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A Classic Book featuring Extraordinary Artifacts
This is a classic work on the Kwakiutl (KWAH-kee-oo-tel) and other Northwest Coast (NWC) Indian tribes and features artifacts displayed at the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology. NWC Indian art was functionally adapted to perform a task or to convey a message. Adaptation and continuity, tradition and change, are the hallmarks of the history and the culture of the Kwakiutl. They along with the Haida, Tlinglit, Tsimshian, and Coast Salish formed the culture area of the NWC Indian tribes who inhabited a long narrow ocean shoreline that stretched 1200 miles from Yakutat Bay to the Olympic Peninsula.

Mungo Martin was prominent in the formation of this collection. Martin (Indian name: Naka'penkem) was a full participant in the Kwakiutl ceremonial system. His expertise was critical in the separation of true Kwakiutl art from the fake. He also brought attention to the fact many NWC Indian artifacts and totem poles were destroyed by over-zealous missionaries who considered them pagan idols and that the remainder were and are eroding due to the humid weather endemic in the Pacific NW.

NWC Indians were highly developed builders of totem poles, canoes, masks, and elegantly decorated plank houses. Unlike the Plains Indians, they were able to porduce a rich variety of art as they were freed from a constant search for food. About 85% of the food consumed by these coastal people came from the ocean and rivers, the products of which were smoked and preserved for the long wet winters. Deer, Elk, and Bear were also plentiful throughout the forested areas. Thus, an affluent and highly developed society came into existence.

The Kwakiutl ornamented their bodies with tattoos, fiber capes with button decorations, and intricately carved heraldic crests. They were fine looking people with coppery/reddish colored hair, beards and moustaches. They and the Haida were considered the most skilled woodcarvers on the NW coast. The Kwakiutl built long wooden houses facing the sea without the use of saws, axes, or nails. The fronts of the houses were often painted in bright colors of black, red, and blue-green.

By the 1800s, the Kwakiutl began creating richly painted and very tall totem poles. The totems represented important events in a chief's life, illustrated through the use of crest figures piled one above the other throughout the length of the pole. The totems fronted houses and were initially designed as support for the buildings. Totems were also erected as memorials showing family lineages (either paternal or maternal), mortuary purposes, or to serve as an entrance to a house by carving a hole near the base of the pole for use as a doorway.

The three-dimensional carvings on the poles were emphasized by the flat painting behind them and by the pattern of cedar planking held in place by thongs or pegs made of antler and wood. Certain animals were used on totems to tell a story if they bore a close relationship with the people in a clan. Their power was expressed in the forceful paintings and carvings on the poles. Totems were an important part of the Kwakiutl rank sustem as the order of the symbols proclaimed the status of an individual or of the group which owned and displayed the pole.

A variety of woods were used for carving. Yew, Maple, Hemlock, Alder, Red and Yellow Cedar. Kwakiutl carvers made their own tools from stone, elk horn, nephrite, shell and subsequently steel. Creating his own tools gave each carver a broad base of competence and familiarity and enabled him to create lovely and unique art objects identifiable from those created by other carvers. Close integration of a master woodcarver with his society was a notable characteristic of NWC Indian culture.

Kwakiutl masks were outstanding examples of woodcarving. They were beautifully shaped and painted and adorned with feather and hair decorations. The masks were worn in special religious ceremonies by dancers who sang and spoke of myths handed down within families. Masks were imaginative, even farcical, with multiple parts, several heads, movable lower jaws, beaks and wings, all of which helped to heighten the drama of a potlatch (gift) ceremony. There were also transformation masks wherein the outer form might be an animal representing a human face which could be exposed when the dancer pulled a string. In this way, the NWC Indian belief that animals were humans in other forms could be visually represented.

No two masks were alike although they might represent the same spirit such as the mountain goat, grizzly bear, killer whale, or raven. All of these animals (beings) were believed to have mystical qualities thus connecting the wearer with the power of the supernatural beings the masks represented. Religious concepts and practices were inseperable from the social and economic realities of the Kwakiutl and other NWC Indians. Most of them recognized many supernatural beings or minor deities, who appeared the in the form of animals. The Kwakiutl could contact certain spirits if they had previously established the right to do so as they saw themselves surrounded by a multitude of animal spirits, most of them unfriendly. It was the job of the shaman to establish contact, placate hostile spirits, and to praise the friendly ones.

The continuity of the Kwakiutl culture is best illustrated by its extraordinary artifacts. Each work of Kwakiutl art fits within a specific cultural framework. This book will foster a readers' appreciation of these unique and very artistic people, their culture, and their beautiful creations.