Totem Pole
Totem poles are tall carvings made from whole trunks of western red cedar, raised by the Haida, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Kwakwaka'wakw and other Northwest Coast peoples before houses, at graves and as welcome or memorial figures. The carved animals and beings are not idols but crests: they record a clan's lineage, its founding ancestors and the supernatural helpers who saved them, and a pole is read by those who know the family's history. House poles stood against the front of a big house, mortuary poles held an ancestor's remains, and the figures often include raven, eagle, bear, wolf, whale and t