TOTEM AND OTHER CARVED POLES

References:

Plate 4, Figure 1. Mortuary Pole of Chief Ske-dans,

Skidegate, Q. C. I. Haida. Plate 4, Figure 2. Totem Pole. Kwakiutl. Plate 4, Figure 3. Inside House Pole. Haida.

Some confusion exists among the public on the subject of the several forms of sculptured poles in use among the tribes of British Columbia. The following grouping may clear up certain common misunderstandings and afford guidance on the varying sig- nificance of these poles and by whom the various types were most in use.

(1) Memorial or crest poles are of unknown antiquity. They were found chiefly among the Tsimsyan, to a less degree among the Haida. They were erected as a memorial by his heirs to a deceased relative and showed one or more of his crests. Such memorial poles were often set up at a little distance from the house formerly occupied by the deceased.

(2) Mortuary poles consisted of solid cedar logs about 30 feet high and 4 feet in diameter. A section was removed near the top of the pole to receive the box containing the folded body of the deceased and was then closed by horizontal boards usually carved with his crest. Among wealthy chiefs the re- mainder of the pole might be sculptured with clan or tribal crests or those of near relatives. A fine exanple of a Haida mortuary pole is shown in Plate 4, Figure 1; it has now been removed to Stanley Park, Vancouver. The use of this type of pole was confined chiefly to the Haida on the Coast, and to the Carrier Tribe in the Interior of the Province, though in the latter case the decoration was but a crude copy of Coast carving.

Brief reference must be made to carved "Grave Figures," a custom noted from Washington State (U. S. A.) to the Yukon. Those usual among both Coast and Interior Salish and also with the Déné usually represented a life size human form; but with the North Pacific Coast tribes large carvings of animals and birds served the same purpose. (see Plate 9, Figure 6). The Thompson also placed roughly carved grave figures near the place of burial of the individual commemo- rated which was covered with large stones.

(3) Inside House Posts, often undecorated or rudely carved, were general in most of the Coast villages from Victoria, B. C.,

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