With over 80 Native American Totem Poles located in Ketchikan Alaska, it seems you can't go a few blocks without seeing one! Alaskan totem poles are monuments created by the indigenous Haida, Tsimshian and Tlingit artists of the region1. They are symbols of a community's history, values, and traditions, but not the base of a religion. Each aspect of a totem pole is as important and individualized as the animal it is based on. The totem poles tell tales of Alaska Native people and cultures, of Alaska life and death, legend and lore, welcome and departure, success and shame, the area’s animals and communities, thanks and remembrance.

There are seven principal kinds of totem poles: memorial, or heraldic, poles, erected when a house changes hands to commemorate the past owner and to identify the present one; grave markers (tombstones); house posts, which support the roof; portal poles, which have a hole through which a person enters the house; welcoming poles, placed at the edge of a body of water to identify the owner of the waterfront; mortuary poles, in which the remains of the deceased are placed; and ridicule poles, on which an important individual who had failed in some way had his likeness carved upside down.

The carving on totem poles separates and emphasizes the flat, painted surfaces of the symbolic animals and spirits depicted on them. Each pole generally has from one (as with a grave marker) to many (as with a family legend) animal images on it, all following standardized forms which are familiar to all Native Americans of the Northwest Coast; beavers, for example, always include cross-hatched tails, and eagles show downward curved beaks.

The word totem refers to a guardian or ancestral being, usually supernatural, that is revered and respected, but not always worshipped. The significance of the real or mythological animal carved on a totem pole is its identification with the lineage of the head of the household. The animal is displayed as a type of family crest, much as an Englishman might have a lion on his crest, or a rancher a bull on his brand. More widely known, but in fact far less common, are the elaborately carved tall totem poles that relate an entire family legend in the form of a pictograph. This legend is not something that can be read in the usual sense of the word; only with an understanding of what the symbols mean to the Native Americans and a knowledge of the history and customs of the clan involved can the pole be interpreted. Each animal or spirit carved on the pole has meaning, and when combined on the pole in sequence, each figure is an important symbol constituent of a story or myth. An exact interpretation of any set of symbols, however, would be almost impossible without the help of a knowledgeable narrator from the family.