TOTEM POLES

Totem poles are an art form characteristic of the tribes of the Northwest Coast in British Columbia and Southern Alaska. They are symbols of the social standing and achievement of the Indian nobility, demonstrating their power and affluence. They tell the story of personal accomplishment and historic events, and are comparable to the coats-of-arms in European civilization. The totem was the ancestral tree with figures and emblems of dozens of clans. Each figure had its own song. The Indians did not worship the poles nor did they consider the emblems on them as gods. They regarded them mainly as an historic remembrance, a status symbol. Each new crest added to the family tradition required a new song. Whenever a chief acquired a new distinction through war or marriage it was recorded on his totem pole and in new songs. The Indians adopted various birds and animals which, like their family crests, were sacred.
Often there was competition between crests. A person belonging to the phratry of any crest could go to any other village and be entitled to the protection of those of the same crest.
The Indians ascribed to the totem emblems the power of manifestation in either human or animal form. Because of this versatility the emblems were accepted, not as gods, but creatures with magical powers who could communicate with both the spirit and human worlds. Thus we find on some poles a human face embodied in the figure of an animal or bird. (See illustration.)
The carvers of these poles were great artists but were bound by tradition never to express themselves in free unrestrained form.
The most significant totems of the West Coast are the Wolf, the Raven, the Grizzly Bear, the Eagle and the Whale, but all these crests, once possessed by a family, become hereditary. They might be acquired through marriage, by conquest, or as a payment of debt. Kwakiutl poles express in highest dramatic form and with extraordinary skil1 those mythological figures they represent.
The origin of the totem pole is a matter for conjecture. Some claim it is of recent origin, native to British Columbia. Others point to the totems of New Zealand and of the Polynesians. Opposing viewpoints on the age of the totems are held by Marius Barbeau, who claims white man's influence, and by Wolfgang Paalen, who believes they are pre-white.
Undoubtedly the art of the totem is vanishing, although there are some attempts at rediscovery of ancient tools and media, as well as restoration, and some commissioning by universities, museums, and private individuals.
The pertinent fact, however, is that the golden age of the totem pole carving in British Columbia appears to have been between 1830 and 1880. Captain Vancouver reports having seen some totem poles as early as the 1790's. But the exceeding vulnerability of the natural material, the great trees of the Western forest, must be taken into consideration.
However, we are not concerned here with the pros and cons of origin. We are concerned with the study of music, and this leads us to the conclusion that the totem poles are so deeply interwoven with mythology and with that organic rhythm which governs the Indian people, it seems doubtful that they would have suddenly come into being.
Past opinions have been based on mythology and customs. Now the added dimension of music gives cause for further consideration of the subject.

The Wolf-Alunem-Lord of the Land, symbol of cunning and wisdom.
The Wolf crest is identified with hunters. According to the Indian the souls of the hunters go to different places. The land hunter's soul goes to the home of the Wolf, the sea hunter's soul to the home of the Killer Whale. The Wolf represents the genius on land just as the Killer Whale represents the lord ship of the sea.
Sometimes the Wolf is considered the head chief of the mythical people in their faraway villages. He is always acknowledge as an ancestor who gives his descendants many supernatural powers and during the winter initiates new dancers into the dance.
On the totem pole the Wolf can be distinguished by long slanting eyes, ears laid down backwards, many teeth, and an elevated nose.
The myth of the Nutlam sodality relates that originally Wolf spirits kidnapped the ancestors of certain extended families and that when these ancestors returned home they behaved like wolves, killing dogs when angered. This was a definitive act of the Nutlam associates.