Post #153080 by Tikiwahine on Fri, Apr 15, 2005 12:48 PM

As a general rule, the pole tells the history of a family or a person. The history usually starts from the bottom of the pole and reads upward. Very frequently the ancestors are represented as some heavy, powerful animal and the story tells that they have had conflict with the animal, have possibly been captured and forced by isolation to live and intermarry with that animal, after a love and friendship had sprung up between the two.

If there are fish or certain smaller animals in the hands of the person, it means that they have been particularly adept at catching that particular creature. This is one feature that is noticeable on the majority of poles. The object held depends principally upon the geographical location of the tribe and the animals they hunted.