1. Haida Totem Poles
Perhaps the greatest and most well known part of the Haida culture is the Totem pole. The totem pole is a massive cedar tree cut down and hand carved by a single person or a group of people.
Each totem pole is carved with many different faces, one on top of another. The faces are called Totems, which is why they are called Totem poles.
The Haida became famous for their unique way of carving and colouring their totems. Most of the totems (faces) are of animals familiar to the Haida, like hawks and eagles and bears and ravens or frogs and fish, but they are carved in an odd way so that it is often difficult to know what the animals are. Some totems have overly large eyes, lips or tongues with dramatic colours. Nothing is carved to look exactly like the real animals they represent.

2. Do you know what animal these totems are representing?

3. The Seattle Sea hawks football team selected their logo based on the art of the West Coast Natives, like the Haida.
Everyone can tell that there logo is a hawk, but the unique way in which it is painted (or carved then painted if on a totem pole) lets everyone know it is connected to the west coast Natives.

4. Although the Haida had been making totem poles for hundreds and hundreds of years, most experts believe these early totem poles were much smaller and far less common.
It was not until after first contact with the Europeans that the Haida totem poles became very large and very common. They reached their peak between 1850 and 1880.
The Haida gained wealth through trading furs with the Europeans. Through trading, the Haida acquired axes, knives and carving equipment. Having more wealth and better equipment allowed the Haida to built more and greater totem poles.

5. Totem poles represented family history and told the story of the people that lived in the houses. The Haida did not believe that the poles had any religious or spiritual meaning at all. They were just carved wooden poles. Chiefs competed with other chiefs in the village to see who could have taller and more detailed totem poles. Carvers were in great demand to create these rich works of art.
There are different types of totem poles, each with a different function:

6. Totem Poles
To us, most totem poles look the same. But to the Haida, there were many kinds of totem poles each with their own important purpose.
House poles were carved with symbols of family history and were positioned at the back of the house for all to see. These poles had a second purpose since they were a part of the house construction and were used to support the main beams of the building. House poles could also be located beside the house or be free-standing.
Some longhouses featured a tall house frontal pole which would be located at the main entrance of the house. People entered the house through a hole located at the bottom of the house totem pole.

7. Mortuary Poles
Mortuary poles were burying places carved for high-ranking individuals or chiefs after they died. These poles had large holes cut out of the upper portion and carved with crests of the dead person.
How did they work? The deceased body was placed into a painted box and remained in a mortuary house for a period of one year.
Then, the remains were then moved to a smaller box and placed into the hole of the mortuary pole. The front opening was covered with cedar boards and then painted or carved to complete the original design.
The mortuary pole was really like our tomb stones, just a lot bigger and with the bones of the person stored at the top.

8. Shame Totem Pole
Shame poles
Memorial poles stood on their own apart from the village. Each pole was a single tribute to a great chief and showed the many achievements of the deceased chief. The pole was raised one year after his death.
The last kind of totem pole is the “Shame” pole. This pole was seldom used by any First Nations groups, including the Haida. A shame pole was built when a native group or even an individual did not repay a debt. The pole was built in public so everyone could see that a debt had not been paid. It was meant to embarrass the individual or group into repaying the debt. When the debt was paid, the pole was removed. Many shame poles remain unidentified today because the original debt, now long forgotten, was never repaid.

9. The Watchmen
A totem pole is to be read from the top down. The totem on top is not necessarily the highest ranking. The largest figure would be the one that is featured in the story. The smaller figures are sometimes fillers and have only a little part in the story.
The "Watchmen" can be identified as three carved men wearing tall hats sitting at the top of tall totem poles, which are attached to the chief’s house. The main function of the watchmen was to warn the chief and the villagers of danger.
The middle watcher faced the ocean to search for incoming canoes from other villages, and the other two looked to the sides along the shoreline and kept watch over the village.

