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Art of the Americas to World War I
Course: Art of the Americas to World War I > Unit 5
Lesson 5: Northwest coast & Arctic- Tsimshian shaman’s rattle
- Reclaiming history, a Kwakwaka'wakw belt
- Transformation masks
- North Wind Mask
- Sea monster transformation mask
- Nuu-Chah-Nulth Mask Frontlet of the Wolf Dance
- Haida totem pole, from Old Kasaan
- Haida potlatch pole
- Bentwood Boxes of the Northwest Coast peoples
- Tlingit mortuary and memorial totem poles
- Proud Raven totem pole at Saxman Totem Park
- The story of the Oyster Man, a Tlingit totem pole
- The Chief Johnson Totem Pole
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Tlingit mortuary and memorial totem poles
A conversation between Teresa DeWitt and Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank in front of a Mortuary Pole, Tlingit origin, 19th century, from Village Island, 16 x 2 ft. (Totem Heritage Center, Ketchikan, Alaska); and a Bear/Killer Whale Pole (mortuary pole), Tlingit origin, 19th century, Village Island, 27 x 2 ft. (Totem Heritage Center, Ketchikan, Alaska). Created by Smarthistory.
Video transcript
(upbeat music) - [Lauren] We're here at
the Totem Heritage Center in Ketchikan, standing
in front of a mortuary totem pole of the Tongass people. - [Teresa] The totem pole is the oldest that we have in our collection that comes from the Tongass tribe, and this pole is estimated to be about 200-years-old and possibly older. - [Lauren] Let's unpack
this term totem pole. - [Teresa] So when you see the totem poles that are in the building here or outside, what there are is great
reminders of stories of people, of clan events that happened decades ago. Or maybe in this past 10
years, if it's a current pole. Then we could find out the story and then we'll better understand
how the pole is designed and what it represents. - [Lauren] That importance
of oral tradition in connection to the pole
that we're looking at. - [Teresa] With all that
happened when the newcomers came here, there was a lot of change and a lot of suppression
of our Tingit, Haida and Tsimshian culture, and unfortunately, throughout their change of the simulation of our people here, there
was some loss of stories and a loss of some precious
things important to us. And unfortunately with this pole, there was quite a bit that was lost. There's four things that help us identify more about this pole. When you look at the face, you
could tell it's a human face in the way the body is shaped. On the top of hand there, you see a club. We don't know if it's a fishing club or if it's a battle club. Below it, you see a shape
that looks like a pear. And we know that's a sculpin fish. There's a fourth thing that we'll notice around the back of the pole,
where it's hollowed out. When you see a totem pole
that has hollowed out, we know it's a mortuary pole. When somebody that was
very highly respected within the clan passed away, sometimes they'd have a totem
pole raised to memorialize the individual and they
would put their remains, their cremations inside of
a bentwood box normally. That space that's hollowed
out is where the bentwood box would go with the remains in it. It's a mortuary pole
comparison to a memorial pole. You could have a memorial
pole up to honor somebody that passed away, but the
difference is a mortuary pole would have that hollowed out part. You're still memorializing
somebody that passed away, but the difference is you
have the remains inside of the pole. Unfortunately, when they brought this pole from its original village where it stood, there was no remains inside of there. So we know four things,
that's a mortuary pole, it's a human figure on there, and it has a club in its
upper hand and a Sculpin in its lower hand. Now what we don't know about this pole, what clan they came from,
how tall the pole was, if there's any clan crests on top. There is a small remnants on top of the head of the human figure. We don't know if that
was one time, a mink, a bear or another figure. Maybe it was a clan hat
that was placed on top of the human figure, all
we know is what we see. So unfortunately this is one
of the stories that was lost, but fortunate enough that
we have the totem pole here. One of the big decisions is
when the newcomers came up, that they seen these
villages that was unoccupied at the time to them. And they automatically
thought it was abandoned, unfortunately, and they had
misconceptions of the pole. So there's a lot of poles
that was being destroyed when the newcomers came
up here out of disrespect and out of lack of knowledge of where they're at and the people and their surroundings around them. When this all was going on, they're able to retrieve some of the poles from the original villages
and bring them here. So we're excited enough
to have these totem poles, 'cause it was a big decision to bring them because traditionally, when
a totem pole is raised, that would be the expectancy of the pole. We wouldn't move it. We wouldn't transplant it
anywhere else normally. So once the totem pole is raised, it would stay there until
it started to deteriorate or if it would fall down on its own, or if it would cause harm, possibly if it started leaning too much. And that would be the only
time the men of the village would take the pole and let it come down. And then it put it somewhere by the woods and they let it go back to the
earth to have its full cycle. So when they brought it here to the center and they created a
center, it was a big step, but it was a great step
because the people nowadays could look at these and
they could cherish more about their culture. The history continue to carry it on. Even if it's just one
story or one explanation of a pole for the younger generation, then it's kept and preserved. - [Lauren] I just want
to look more closely at the figure that we're seeing here. You mentioned, we're able to identify this as a human because
of the high cheekbones, and the shape of the
eyes, and the wide mouth. - [Teresa] So between the
characteristics of the human face, the arms, hands, and the legs, that's how we can tell it's a human. Plus, it's a very oblong
and it's standing up. Unfortunately, you can't see
the feet on this pole here in front of us because
it's deteriorated away. But it's definitely the shape of the legs is one of the great indicators. - [Lauren] At one point, this
pole would have been painted. And so there's no longer
any surviving paint on this particular pole. I want to go back to what
you were saying earlier about the newcomers coming to this area and misunderstanding these poles. - [Teresa] Well, when the
newcomers came up here, there's a lot of
misconceptions that our people of this area of worship, the poles, and that there were coming
from a religious standing point and their misconceptions
caused them to burn the poles entirely or cut them
down and destroy them in. Unfortunately there was even newcomers that came up and used the
polls as target practices. - [Lauren] So while we
don't know which clan owned this particular
pole, there is another pole here in , hotem Heritage where we are able to
identify who owned the pole. - [Teresa] The pole
directly behind is a pole that has two figures on there. At the very top is a solid figure that's attached to the totem pole. The figure that's looking down at us has a very strong jaw line. You can see the teeth and the nose, the eyes at the very top of the head of and at one
time there were ears there. Unfortunately it deteriorated off. That is actually a bear
that's looking down at us and it has the claws
underneath the jawline. So if we go behind the totem pole, we can look at the figure
on top and there's no tail. So we know it's a bear. Then if you look down below the jaw line, you could see the human
face and you can compare it to the human face on
the pole in front of it. And you see that characteristics
of the cheekbones, the nose, the shape of the
eye and that oval mouth, that face actually sits on
the tail of a killer whale. As you go down below the face, you can see the hollowed out heart. That one time was a dorsal
fin sticking out of the pole. Right on each side of the
dorsal fin you could see the side fins of the killer whale, but if you keep going down,
you could see the teeth of the killer whale on
each side of the pole. If you look at the top
of the pole is much wider then as you go down to
the bottom of the pole, it's more narrow, that
helps give the effect of the killer whale diving
downwards into the water. So we know this one belonged
to a clan that claimed the killer whale and the bear as
part of their clan quests. - [Lauren] I feel very
honored to be here, today and to learn about these two poles. (upbeat music)