東京理科大学 A英1: Totem poles・トーテムポール

Hello!

How are you? You might wonder about this long picture here! It's a totem pole (トーテムポール) brought to Seattle, in the U.S., in 1907. This old picture comes from that time. 

Totem poles are unique to the Pacific coast native Americans and Canadian First Nations people in the U.S., in northern California, Oregon, Washington state, and southeast Alaska, and in Canada, in British Columbia. The totem poles tell stories, in picture carvings, about nature, events that happened, life, and other things that impacted the Pacific Coast people. 

In the circle in pink on the map, here are the parts of the U.S. and Canada where the Pacific Coast indigenous people are from: 

Activity/homework

Look at these pictures of parts of totem poles, with a whole totem pole at the bottom. What kinds of animals do you notice? What kinds of stories do you imagine they might tell? 

Here is a piece of homework for you - write out a short account of what you believe one of these totem poles might be telling a story about. 

For example: Once there was an eagle who never rested. He was always flying around in the sky, and  was always looking to test how strong he was. One day, when he was coming in low to some trees to pick at some nuts to eat, he saw a raven on a branch...

Share your stories with your classmates in the next class!

Have fun! See you next time!

Image: Top - By Photo not clearly credited. (Expired) copyright was W. D. Harney. - Artwork of Seattle and Alaska, 1907, W. D. Harney Photogravure Publisher, Racine, Wisconsin. Copied by taking a photograph of a page in a copy of the book at Seattle Public Library (Seattle Room of the Central Library); Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3762941/Map - screenshot taken of photograph courtesy of the Harper College website/First section of totem pole - By Jerzy Strzelecki - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3112590/Detailed section of totem pole - By Jerzy Strzelecki - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3112589/Full totem pole - By http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:H - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Totem_Park_pole_1.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2405610
All rights reserved on Harper College map screenshot. I do not own the rights to the original photograph. Uploaded for educational purposes only.