Totem Poles

Art of the Pacific Northwest Natives

What is a totem pole?

• A totem pole is a piece of artwork that was originally created by the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest.

What is a totem pole?

• Totem poles were carved out of giant cedar trees by the Northwest Coastal Indians.

• A totem pole is kind of like a book you could read, but instead of using words it uses symbols of animals/birds.

• Totem poles were used as a way of passing down stories.

What is a totem pole?

• Totem poles were used to represent a tribe, clan, family, or person.

• Having a totem pole was a great honor and often families would trade all their possessions to have one.

How were they carved?

• After a tree was cut down, carvers would begin at the top and work their way down.

• A totem pole could be big or small. A large totem pole might be more than 60 feet high and could take two to three years to carve!

• Once carved, poles were painted with natural paints and were most often black, red, blue, green, and white.

Your totem pole piece

• Together we will create a set of class totem poles!

• Each student will select an animal that they think best represents themselves.

• They will create a stylized drawing of the animal, and then paint their own piece of the pole!

Eagle

Killer Whale

Salmon

Bear

Owl

Wolf

Raven and Moon

Owl