Totem poles are monumental carvings found in western Canada and the northwestern United States. They are a type of Northwest Coast art, consisting of poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually made from large trees, mostly western red cedar, by First Nations and Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast including northern Northwest Coast Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian communities in Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, Kwakwaka'wakw and Nuu-chah-nulth communities in southern British Columbia, and the Coast Salish communities in Washington and British Columbia.
Kasaan is a city in the Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. The population was 49 at the 2010 census, up from 39 in 2000. The name "Kasaan" comes from Tlingit Kasa'aan, meaning "pretty town".
Dempsey Bob, is a Northwest Coast woodcarver and sculptor from British Columbia, Canada, who is of Tahltan and Tlingit First Nations descent. He was born in the Tahltan village of Telegraph Creek on the Stikine River in northwestern B.C., and is of the Wolf clan.
Northwest Coast art is the term commonly applied to a style of art created primarily by artists from Tlingit, Haida, Heiltsuk, Nuxalk, Tsimshian, Kwakwaka'wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth and other First Nations and Native American tribes of the Northwest Coast of North America, from pre-European-contact times up to the present.
David A. Boxley is an American artist from the Tsimshian tribe in Alaska, most known for his prolific creation of Totem Poles and other Tsimshian artworks.
Norman Tait was a Nisga'a First Nations sculptor and totem pole carver from northwestern British Columbia, Canada.
Alaska Native cultures are rich and diverse, and their art forms are representations of their history, skills, tradition, adaptation, and nearly twenty thousand years of continuous life in some of the most remote places on earth. These art forms are largely unseen and unknown outside the state of Alaska, due to distance from the art markets of the world.
Ye Olde Curiosity Shop is a store founded in 1899, on the Central Waterfront of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is currently located on Pier 54. Best known today as a souvenir shop, it also has aspects of a dime museum, and was for many years an important supplier of Northwest Coast art to museums. As of 2008, the store has been owned by four generations of the same family.
Ellen Neel (1916–1966) was a Kwakwakaʼwakw artist woodcarver and is the first woman known to have professionally carved totem poles. She came from Alert Bay, British Columbia, and her work is in public collections throughout the world.
Nathan Jackson is an Alaska Native artist. He is among the most important living Tlingit artists and the most important Alaskan artists. He is best known for his totem poles, but works in a variety of media.
The Salish peoples are indigenous peoples of the American and Canadian Pacific Northwest, identified by their use of the Salish languages which diversified out of Proto-Salish between 3,000 and 6,000 years ago.
Linn Argyle Forrest, Sr. (1905–1987) was an American architect of Juneau, Alaska who worked to restore "authentic Southeast Alaska Native architecture, especially totem poles". During the 1930s and the Great Depression, he oversaw Civilian Conservation Corps programs of the New Deal to preserve totem poles and other aspects of traditional, native architecture. In conjunction with a $24,000 U.S. grant to the Alaska Native Brotherhood as a CCC project, Forrest oversaw the construction of the Shakes Island Community House and totems at Wrangell, Alaska during 1937–1939. Drawing on this experience, he later wrote The Wolf and the Raven: Totem Poles of Southeastern Alaska, which has been printed in 20 editions.
Native American women in the arts are women who are from Indigenous peoples from what is now the mainland United States who are visual art professionals. Women in Native American communities have been producing art intertwined with spirituality, life, and beauty for centuries. Women have worked to produce traditional art, passing these crafts down generation by generation, as well as contemporary art in the form of photography, printmaking, and performance art.
The Totem Heritage Center is a historical and cultural museum founded in 1976 and located in Ketchikan, Alaska. The center is operated by the city of Ketchikan.
Paul N. Luvera Sr. was an Italian immigrant to the United States with a sixth grade education who was a Washington State Senator from 1953 to 1957 and renowned totem pole carver whose work is displayed around the world.
The conservation and restoration of totem poles is a relatively new topic in the field of art conservation. Those who are custodians of totem poles include Native American communities, museums, cultural heritage centers, parks or national parks, camp grounds or those that belong to individuals. Conservation activities include the historical research and context of totem poles, studying materials and manufacture, performing assessments, documentation and treatments. This field can pertain to conservator-restorers, Native Americans, curators, collection managers, registrars, park rangers and city planners.
The Pioneer Square totem pole, also referred to as the Seattle totem pole and historically as the Chief-of-All-Women pole, is a Tlingit totem pole located in Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle, Washington.
Jackson Polys is a Tlingit Native visual artist and filmmaker whose work is based between Alaska and New York. His work examines the constraints and potential in the desire for Indigenous advancement, while challenging existing gazes onto traditional Native culture. Polys is well known for his films, institutional critique, and carved sculptures incorporating materials such as abalone, glass, liquids, resins, silicone, as well as the ready-made.
Tim Paul is a member of the Hesquiaht tribe from the Nuu-Chah-Nulth first nation. He is a master carver from Esperanza Inlet British Columbia. He was the senior carver at the Royal British Columbia Museum until 1992 when he left to oversee an indigenous education program for the Port Alberni school board on Vancouver Island.
Jewell James is a Lummi Nation master carver of totem poles, author, and an environmental activist. He is a descendant of Chief Seattle.
