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Showing posts from November, 2014

Native American Appreciation Month: Families, Climbing the Totem Pole

I read an interesting article of the facts of the totem pole, but I do not know to whom to give credit. Source unknown, n.d. The totem pole is mostly seen, today, in the Northwest Coast of our country. Did you know that the totem poles were actually status symbols? Only the wealthy could afford them: So, let's climb an imaginary totem pole so that we may review the history of the totem pole. Do you believe that you would have owned a totem pole? Let's climb the totem pole, unique households? Wealthy Native Americans took many hours to carve their totem poles. Such artwork of animals on the poles were of actual historical events or stories. There were many kinds of poles: Some as tributes of honored dead or of a chief. Others were used to make fun of or shame someone or the dead, and would often be carved upside down. Poles were used as a visual of one's family tree. Some Native Americans believe that they were ancestors of an animal or plant. If a group of