﻿NO. 5 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, 1(J22 I25 



tinguished conduct medal is, with us) ; or it may Ijc founded on his 

 ancestry, as in the case of a title of nobility or a coat of arms. 



The idea that a pole always represents descent is therefore not 

 quite accurate. It is more nearly correct to say that the pole re])re- 

 sents the Indian's claim to fame, or the claim of his family, whatever 

 that claim may be based on. Examples of both kinds of carvings are 

 plentifully illustrated in the poles. 



A quaint example of a recently-accjuired crest is shown in the next 

 photograph (fig. 120). This specimen was described to me as " the 

 best totem-pole in Alaska." As a matter of fact, it is not properly 

 speaking an example of totemic art at all. The owner's wife was an 

 h'agk' woman, so the Eagle appears at the top of the pole. The 

 owner himself many years ago, prior to the American occupation of 

 Alaska, became converted to Christianity. The three figures on the 

 body of the pole were copied, along with the scroll designs, from a 

 Bible in the Russian church at Sitka. The bottom one represents, it 

 is said, St. Paul. The pole, while it is not a totemic monument as 

 far as the designs on it are concerned, illustrates how an individual's 

 inner experiences give rise to crests. This man gave a great " pot- 

 latch " when he raised the pole, and thus endowed himself with title 

 to these carvings, and made them his own. He was the first of his 

 group to become a Christian. 



It will be seen that there are a variety of ways in which carvings 

 come to be on poles. In one case I know of, a chief who belonged 

 to the Raven side, gave a great feast to a rival chief, a man of the 

 Killer-whale persuasion at Wrangell, and made him numerous gifts. 

 This latter chief fell upon evil days (he became a drunken loafer, in 

 fact) and was never able to return these gifts, in their equivalent. 

 The first chief therefore put on his totem-pole his own crest, the 

 Raven, represented as biting the dorsal fin of a Killer-whale. The 

 rival chief resented the afifront, but he had lost his property so what 

 could he do ? 



Some of the larger poles are 50 or 60 feet long. The tree is 

 felled and transported to the village-site, often at great labor. Here 

 it is blocked up, and an artist, hired for the purpose, works out the 

 design. To carve an elaborate pole was often the work of several 

 years. The back side of the pole was hollowed out, to lighten, as much 

 as possible, the labor of erecting it. A large concourse of people 

 assembled for the actual erection of the great column, and to partake 

 of the accompanying feast. Tremendous amounts of property were 

 distributed at such times, by the host and by his relatives, and such 

 an occasion has come to be called a " potlatch." The rank of a family 

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