A totem pole served as the emblem of a family or clan, its unity, the rights to which people in each clan were entitled, and as a reminder of each clan s link to a spirit-ancestor. Originally totem poles were usually carved as part of a Potlatch ceremony, a great and complex feast with deep meaning to coastal First Nations. There was a period between about 1900 and 1950 when, for various reasons, only a few were carved. But even during that slow period, there were Native people who kept the tradition alive and well.
In times past, a totem was raised for several reasons:
-to show the (great) number of rights a person had acquired over their lifetime
-to record an encounter with a supernatural being
-to symbolize the generosity of a person who sponsored a Potlatch ceremony. .
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