東京理科大学 Writing & Composition 1a: Totem poles・トーテムポール

Hello!

How are you? You might wonder what this picture is! It's of a totem pole (トーテムポール) taken in British Columbia in Canada in 1901. 

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 (先民族) 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 an activity, or 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! 

Here are the board notes for our class on 6/3:

Have fun! See you next time!

Image: Top - by Philip Timms - http://www3.vpl.vancouver.bc.ca/spe/histphotos/histPhotoAdvancedSearch.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=842792/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
Board notes - personal photographs. All rights reserved. 
All rights reserved on Harper College map screenshot. I do not own the rights to the original photograph. Uploaded for educational purposes only.