Northwest Coast Totem Poles

So I love to collaborate with classroom teachers to enrich instruction.  The opportunity came up this year when fifth grade students began to study the Northwest Coast tribes of the North America.  I created a power-point to show them the history, materials, details, and colors used in creating totem poles. Next, we began to plan.

Students were given a packet that contained various North American animals.  Sorry, no lions or tigers here, guys. I limited the number of times a certain animal could be used, so that we ended up with a wide variety of animals.  Each student then began to sketch and plan their part of the totem.  I told them to imagine that they were stuffing their animal into a square shape.  They were to try to leave as little negative space as possible.  Easier said than done!

After planning, the execution began.  Each student choose four colors.  Colors are symbolic in the tribes.  

TOTEM POLE COLOR SYMBOLISM

Remember, each color is a combination of the listed ingredient and salmon eggs to create a liquid paint.

White - Used along with other light colors as a background symbolizes skies and spacious heavens. It also stands for purity, peace and death.

Red – Made from a variously shaded mineral called cinnabar. When used, it represents blood, war or valor. It may be found on animals that require it, for example: a red-headed woodpecker or the tongue of an animal.

Blue –Made from copper salts and is most commonly used as the symbol for the rivers, waters, lakes and skies. Certain tribes used it for mountains in the distance. Blue stands for sincerity and happiness.

Yellow – Clays, moss, roots and tannic barks from Cedar create this color, which reflects the symbol of the sun, light and happiness. This is often a predominating color.

Green – Made from algae or juice from grass, it represents the trees and mountains, common in all Indian legends. Green may be made by mixing blue and yellow, or by adding acid to copper as well. Copper is abundant in many parts of the West and Northwest.

Purple – Huckleberries are a good source for purple, or perhaps mixing red and blue hues. Purple stood for mountains in the distance and general imagery.

Black – Charcoal or mud from sulphur springs is the base ingredient for this color, and it represents power.

The totems were to be created using the collage method. Students remembered, in most instances, to fold their paper and cut once to create symmetrical images.  Overlapping was encouraged, as well as use of empty space within the totem.

Both the classroom teacher and I were very excited with the end results. Some of the totems are even on display as part of our school's month to exhibit and shine at our Central Office.