This survey of totem poles from the Tlingit settlements of Alaska to the Kwakiutl villages of Vancouver Island examines the traditions that led to their creation. It includes both the author's vivid drawings of totem poles and historical photographs of early native settlements.

Examines the creation of totem poles from the Tlingit settlements of Alaska to the Kwakiutl villages of Vancouver Island.

Explores the history, development, and significance of the totem pole art of the Northwest Coast.

The massive wood carvings unique to the Indian peoples of the Northwest Coast arouse a sense of wonder in all who see them. This guide helps the reader to understand and enjoy the form and meaning of totem poles and other sculptures. The author describes the origin and place of totem poles in Indian culture -- as ancestral emblems, as expressions of wealth and power, as ceremonial objects, as mythological symbols, and as magnificent artistic works of the people of the Pacific Northwest.

The Totem Poles Of The Pacific Northwest Coast - Washington, British Columbia, And Alaska.

The 50th anniversary edition of this classic work on the art of Northwest Coast Indians now offers color illustrations for a new generation of readers along with reflections from contemporary Northwest Coast artists about the impact of this book. The masterworks of Northwest Coast Native artists are admired today as among the great achievements of the world’s artists. The painted and carved wooden screens, chests and boxes, rattles, crest hats, and other artworks display the complex and sophisticated northern Northwest Coast style of art that is the visual language used to illustrate inherited crests and tell family stories. In the 1950s Bill Holm, a graduate student of Dr. Erna Gunther, former Director of the Burke Museum, began a systematic study of northern Northwest Coast art. In 1965, after studying hundreds of bentwood boxes and chests, he published Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form. This book is a foundational reference on northern Northwest Coast Native art. Through his careful studies, Bill Holm described this visual language using new terminology that has become part of the established vocabulary that allows us to talk about works like these and understand changes in style both through time and between individual artists’ styles. Holm examines how these pieces, although varied in origin, material, size, and purpose, are related to a surprising degree in the organization and form of their two-dimensional surface decoration. The author presents an incisive analysis of the use of color, line, and texture; the organization of space; and such typical forms as ovoids, eyelids, U forms, and hands and feet. The evidence upon which he bases his conclusions constitutes a repository of valuable information for all succeeding researchers in the field. Replaces ISBN 9780295951027

Totem Poles and Masks: Art of the Northwest Coast Tribes is aligned to the Common Core State Standards for English/Language Arts, addressing Literacy.RI.3.3 and Literacy.L.3.1a. Readers will explore different Native American tribes of the Pacific Northwest, gaining an understanding of their art and its importance to their culture. This book should be paired with “Native American Art of the Northwest Coast" (9781477726525) from the InfoMax Common Core Readers Program to provide the alternative point of view on the same topic.