TOTEM POLES : A KECENT NATIVE ART OF THE NORTH- 

 WEST COAST OF AMERICA ^ 



By Maetus Babbbau 

 National Mus&wm of Canada 



[With 6 plates] 



The totem poles of British Columbia and Alaska on the northwest 

 coast of North America have long since achieved world-wide repute. 

 Their decorative style at its best is unique and so effective that it is 

 nowhere surpassed in excellence among the other forms of aboriginal 

 art at large. They express native personality and craftsmanship in 

 terms impressive and intriguing. The museums of Europe and 

 America treasure a number of them, principally from the Queen 

 Charlotte Islands; some adorn the parks of our western cities. 

 These picturesque creations, however, can be seen to full advantage 

 only in their true home, at the edge of the ocean, amid tall cedars 

 and hemlocks, and in the shadow of lofty mountains. With their 

 bold profiles, reminiscent of Asiatic divinities and monsters, they 

 conjure impressions strangely un-American in their surroundings of 

 luxuriant dark-green vegetation under skies of bluish mist. 



The art of carving poles belongs to the past. Racial customs and 

 stamina are on the wane everywhere, even in their former strong- 

 holds. Totem poles are no longer made. Many of them have fallen 

 from old age, decayed, and disappeared. Some were sold, others 

 removed in maritime raids without the consent or knowledge of the 

 owners. Quite a few were destroyed by the owners themselves dur- 

 ing hysterical revivals under a spurious banner of Christianity; for 

 instance the poles of two Tsimsyan tribes, in the winters of 1917 

 and 1918, at Gitlarhdamks and Port Simpson near the Alaskan 

 frontier. 



Not even a remnant of the famous clusters of former days remains 

 among the Haidas of the Queen Charlotte Islands. Barely a few 

 are still left among the Bellacoolas, the Kwakiutl, and the Nootkas 

 of the west coast of British Columbia ; in a few years these will have 

 totally disappeared. 



> Reprinted by permission from tlie Geographical Review, vol. 20, No. 2, April, 1930. 



559 