10. Totem poles don’t last too long on the Pacific coast of Canada
Totem poles don’t last too long on the Pacific coast of Canada. The heavy rain and humid climate means the cedar wood of the totem poles rots and decays quickly. There are virtually no totem poles remaining from the early part of the 1800s. They have all rotted away. Even the totem poles remaining in Haida Gwaii today that were carved in the late 1880s or 1890s have lots of rot and many of the carved and painted faces are difficult to see.
Although many of the very large totem poles still remain in Haida Gwaii today, rotting where they were originally placed, others have been removed and have been relocated in museums around the world. In these environmentally protected museums, the Haida totem poles do not rot, and will remain for many hundreds of years for all to see and appreciate.

11. The Potlatch
'Potlatch' was the name given to most Northwest Coast First Nations celebrations. It comes from a First Nations word 'pachitle' meaning 'to give'.
A potlatch was a big celebration that often took more than a year to plan.
The ceremony usually happened when a person had a change in social status, for example, marriage, birth, death, and coming of age, or when a person became a chief. It included a feast, singing and costumed dancers, and some potlatches lasted as long as two to three weeks.

12. Potlatch
Most importantly, though, potlatches became a way in which wealthy families could show off their wealth to others…by giving things away!
Each person invited to a Potlatch received gifts related to their social rank. Some examples of gifts would be large canoes or slaves for high social class people, carved dishes and eulachon oil for those of slightly lower social class.
In the Haida culture, wealth was not shown by how much you could gather, but by how much you could give away. The more wealth that a family gave away as gifts during the potlatch, the more respect and honour was shown to them by the community.

13. Dignity Potlatch
Another type of potlatch was called a dignity Potlatch.
This type of potlatch was much smaller and didn’t take very long to plan. A dignity potlatch took place when a member of the high social class, like the chief, did something that caused him great embarrassment. This could be falling out a tree or falling out of his canoe or claiming land that produced no food. In the Haida culture, a person could not be laughed at. If they did get laughed at they lost all dignity (respect) from the people. Therefore, a dignity potlatch allowed an important person to get back some of their dignity…for a price!

14. Haida Religion
Shaman
In Haida culture, they had no written language so their customs, beliefs and history were passed down orally through stories, songs, and dances.
They had stories about why certain things occurred, for example, the changes in season. There were also stories about creation and how they first appeared in this world. All of these stories were passed down to the next generations.
The Haida believed that they were surrounded, at all times, by supernatural beings interfering with the natural or the everyday world.
In their culture, spirits were connected to all living things.
The only link between the spirit world and the natural world was the 'Shamans' or 'Medicine Men'.

15. Shaman equipment Shamans
It was a Shaman's job to cure the sick, to ensure that there was enough food, and to influence the weather. The belief was that the Shaman had the power to do all those things through an ability to communicate with the spirit world.
Both men and women could have been Shamans, however, they were most often men. A Shaman would wear bear skin robes, aprons, rattles, skin drums, charms, necklaces and sometimes masks.
When someone was sick, it was believed to be caused by the spirit world. Shamans were the only people who could communicate directly with the spirits, so they were the only ones who could cure the sick.

16. How sad that the Haida did not believe that a personal relationship with God was possible and that they needed special men and women to speak for them.
The one true God desires to hear from all of us and He alone can answer all of our prayers. Through Christ, we can talk to God on our own, without the help of a Shaman!

17. Haida Art Art played a major part in Haida culture.
They were known for their artistic:
Basketry (basket, hats)
Woodworking (masks, totem poles)
Weaving (Chilkat blankets)
Baskets: The Haida people used baskets for storage and trade. This Haida cedar bark basket at the top of the pictures would have been used to collect clams. Others were used to collect berries and other food.
Baskets were often very artistic and colourful as well as being very functional.

18. Haida Hats
Hats were particularly important for the Haida people because they were used as protection from the rain.
Getting a hat was much more difficult for the Haida than for us to get a hat. Hats had to be ordered individually from the hat maker. Hats were woven on a stand with a wooden form appropriate to the head shape and size of the person buying it. Male artists painted the hats with the symbols of the family. The colours of paint were limited to red and black (with blue or green sometimes).
In early historic times, Haida women also sold their hats to Europeans and Americans who were trading or travelling in Haida territory. Painted woven hats became a popular European tourist item late in the nineteenth century.

