totem pole?

does one read totem poles from top to bottom, or bottom to top??

I know they tell a story, but I don't think the order is that important(other than the fact that birds are usually at the top, land animals at the bottom) I'll look a little more into it. I live in the worlds largest totem pole tourist city.

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.

Al,

It is a well known fact that totem poles are NOT read from top to bottom, but rather from left to right.

Please get with the program and have a full report on my desk by next Monday.

Ask a Canadian. As Wahine said, they are read from bottom to top.

Pot ot mottob morf daer era yeht, dias enihaW sA. naidanaC a ksA.

i knew i came to the right place.
this helps alot!

thank you Bong... May i have another...

On 2005-04-15 23:52, tikifish wrote:
Pot ot mottob morf daer era yeht, dias enihaW sA. naidanaC a ksA.

tikifish, you took the words right outa my mouth.

fish, that was your post #2222, or is that 2222?
Any way you read it, congrats!