Users questions 

What is the purpose of a totem pole?

Joe Ford

What is the purpose of a totem pole?

A totem pole or monumental pole is a tall structure created by Northwest Coast Indigenous peoples that showcases a nation’s, family’s or individual’s history and displays their rights to certain territories, songs, dances and other aspects of their culture. Totem poles can also be used as memorials and to tell stories.

What does bottom of the totem pole mean?

unimportant

How much is a totem pole worth?

Cost of a totem pole. If you really want a totem pole, you can still have an artist carve you one. But it will range in price between $25,000 and $60,000 each.

What is an Indian totem pole?

Native American Indian totem poles are sculptures carved on poles made from huge trees. The name of this art form “totem pole” is derived from the Algonquian word odoodem meaning “his kinship group”. The figures carved on totem poles often depict characters from tribal legends. Animals are often carved on the poles.

What do totem pole symbols mean?

A totem pole typically features symbolic and stylized human, animal, and supernatural forms. Totem poles are primarily visual representations of kinship, depicting family crests and clan membership. Totem poles can also be created to honour a particular event or important person.

Is a totem pole a religious symbol?

Totem poles are not religious symbols, rather they convey a family’s or a tribe’s history. A big celebration called a “potlatch” accompanies the raising of a totem pole. During the potlatch, tribe members sing and dance to drums while the pole is raised.

What do totem pole colors mean?

The colors in the totem pole also have deep meaning: Red is the color of blood, representing war or valor. Yellow is the color of the sun, bringing light and happiness. Green is the earth with its hills, trees, and mountains.

What does an eagle mean on a totem pole?

MAJOR SYMBOLS OR TOTEM FIGURES EAGLE. The majestic Eagle is strength and vision. The Eagle symbolizes power and prestige. It protects the spirit and the body, representing health and wholeness of being. It signifies the person who rises above the petty details of daily life to take in the big picture.

What does the frog mean on a totem pole?

On totem poles it occupies the bottom with its legs stretched out to symbolize stability. On Haida house posts, Frog is depicted to lend structural stability. Frogs also represent wealth, abundance, ancient wisdom, rebirth, and good luck. As such, the Frog symbol plays an important part in Northwest coast cultures.

Why is the eagle sacred?

Both Bald and Golden Eagles (and their feathers) are highly revered and considered sacred within American Indian traditions, culture and religion. They are honored with great care and shown the deepest respect. They represent honesty, truth, majesty, strength, courage, wisdom, power and freedom.

What does a wolf represent on a totem pole?

The Native Wolf Symbol represents loyalty, strong family ties, good communication, education, understanding, and intelligence.

What does a beaver mean on a totem pole?

The beaver spirit animal symbolizes ingenuity and persistence when it comes to work. When the beaver totem appears to you, you are being encouraged to be diligent until the task is completed. The beaver meaning also speaks about productivity and achievement.

Who do the Beavers represent in Narnia?

Mr. and Mrs. Beaver are a pair of talking animals who meet and care for Peter, Susan, and Lucy (and Edmund, to the best of their ability). They’re particularly notable for their virtue and domestic peace and seem to represent all the “upright citizens” of Narnia.

What does it mean if a beaver crosses your path?

Wildlife has always learned to hide itself from humans. If a raccoon or beaver crosses your path or waits beside the road as you pass by this could be intentional. The beaver who can move easily from land to water reminds us of balance. Remember to divide time between family, work, and leisure.

Why does the beaver represent wisdom?

The beaver represents wisdom because he uses his natural gift he has been given wisely for his survival. It is important to remember that each of your life’s experiences have provided you with wisdom needed to get you where you are today.

What does the beaver symbolize in Native American culture?

Native American Beaver Mythology. Beavers symbolize wealth and hunting success in many Alaskan and other Northwest Coast tribes. To the Blackfoot people, Beaver is a symbol of wisdom and is associated with the sacred pipe.

What does a bat symbolize?

Bats symbolize death and rebirth. Sometimes, they are known as the “Guardian of the Night.” It is largely misunderstood and so therefore many of its symbolic meanings are inappropriately fear-based. The bat is a symbol of rebirth and death because it is a creature that lives in the belly of the Mother (Earth).

What does seeing a bat mean spiritually?

Bat totem animal represents letting go of fear and being free from them. As per bat symbology, bat totem animal unlocks your deepest fears and sets you free. When a bat comes, it is the death of fears and rebirth of someone who is going to live a life free from fears.

Is a bat a good omen?

While European and North American folklore about bats in buildings generally views bats as portents of misfortune or evil, some benign lore also exists perceiving them as good omens. For example, if a bat lives in a theater, and flies over the stage during rehearsal, the play is guaranteed success.

Is it a sin to eat bats?

But anything that does not have fins and scales you may not eat; for you it is unclean. You may eat any clean bird. the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat. All flying insects that swarm are unclean to you; do not eat them.

Miscellaneous 

What is the purpose of a totem pole?

Joe Ford

What is the purpose of a totem pole?

A totem pole or monumental pole is a tall structure created by Northwest Coast Indigenous peoples that showcases a nation’s, family’s or individual’s history and displays their rights to certain territories, songs, dances and other aspects of their culture. Totem poles can also be used as memorials and to tell stories.

Is it OK to say totem pole?

Using this out of context to refer to a meeting or a quick get-together with an American Indian coworker trivializes this tradition and could be taken as offensive. In corporate America, the phrase “climbing the totem pole” may be used to refer to someone who is advancing in his or her career.

Do all tribes have totem poles?

