TOTEM POLE.

This totem pole is in the Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, Downing Street, Cambridge. It was purchased from Paul Jones a direct ancestor of the owner, and was originally situated in Tanu, Haida Gwaii, (Queen Charlotte Islands) 1900. Totem poles are monumental sculptures, normally carved from cedar trees, by indigenous groups of N. America and Canada.They are carved with the crests of the owner and often detail supernatural encounter or relationship which occured to an ancestor or the present owner. They are raised at festivals and were clustered around the big houses of each clan lineage. Facing towards tthe sea, they represented continuous claims to status and associated rights.