There are three kinds of these carved posts,—totem posts, commemorative
posts, and death posts. The death posts are the simplest of the three.
Among the Tlingit and Haida the dead were usually burned. If the man had
been important, a display was made of his body. He was dressed in his
finest clothing, and all his treasures were placed around him. People came
for some days to see his riches. At last the day for the burning of his
body arrived. Many persons were present. The faces of the mourners were
blackened, their hair cut short, and their heads were sprinkled with
eagle-down. After the body had been burned, the ashes were gathered and
put into a box, which was placed in a cavity hollowed out in the lower
part of the death post. This was the old custom; nowadays the ashes may be
put somewhere else. At the top of the death post was a cross-board on
which was carved or painted the totem of the dead man.
The second kind of carved post is the commemorative post, put up to
celebrate some important event. An old chief named Skowl once erected a
great post near his house. He had erected it to commemorate the failure of
the Russian missionaries to convert his village to Christianity. When the
last missionary had gone, he put it up to recall their failure and to
ridicule their religion. It was curiously carved. At the top was an eagle;
below it a man with his right hand lifted, pointing to the sky; below it
an angel; then a priest with his hands crossed upon his breast; then an
eagle; lastly a trader.
The totem posts are, however, the most interesting. They are taller, more
carefully made, and more elaborately carved than the others. They stand in
front of the houses; among Tlingit at one side, among Haida at the very
middle and close to the house. In fact, among the Haida the doorway of the
house was a hole cut through the lower end of the totem post. The carvings
on these posts refer to the people living in the house. Thus, in one Haida
totem post there was a brown bear at the top—the totem of the man of the
house; next came four _skil_ or divisions of a hat; then came the great
raven; then the bear and the hunter; then a bear—the last being the totem
of the woman of the house.
Among the Tlingit and Haida every one bears the name of some animal or
bird. Thus, among the Tlingit there are eighteen great families, with the
name of wolf, bear, eagle, whale, shark, porpoise, puffin, orca,
orca-bear; raven, frog, goose, beaver, owl, sea-lion, salmon, dogfish,
crow. The first nine of these are considered related to one another; so
are the last nine related. A man may not marry a woman of his own animal
name or totem; nor can he marry one of the related families. Thus a wolf
man could not marry a woman who was a wolf, or an eagle, or a shark, but
he might marry a raven or a frog.
With us a child takes its father’s name, but with these people it takes
its mother’s name. If a bear man married a raven woman, all the children
would be ravens. The animal whose name a man bears is his _totem_. There
is always some story told by people as to how they came to have their
totem. Every one believes that the animal that is his totem can help him,
and he pays much respect to it.
One story of how the bear became a totem is as follows: Long, long ago an
Indian went into the mountains to hunt mountain goats. When far from home
he met a black bear who took him home with him, and taught him to build
boats and catch salmon. The man stayed two years with the bear, and then
went home to his village. Every one feared him, for they thought him a
bear; he looked just like one. One man, however, caught him and took him
home to his house. He could not speak, and could not eat cooked food. A
great medicine man advised that he should be rubbed with magic herbs. When
this was done, he became a man again. After that, whenever he wanted
anything, he went out into the woods and found his bear friend, who always
helped him. What the bear taught him was of great use to him, and he
caught plenty of salmon in the winter time when the river was covered with
ice. The man built a fine new house, and painted the picture of a bear
upon it. His sister made him a new dancing blanket, and into it she wove a
picture of a bear. Ever since then the descendants of that man’s sister
have the bear for their totem.
Now you see something of the meaning of the totem posts. Upon them are
carved the totems of the people living in the house. They are a great
doorplate, giving the names of the family. This is important, because
among Indians all the persons who have the same totem must help one
another. If a man were in trouble, it was the duty of his totem-fellows to
aid him. If he were a stranger, it was their duty to receive him. When a
Tlingit or Haida found himself in a strange village, his first care would
be to examine the totem posts to find one that bore his own totem. At the
house marked by it he would surely be welcome.
[Illustration.]
Hat of Northwest Coast, Top and Side View. (From Original in Peabody
Museum.)
But it was a rare thing for a totem post to have only the figures of the
totems of the man and his wife. Other designs were carved in between
these. These other designs might tell of the man’s wealth or his
importance, or they might represent some family story. The people of every
totem had many stories which belonged only to them. In the totem post,
already described, probably the great raven, and the bear, and the hunter,
represented such stories. The four _skil_ probably indicated that the man
was important, for a man’s importance is shown by the number of _skil_ in
his hat. The carving at the bottom, however, was most significant, for it
gave the name of the woman and all her children.
ALBERT P. NIBLACK, of the United States navy, has written _The
Coast Indians of Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia._