830-1880 is referred to as the Golden Age of Totem Poles. This period witnessed the finest and tallest poles (60-80 feet) ever constructed. Raising the finished pole was a great social even called a Potlatch. Once a pole was erected, it was never repaired or repainted. It was left to fall prey to the elements. Totem poles were personal monuments that the Native Americans seemed content to have last only one man’s lifetime. Bibles and schoolbooks, the white man’s written language, the end of slavery, and the coming canneries all spelled the end of the totem pole. Misinformed missionaries came into the area believing totem poles to be pagan idols and promptly set out on a campaign to destroy them. Intent on their mission, they were very successful and destroyed a great number. In 1884, when the federal government outlawed potlatching, it became increasingly rare for new poles to be carved. During the early part of this century many of the remaining poles were removed from their sites by collectors who sold the poles and other works of art to museums around the world. Brief and successful attempts were made by local inhabitants at reviving the totem pole. During the 1950’s there was renewed interest in carving the poles and a new generation of First Nations artists began to create these monuments again.