Gwaii Haanas Totem Poles Research Paper

In Native American witchcraft, amulets and charms play the central role. Practitioners of one region dress similarly as well as use same kind of totems to have a sense of unity with each other. For them land is considered as deity that provides them with objects necessary for witchcraft and magic. These objects come in many shapes and forms. These may include herbs, stones, feathers, bones etc (world of Wicca, 2014).

A great sense of trust supports this mutual ‘give-take’ relationship. ‘If you take care of country, country will take care of you.’ These beliefs are totemist and animist, which basically means Aboriginals perceive all natural objects to possess a spirit or soul. While totems are quite significant within Aboriginal culture as they act as symbols in a system of beliefs, signifying a relationship between an individual or group and an animal or plant. Thus, creating a link between the human, natural and supernatural worlds. As the word ‘totem’ comes from a Native American language where it represents group membership; and literally means is ‘he/she/it is a relative of mine’.

In both of the myths the Maoci and Haida they display that their cultures care about Nature, but the Haida myth is more centralize around animals. While the Maori is more centralize around the elements. The Maori and Haida cultures, both value the stars. The Maori people believe that the benefit of stars is to add beauty to the world. While the Haida presume that the stars add light to the world. In the Maori myth, Tane makes a decision to honor his father Rangi by decorating him with stars and Haida myth misbehaving Raven frees the trapped stars to light up the shy, This irritated the Chiefs.

In King’s short story, the museum workers are continually trying to remove the totem pole from the museum as Walter, one of these workers, states, “” the totem pole is not part of the show, and we need to move it someplace else”” (King 14). This quote demonstrates the controlling nature of the museum workers in their ongoing pursuit to remove the totem pole from the museum, but each attempt is as successful as their last. The totem pole’s ongoing struggle to survive in the museum is paralleled to the Indigenous people’s ongoing struggle to survive under the oppression of Canadian settlers and governments trying to eliminate them. Another example, from the story, that shows the controlling nature of the museum workers is when Walter attempts to find the owner of the totem pole instead of just leaving it in the show. The simple notion of ownership is different in the Indigenous and non–Indigenous cultures. Indigenous cultures believe that everything is to be shared and no one is an owner of anything, while the non-Indigenous cultures believe that every object seemingly belongs to someone.

By erecting alters in homes and placing shrines in fields and along trails, they try to drive away the evil spirits that infect their people. If a treatment from a Shaman does not work, the people do not blame the shaman. Instead, they see that the evil spirits could not be driven from the person’s body. Symbols and patterns were decorating on the clothing that the Hmong women made from hemp. These patterns and symbols were created from dyes that came from vegetables and were used to drive away evil spirits and attract friendly ones.

“One general truth that threads throughout the Native American spiritual beliefs is the belief of the Mother Earth spirituality” (Coll). They often called earth their mother and called father the air. The earth to the Natives is very sacred to them and is the most important thing to them. Most of the ceremonies were in some way revolving around the earth and they called earth “home.” Most of the ceremonies were practiced for many years and were passed down through generation to generation. The Native Americans didn’t have a book like the bible or any language that was written. One big thing they had was Totems. These were everywhere in their tribes and it was supposed to represent people and the animals that represented them. The Indians were supposed to have 7 spiritual animals and the many animals on the totems were supposed to represent all the person’s spiritual

When I visited the Ziibiwing Center’s exhibits at the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tripe of Michigan building in Diba Jimooyung permanent other great lakes Anishinabek . I saw the weapon and plastic models, swords. the displays go through the Seven fires prophecy, an Anishinaabe prophecy which marks phases, or epochs, in the life of the people on Turtle Island, a Native American name for the North American continent. Anishinaabe is the identification often used by the Odawa, Ojibwa, Potawatomi. Also shows winter and summer living quarters, clothing, jewelry and photos from late 19th century. In the present current structure of the association reflects our dedication to our central goal. the staff is organized into three essential office