Totem Poles were not created by all Native Indian tribes and their production was limited to six Northwest Indian tribes located in the Pacific Northwest Coast in British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. The names of the Northwest Tribes which carved Totem Poles were as follows: The Tlingit tribe.

Is a totem pole a religious symbol?

Totem poles are not religious symbols, rather they convey a family’s or a tribe’s history. Likewise the carver includes images to tell his own story, such as his standing within the tribe. A big celebration called a “potlatch” accompanies the raising of a totem pole.

Who is the most important person on a totem pole?

According to Canadian naturalist, Pat Kramer—an expert on First Nations culture—the lowest figures on the totem pole are often considered the most prestigious.

What animals go on a totem pole?

Totem pole animals The animals you’ll see most often on a totem pole are the eagle, raven, thunderbird, bear, beaver, wolf, killer whale and frog.

What is another word for totem pole?

n. emblem, column, pillar.

What is the most important part of a totem pole?

But traditionally, the bottom figure on a totem pole is the most important one. The head carver is in charge of this portion of the totem (the bottom 10 feet) since it is most visible and more detailed than the higher regions [source: Totem Poles: An Exploration].

What do totem pole symbols mean?

A totem pole typically features symbolic and stylized human, animal, and supernatural forms. Totem poles are primarily visual representations of kinship, depicting family crests and clan membership. Totem poles can also be created to honour a particular event or important person.

Is it better to be higher or lower on a totem pole?

What they don’t probably know is that the lowest figure on a totem pole is generally the most respected. Totem poles are thicker toward the base; the bottom-most figure is typically the largest, most prominent and most ornately detailed and decorated of the bunch.

What does each animal on a totem pole mean?

Common figures found on totem poles include the raven (a symbol of The Creator), the eagle (representing peace and friendship), the killer whale (a symbol of strength), the thunderbird, the beaver, the bear, the wolf and the frog.

What is a person’s totem?

A totem is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol of a tribe, clan, family or individual. Some Native American tribe’s tradition provides that each person is connected with nine different animals that will accompany him or her through life, acting as guides.

What does it mean to be low on the totem pole?

If you describe someone as the low man on the totem pole, you mean that they are the least important person in an organization or a group. Note: If someone is important in a group or organization, you can say that they or their position is high on the totem pole.

Who is the most important on a totem pole?

How many animals are usually on a totem pole?

nine different animals
Native American tradition provides that each individual is associated with nine different animals that will complement each person through life, acting as guides.

Can you eat your totem?

Such an individual totem is named bala, “spirit companion,” or jarawaijewa, “the meat (totem) that is within him.” There is a strict prohibition against eating the totem. Breach of the taboo carries with it sickness or death.

Can a person be a totem?

For some tribes, totems can represent larger groups than the individual person, and clans and tribes can have a totem. In modern times, some individuals, not otherwise involved in the practice of a tribal religion, have chosen to adopt as a personal totem an animal which has some kind of special meaning to them.

Is it OK to say low man on the totem pole?

If you describe someone as the low man on the totem pole, you mean that they are the least important person in an organization or a group. He is a quality-control coach, the low man on the totem pole of the staff. Note: You can also just say that a person or their position is low on the totem pole.

What does each animal on a totem pole represent?

What happens if you eat meat from your totem?

Breach of the taboo carries with it sickness or death. It is said: “To eat your jarawaijewa is the same as if you were to eat your very own flesh or that of your father.”

Popular 

What is the purpose of a totem pole?

Joe Ford

What is the purpose of a totem pole?

A totem pole or monumental pole is a tall structure created by Northwest Coast Indigenous peoples that showcases a nation’s, family’s or individual’s history and displays their rights to certain territories, songs, dances and other aspects of their culture. Totem poles can also be used as memorials and to tell stories.

Is a totem pole a religious symbol?

Often poles are raised this way before the carving begins. Many have believed that totem poles are religious symbols but this is false. Carvings will represent the tribal nation and will convey the tribes’ history. Totem poles held messages by those that carved them.

What does the totem represent?

In its most specific sense, totem refers to an emblematic depiction of an animal or plant that gives a family or clan its name and that often serves as a reminder of its ancestry. The term is also used broadly for any person or thing having particular emblematic or symbolic importance.

Did the Apache tribe make totem poles?

One of the most popular misconceptions about totem poles is they were present in all Native American cultures, but only certain indigenous tribes of the Pacific Northwest actually erected them. Apache and Cherokee tribes, for example, boast no historically authentic totem poles.

How does a totem pole tell a story?

The stories that totem poles tell may be a myth , a legend , or honour Indigenous peoples through symbols . The crests on a totem pole belong to a family and tell its story. Once the stories of each crest are known, the totem poles really come alive.

What does a totem pole symbolize?

Totem poles can symbolize the characters and events in mythology, or convey the experiences of recent ancestors and living people. Some of these characters may appear as stylistic representations of objects in nature, while others are more realistically carved.

How much does a totem pole cost?

On average, a totem pole costs up to $3,000 per linear foot, not including the cost of the log. Smaller, decorative totem poles are available for purchase at the many gift shops in Ketchikan. These gorgeous Alaska Native Art pieces are the perfect souvenir from your visit to Ketchikan Alaska.

What are facts about totem poles?

13 totally terrific totem pole facts A record of events. Some totem poles are a recording of important events that happened in the past. Totem pole meanings. But there are different kinds of totem poles that have other meanings. Origin of the word. Totem pole colours. They’re really tall! Special wood. Totem pole creators Totem pole animals. Carving tools. Carving styles.