A native American Indian totem pole near the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington. Several local tribes used these poles to represent their family.
(Image available at RedBubble and ImageKind)
The Tlingit and other tribes of the Pacific Northwest coast from the Portland area north to Alaska carved totem poles as one of their tribal traditions. Often, it was a bit of a family tree in vertical form, using family clan symbols and other creatures to describe their family. Many members of the tribal folklore were used as characters in the totem, such as the raven, eagle, orca (killer whale) or thunderbird.
Native artists used natural pigments to paint their work - often with black and red, some of the easier pigments to obtain. Another feature of native art from this region is the use of many eyes in the work, often where there are joints in the animal - as if another creature was in charge. I don't know how this features in the tribal traditions, though and there is discussion/debate about non-trained, non-tribal artists using non-traditional methods and techniques to construct modern totem poles and decorations based on them.
Read more at:
Wonderopolis and Wikipedia
Lori Aberle Hopkins – photographer at Viking Visual, author, student-of-the-world.
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