To start off, a Natural History Museum is usually a place where the public can visit to obtain knowledge on the history of the earth and its inhabitants. Much about people’s culture and customs is found in a Natural History museum, especially people that have made a difference or played a role in history that we learn today. Therefore, the Indigenous peoples are represented in these precise museums. The indigenous people have various amount of customs that are even used today, however, the fact that many of their descriptions are led by the word “histor” or “ancient” almost makes the guests at museums believe that these indigenous people are no longer alive, and that is incorrect. The key objective for a Natural History museum is to simply help connect the understanding of human beings, connections based on culture, communities, to the earth and to each other. Precisely, The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles does not fully represent in depth the qualities that made the indigenous people so innovative, intelligent, and powerful; Therefore, the importance of the indigenous people is almost overshadowed by everything else that is presented at the museum. Overall, the indigenous people are represented here because of their

The crest on a pole is the most important part of the pole because it tells who the specific family or tribe is. Each family had their own unique crest that would have been been passed down from generation to generation, to the native people of Early American the family crest was more than just a symbol like it is today. The crest was a honourable thing, people would fight and die for their crest. The crest can be anything from carved stone to a waved basket. Eagles are the most common symbol for totem poles and crests because they were considered to be medicine birds also were considered to have very powerful magic abilities. Totem poles were not just used to honor someone, they could also be used as a way to shame someone or a whole tribe. A shame pole would be set up in the center of a tribe if it is to shame a specific person. They were used to expose another person or tribe for something disgraceful they

Though the Taino were peaceful people, they faced dangers when the Europeans came to their island. One danger they faced was, that the Americans and Europeans have to eat Sea Grapes,Brids Eggs and even Snails. Tainos and made slaves of many more of Europeans disease. The Taino’s lives were not completely carefree. Their life spain's must have been short, because about half of all the

Toucana is a constellation in the southern Sky at night, it is named after the Toucan, a South American exotic bird.

Gary Snyder, throughout his book Mountains and Rivers Without End, often utilizes totem figures within his poems as a sort of communicative medium between humans and nonhuman nature. Totems, which are generally images taken from the natural world, are invoked as mystical symbols or emblems and give humans the ability to access alternative and intimate avenues of correspondence with nonhuman forms– even over great distances of space and time. Two poems in particular, The Hump-Backed Flute Player and The Bear Mother, employ totem figures, as Snyder attempts to free his narratives from traditional anthropocentric modes of poetic expression. In his poem The Hump-Backed Flute Player, Snyder appropriates the image of an ancient Southwestern petroglyph–

then left hanging up at the shrine, where the kami (spirits or gods) receive them. They bear various pictures, often of animals or other Shinto imagery, and many have the word gan'i (願意), meaning "wish", written along the side. In ancient times people would donate horses to the shrines for good favor; over time this was transferred to a wooden plaque with a picture of a horse, and later still to the various wooden plaques sold today for the same purpose.

In the second and third photographs of the project titled, Toda Man’s Head and Kulis of the West of India, many of the same problematic assumptions were made by the original photographers. These two photos may not have been taken by the same person, but were published with the same objective of displaying “salvage paradigm” (Tankha). Which is “the attempt to retrieve and collate that which appeared to be dying out” (Tankha). This anthropological term fueled the British empires need to document and study other culture during most of their colonization of India during the 19th century. Often times during this crusade, the native ignorance to outsiders is what led them to be exploited by the photographers, which easily led them to neglect the positionality of the natives themselves. Unlike the first photograph, these man had absolutely no say about how they wanted to be portrayed. Both their original photos were taken to study primitive tribes and document their existence on the benefit of England’s curiosity for distance cultures. In during this, most of these men had no input to the studies intended audients and how they are going to be perceived. Furthermore, being a pieces of evidences in a study where the photographers and authors are trying to prove that there society is century ahead of yours and you are the key that links them together is very portentous of the British. In my opinion if these man had realized the photographers true intension, they would have never

Totem Poles are not just for show, but for other very important things. There are three important reasons why Totem Poles are important. Those three reasons are 1) it showed spiritual significance, 2) who watch over the families, 3) symbolizes guardian spirits or helpers each of the animals. Totem Poles are made by the Indian tribes in the North West of America. There are many different kinds of Totem Poles like these: Genealogy, Clan, Social status, Memorial, a Deceased clan member, Mortuary, deceased. Those are just a few of the different kinds of Totem Poles. So let's talk in detail how these three things are important.