The Wolf and the Raven: Totem Poles of Southeastern Alaska Review

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(More customer reviews)Since you can't "look inside" this book and there are no editorial reviews, I will type out some relevant information about and from this book. It is the result of an effort of the United States Forest Service to collect and recover totem poles in southeastern Alaska. This project began in 1938. From the preface: "Since most of the totem poles were in deserted native villages inaccessible to regular steamer routes, the Forest Service desired to locate them more centrally where visitors to Alaska might enjoy these carved memorials. Gaining permission to move the poles was the first task--and a difficult one, because ownership was vested in lineages, not in individuals. The excellent cooperation of the natives soon overcame this obstacle, however, and the poles are now located on public land where they will be preserved for the benefit of future generations."
I have quite a number of books about the art of the Northwest Coast Native Americans, and this slim volume might be my favorite. Many, many books explain the design elements that constitute the style of Northwest Coast native art, and while learning about form lines, ovoids, U and S shapes, etc. etc. is certainly interesting, it is also technical and does not explain to the observer *why* this particular design was used, and in the case of totem poles, why these figures were put together and the significance of their order.
You won't find much discussion of design elements in this book, but what you will find is pictures of totem poles *and* the stories behind the totem poles. This is fascinating to me. After all, the story is the magic that brings the totem pole to life.
To learn about how the stories were collected, I will quote from pages 11-12 of the Introduction: "It is no simple task to record the history of each pole, or to ascertain and note down with accuracy the legends that are so abstractly symbolized. Many of the poles that can still be seen are from long-deserted village sites. Some of the survivors of the lineages that used to live in these villages had not seen the poles until the government's reconstruction project was started. Potlatches at which these survivors would have heard the pole histories and legends reviewed have not been given for many years. In some instances no member of the clan or lineage which owns the pole could be located, and nonmembers were sometimes reluctant to explain carvings of tales that are not their hereditary property. Some of the figures on the poles constitute symbolic reminders of quarrels, murders, debts, and other unpleasant occurrences about which the Indians prefer to remain silent.
"The most widely known tales, like those of the exploits of Raven and of Kats who married the bear woman, are familiar to almost every native of the area. Carvings which symbolize these tales are sufficiently conventionalized to be readily recognizable even by persons who lineage did not recount them as their own legendary history. On the other had, carvings like that of the Pointing Figure (Fig. 14) symbolize personal experiences that are known only to a very few...
"The most complete and best-told versions as judged by the Tlingit themselves were selected for this publication. Minor additions have been made to clarify references to Tlingit customs. The Tlingit phrasing and narrative style have been followed as closely as possible in an English translation."
In summation, this is a wonderful little book, and for anyone interested in totem poles or the art of the Northwest Coast Native Americans, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

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