travelermediagroup.com/westcoastfirstnations Promoting
First Nations Tourism on the West Coast of North America. Look for First Nations history, heritage, art and
attractions and stories throughout this site.
States , Provinces & Territories
Points of Interest

*Alaska            *British Columbia
*Yukon             *Washington
*NWT                *Oregon
*Nunavut          *California

Uqqurmiut Arts and Crafts
Avataq Cultural Institute
Totem Poles
Overview
Because the rich sea life and forest resources made aboriginal survival relatively easy,
and people learned how to preserve and store food, time was available for the
development of a complex social and ceremonial life supported by art forms unique to
this part of the world and considered by anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss to be equal
in significance to those of Greece and Rome.

The term "totem pole" generally refers to the tall cedar poles with multiple figures
carved by Native people of the Northwest Coast beginning in the early nineteenth
century. There are primarily three types of monumental poles: house frontal poles
placed against the house front, often incorporating doorways of houses; carved interior
house posts that support massive roof beams, and free-standing memorial poles
placed in front of houses to honor deceased chiefs or mythical beings. Mortuary poles
in some locales supported boxy coffins at the top. The figures on totem poles are
inherited crests, mostly animistic, which identify the pole owners and tell their family
histories. Clearly, they are not worshipped in any religious sense, but they do play a
central role in aboriginal culture for thousands of years, as well as today.

Comprising Canada's First Nations Peoples, seven distinct
indigenous language and cultural groups have lived on the
Northwest Coast between Skagway, Alaska and Seattle,
Washington. From north to south, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Haida,
Kwakwaka'wakw (aka Kwakiutl, Kwagiutl, Kwagiuth, and
Kwaaqyuulth), Bella Coola, West Coast (aka
Nuu'chah'nulth, formerly Nootka), and Coast Salish, which
includes the Squamish, have each developed highly
distinctive cultures and geographical subdivisions or
bands. Nonetheless, since Emily Carr operated more in the
personal than in the political realm, she probably didn't
distinguish much between them, taking them all to her
bosom as creative souls living in the margins of majority
society, an identification she shared.
Quintana Galleries
Since its establishment in 1972, Quintana Galleries has
become one of the Northwest's most important forums for
Native American Arts. Our cultivated collection of both
antique and contemporary works ranges from totem poles
and transformation masks of the Northwest Coast to the
fine antique baskets of the Tlingit of Alaska.

Quintana Galleries, located in the Pearl District

Quintana Galleries is proud to represent a talented group of
highly-trained fine artists as well as self-taught makers of
fine objects. Each artist's style is unique and of the highest
caliber.

Our top priority has always been an active involvement in
both Native communities and our own, with nonprofit
organizations and with our esteemed clientele. We look
forward to assisting both private and corporate clients as
they establish distinctive collections of Native American Art.
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