TOTEM POLES BAEBEAU 567 



carved out of huge blocks of timber." * And he calls them elsewhere 

 " misshapen figures." The earliest drawing of a carved pole is that 

 of a house frontal or entrance pole (not a real totem pole) of the 

 Haidas; and it is found in Bartlett's Journal, 1790.^ 



ORIGIN OF THE TOTEM POLE ART 



The custom of carving and erecting mortuary columns to honor 

 the dead is therefore modern, that is post-Columbian; it may exceed 

 slightly the span of the last century. In spite of this, it is not easy 

 to trace back its origin to its very birthplace. Even the simple poles 

 of the Nootkas as described by Cook are not likely in themselves to 

 represent a form of native art of the stone age in its purely aboriginal 

 state, undisturbed b}' foreign influences. Iron and copper tools at 

 that date were already in the possession of the natives; and they 

 were used everywhere as only they could be by expert craftsmen 

 through lifelong habit. The west coast at that date was no longer 

 unchanged. The Russians had discovered it many decades before, 

 and the Spanish had left more recent traces of their passage. More- 

 over, the influence of the French and the English had crossed the 

 continent through contacts between intermediate tribes and the arri- 

 val of halfbreeds and coureurs de bois west of the mountain passes. 

 From our records of exploration and adventure it appears certain 

 that the northwest coast people were accessible to foreign influence 

 for more than 200 years, to say the least. The natives themselves 

 were highly amenable to foreign influence. Nowhere in America 

 did they show more avidity or greater skill to acquire and utilize 

 from the sundry goods and crafts of the white man whatever suited 

 their needs. 



Precisely where the totem poles, or mortuary columns, first ap- 

 peared and at exactly what moment is an interesting though elusive, 

 point. Our evidence eliminates the Gitksan, or the Tsimsyan proper, 

 from among the possibilities. Evidence abundantly shows that the 

 Nass River tribes made totem poles at an earlier period than the 

 upper Skeena people. Many families on both sides are mutually 

 related. Several of the Gitwinlkul villagers have their hunting 

 grounds on the upper Nass; and the Gitksan used to travel every 

 spring to the lower Nass for eulachan fishing or to trade pelts or 

 dried fruit cakes with the coast tribes. In the course of time a strong 

 cultural influence from the more progressive tribes of the coast thus 

 resulted. 



♦ Meares, John, Voyages made In the years 1788 and 1789, from China to the North 

 West Coast of America, p. 188, London, 1790. 



^ Cf. The Sea, the Ship, and the Sailor: Tales of Adventure, etc., with an introduction 

 by Capt. Elliot Snow, Salem, Mass., 1925. 



