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
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