534 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 



The most striking objects on which the native lavishes his best 

 artistic efforts are the tall columns of cedar wood familiarly known 

 as totem poles, but which are really memorials, erected in honor of 

 the maternal brother whose property the builder has inherited. 

 These totem poles are carved from the hollowed trunks of the giant 

 yellow cedar, and occupy the place of honor at the center of the 

 gable end of the owner's house. 



The origin of the arts of the northwest coast Indians has never 

 been satisfactorily explained. It has been suggested that they may 

 be ascribed to a recent Asiatic influence or to migration of peoples 

 from the islands of the south Pacific Ocean, among whom the arts 

 of wood-carving are well developed. The extremely mild and humid 

 climate of the northwest coast affords perhaps a better clue. At 

 Ketchikan, near the southern boundary of southeast Alaska, the 

 average annual number of rainy days reaches a total of 235. Dense 

 forests of beautiful cedars supply materials for most of the native 

 arts and crafts. The fondness of the Indians for working in wood 

 becomes almost an obsession with them and finds expression, for 

 example, in the long, seaworthy dugout canoes hollowed from a 

 single cedar trunk. These boats are constructed with a high prow 

 and stern, painted in black, gi*een, or white colors, with representa- 

 tions of mythical and realistic animal forms. The birch-bark canoe 

 of the northern interior tribes of Canada, or the skin-covered boat 

 of the Alaskan Eskimo, is unknown to them. In a similar manner 

 do the northwest coast Indians differ in almost every particular 

 phase of their daily life from inland Indian tribes of Alaska, British 

 Columbia, and the State of Washington on the south. 



The art of the northwest coast Indian is unusual in that the totem 

 pole which he erects, is pleasing in itself, although not intended 

 primarily to please but rather designed to impress the beholder with 

 the owner's greatness or wealth or position in society, and to induce 

 respect for himself as the heir of the family crest and totem, all of 

 which are expressed on the pole, usually at the base, center, and top. 

 The Indian has inherited the right to the crests and totems repre- 

 senting the traditional animal protector of his uncle or mother's 

 brother, together with his mother's family or clan name and rank. 



Totem pole art is almost entirely a representation of animals. 

 These representations refer for the most part to the role played by 

 certain animals as actors in native myths. To properly understand 

 the carving one must know the story of the myth. Then, to make 

 the totem pole art still more abstruse, the Indian artist has certain 

 rules of procedure which obtain for him the desired results but which 

 make the representation of animals unintelligible to us unless the 

 rules are also known. 



