The N.Am. of the Pacific Northwest were among the first to inhabit
N.Am. They settled along the Pacific
coast with all it’s waterways, rainy climate and many natural resources such as
lush vegetation complete with natural berries, and vast amounts of wildlife
especially fish.****(show 1st 3 overheads)
The very first N.
Am. are thought to have arrived in N. Am. via a natural land bridge that was
formed during the ice age. They came from
what is now called Asia .
The very 1st N.Am were called the Inuits and they stayed near
the Arctic Circle they were
hunter and lived in Igloos. Later some
of them migrated to the southwest and ended up in the Pacific N.West. They include the Tlingit and Chinook tribes. Because Cedar trees were such a bountiful
resource they built long houses made of cedar wood that were inhabited by as
many as 10 families per house. *** They
also carved large canoes to travel the many waterways that could hold up to 50
people. They even made their clothes and capes out of the shredded cedar bark
called Chilkat Blankets.*** They
decorated them with designs that looked similar to an egg called “ovoids” and
another common decorative symbol look like the letter “U’. they used these to
help fill up their negative spaces between other symbols like the ones you see
around the room ***Another one of their customs was to carve cedar totem poles
that would tell legends about how things came to be or to tell about their
ancestors. In this way they helped
preserve their history and the memory of their personalities and deeds while on
earth.*** One common example of a legend
that might be carved into a totem pole is that of how Raven found the first
people inside of a Clam shell. When he
let the people out, they grew into their present size and spread out over the
area. ***
Many of the common animal totems included the great
thunderbird, Killer whale, Bear, Raven, and chief like figures.***
They were perhaps the wealthiest of all the Native Americans
because they had so much food and natural resources.
They shared this
wealth with other N.Am. from the P. NW. in a special ceremony called a
Potlash. They made special gifts, shared
great food, dancing, and told stories where they would share with each other’s
tribes and carve special totem poles to tell about their tribes ancestry This celebration could last for weeks and
sometimes took years to prepare for.
Today we will be creating our own family totem or maybe you
would like to create a totem pole that tells a legend. Your totem need to have a least 3 figures on
it. You can choose from the eye,
eyebrows, noses, mouths, ears, wings, and ovoids and U shapes you see around the
room to create you very own unique totem. Be sure to make them colorful as
well. They used the colors red, green,
black, yellow and turquoise. These are
colors that could be made from things they found in nature. Red berries, green leaves, black dirt, Yellow
berries and grass and well as the turquoise berries found on cedar trees. One thing that should be noted is that cedar
is a natural insect repellent.
Therefore, insects were not found in their homes or on them. It is also a wood that will not rot easily. In
fact it is know to petrify or turn to rock over thousands of years.
Totem poles were severed as both a ceremonial function for
the potlash and a narrative purpose because they can tell a story such as a
legend or the story of their ancestors.
Below are some of the totem poles the students created.
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