Totem
Among the Northwest Coast peoples who raised the great cedar poles — Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and Kwakwaka'wakw — the totem is a system of clan crests: animal and spirit ancestors such as Raven, Eagle, Killer Whale, Bear, Wolf, and Beaver carved on towering monuments. Each figure records a lineage's origin story and rights, witnessed and validated at potlatches.