TOTEM POLES BARBEAU 563 



single cluster — about 30 in all. It is impressive. Its poles are among 

 the tallest and best ; they are also the oldest. 



It is evident that the carving of the poles was a truly popular art. 

 If some artists were at times preferred to others for their skill, their 

 choice for specific tasks was governed by customs largely unconcerned 

 with craftsmanship. Each family of standing had every inducement 

 to resort to its own carvers for important functions in ceremonial 

 life. We have statistical evidence of this. The hundred totem poles 

 of the upper Skeena were produced by more than 30 local carvers and 

 13 foreigners. Six of the foreigners were from the Nass, and they 

 had been engaged in the earliest period when the Skeena artists were 

 not yet proficient in the new calling; 3 others were from the lower 

 Skeena, and 4 from the Bulkley Kiver, a tributary of the Skeena. 

 The Skeena carvers belonged to independent and widely scattered 

 social groups or families ; that is 23 of them were of the Raven-Frog 

 phratry; 9 of the Wolf, 5 of the Eagle, and 3 of the Fireweed. 

 Seventy-eight out of the hundred poles are ascribed to Gitksan 

 artists, while the rest are credited to foreigners. 



The art of carving and erecting memorial columns is not really as 

 ancient on the northwest coast as is generally believed. Popular mis- 

 conceptions that totem poles are hundreds of years old are fantastic. 

 They could not be, from the nature of the materials and the climatic 

 conditions. A green cedar can not stand upright much longer than 

 60 or 60 years on the upper Skeena, where precipitation is moderate 

 and the soil usually consists of gravel and sand. Along the coast it 

 can not endure the intense moisture that prevails most of the year 

 and the muskeg foundation much more than 40 years. The totem 

 poles of Port Simpson, for instance, all decayed on the south side first, 

 which is exposed to warm rainy winds. Most of the well-known 

 poles now in our parks and museums were carved after 1860, while 

 not a few of those seen in Indian villages, such as Alert Bay. were 

 erected after 1890. 



The growth of native technique to its present state is largely 

 confined to the past century. It hinged upon European tools — the 

 steel ax, the adze, and the curved knife — which were traded off in 

 large numbers to the natives from the days of the early circum- 

 navigators — that is after 1778. The lack of suitable tools, of wealth, 

 and of leisure in the prehistoric period precluded the elaboration of 

 ambitious structures and displays. The benefits accruing from the 

 fur trade at once stimulated local ambitions; they stirred up jeal- 

 ousies and rivalries and incited incredible efforts for higher prestige 

 and leadership. The totem pole came into fashion after 1830 through 

 the rise of these ambitions. The size of the pole and the beauty of 

 its figures published abroad the fame of those it represented. 

 102992—32 37 