19. Transformation mask Haida Masks
When it came to wood, the Haida were very talented artists. We have already looked at totem poles and the canoes, yet the Haida were also very good at carving masks. Haida carved masks were an important part of all of their ceremonies.
One of their very special masks was called a transformation mask. It was a carved wooden mask that could open in the middle to reveal another carved wooden mask of a different face. This mask allowed the dancer or shaman to become two characters in a story telling.

20. More Haida Masks Copper Mask
Another type of mask used in ceremonies was made of copper. It was quite rare since the Haida did not often use metal. Having this mask was a sign of great wealth in the Haida culture.
Bentwood boxes:
The Haida also made storage boxes called bentwood boxes. They were difficult to make since they were made from one single piece of cedar board. The board was steamed to make it soft and then bent at three corners to form a box shape and then pegged together to dry. Then a top and bottom were added. Bentwood boxes were used to serve and store food, and they were also common at ceremonial feasts. They were a common gift to be given away at potlatches.

21. Bentwood boxes
Directions on how to build a bentwood box.

22. European Influences
In 1774, the way of life for the remote Haida people drastically changed when the first European explorer, Juan Perez from Spain, discovered the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii).
He never landed on the islands, but a few of the Haida canoed over to his ship and traded with him. Perez was low on food, so he couldn’t stay long. He quickly left the area and headed further south.
Captain James Cook also saw the islands in In 1787, another British explorer named Captain George Dixon came to the area and named the islands after his ship, the Queen Charlotte.

23. This large Spanish oil jar was found in the waters off of Haida Gwaii
This large Spanish oil jar was found in the waters off of Haida Gwaii. Perhaps it was dropped during trading or maybe thrown away after it was empty. It dates from around 1750 and proves that the Spanish traded with the Haida.

24. Sea otter The Fall of the Haida
The islands were of little interest to anyone until Europeans discovered the sea otter. The fur of the sea otter was prized throughout Europe and Asia. Soon, hundreds of Europeans were eager to trade with the Haida.
The contact with Europeans increased Haida wealth, but many ‘White man’ diseases were devastating to the Haida who had no immunity. Thousands died of tuberculosis, measles and smallpox. Within a few decades, the population of the Haida fell from to fewer than Those that remained gathered to form two small villages.
Government agents and missionaries came to the area to share the Gospel, but also ‘western’ ideas. The Canadian government believed the Haida needed to become more ‘Canadian’ if they were going to survive.

25. The Fall of the Haida
Sitka spruce Clear cutting on Haida Gwaii
The Canadian government outlawed the Haida potlatch ceremony in 1884 saying that it was a poor use of important items and it was stopping the Haida from becoming more like the rest of Canada. This ban stayed in place until 1951.
The Canadian government tried sending immigrant farmers to Haida Gwaii to farm. The island turned out to be poor for farming and those early settlers left.
Many of the large Sitka spruce trees located on the island were cut down during WWII for making planes. Huge tracts of forest were clear cut (cut down all of the trees) of trees. It seemed that nothing was left of the Haida way of life.

26. The Haida Today
Haida Gwaii Cultural Centre tourism
Through the work of Bill Reid (we already learned about him) and other Haida people, the Haida culture has had a rebirth over the past 30 years.
Today, world wide tourism to Haida Gwaii helps keep this culture alive. The Haida Heritage Centre at Kaay Lliagaay is an award-winning Aboriginal cultural tourism attraction located on the islands. The centre houses the Haida Gwaii Museum, additional temporary exhibition space, two classrooms, the Performance House, Canoe House, Bill Reid Teaching Centre, and The Carving House.
The Haida are also battling the BC and Canadian governments concerning logging on their island and other parts of British Columbia.

27. During World War 2, Canada made lots of ships for fighting
During World War 2, Canada made lots of ships for fighting. One series of ships was called ‘Tribal Class’ because all of them were named after different Native groups from Canada.
One of these ships was called Haida. It is the only Tribal Class ship left from World War 2. It was also the most successful ship in the “Tribal Class” during the war sinking more enemy ships than any other ship. It is permanently docked in Hamilton harbour for all to see.