INDIANS OF NORTH PACIFIC COAST 



25 



Totem Pol es 



The most striking oliject is the great Haida 



Canoe in the center of the hall. In it 

 Haida Canoe ... , , i 



IS benig constructed a group represent- 

 ing a party of Chilkat Indians on the way to celebrate 

 the rite of the "potlatch." The potlatch is the 

 great "giving ceremony," common to all the coast 

 tribes when individuals and families gladly im- 

 poverish themselves that the dead may be honored, 

 and social standing of the clan or family recognized 

 and increased. At the stern of the canoe, which 

 is represented as approaching the beach, stands the 

 chief or "medicineman," who directs the ceremony. 

 The canoe is a hugh dugout made from a single tree, 

 is 643^2 feet long and 8 feet wide and capable of carry- 

 ing 40 men. 



Against the pillars and walls of the hall are many 



house posts and totem poles with their 



grotesque carvings; the latter may rep- 

 resent either the coat of arms or family tree, or they 

 may illustrate some story or legend connected with 

 the family. The Haida Indians together with the 

 Tlingit are recognized as superior in art to the other 

 Indian tribes along the northwest coast of North 

 America. They are divided into a number of 

 families with various crests for each family and 

 grouped into two main divisions, the Ravens and the 



Eagles. The Tlingit are makers of the 



famous Chilkat blankets, of which the 



Museum possesses an exceptionally fine 

 Among some of the other tribes there 

 is little wool weaving, the clothing consisting of 

 shredded and softened inner tree bark braided and 

 matted together. The Indians of this region are 

 preeminently a woodworking people, as is manifest 

 in the exhibit. Religious ceremonies and the wear- 

 Religious ing of masks generally supposed to aid 

 Ceremonies the shaman or priest in curing disease 

 were customary among most of the tribes. 



rr,i 1 ,1 ,. • •, 1 Totem polo at Wrangel, 



Ihe masks represented guardian spirits and Alaska, At the bottom id 



, . ^, ,11 • i 1 ,1 a beaver with a frog under 



by wearing them the shaman impersonated these hisehin; abovcisaravea; 



. . , II- -IT- 1 ^'^'i above the raven a frog, 



spirits and assumed their powers in healing the which is surmounted by 



. , , . . a human head. 



Sick or obtaining game. 



Chilkat 

 Blankets 



collection. 



