Table of Contents
What type of wood was used most commonly in Northwest Coast art?
The indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast drew from the heavily wooded environment for much of their technology. Woodworking was facilitated by the abundance of easily worked species of trees, especially the giant arborvitae (Thuja plicata, also known as red cedar) and the redwood (Sequoia sempervirens).
What trees do the native people of the Northwest use to carve their totem poles in Canada?
Totem poles are typically created out of red cedar, a malleable wood relatively abundant in the Pacific Northwest, and would be erected to be visible within a community.
What did the Northwest Indians use wood for?
The Western red cedar was treasured by people from the Pacific Northwest in the construction of boats, homes, totem poles, artwork, and for many medicinal purposes. Slivers of this aromatic wood were burned in ceremonial fires and to repel mosquitoes and black flies. Many tools were constructed from wood products.
What kind of trees are used for Northwest native totem poles?
Totem poles are a tradition of Indian tribes from the Northwest Coast Region such as Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian. They are mostly carved from large red cedar trees. Because totem poles are made of cedar wood, and decay over time and the oldest totem poles have since rotted.
How did the tribes of the Pacific use wood?
The Western red cedar was treasured by people from the Pacific Northwest in the construction of boats, homes, totem poles, artwork, and for many medicinal purposes. Slivers of this aromatic wood were burned in ceremonial fires and to repel mosquitoes and black flies.
What is Northwest Coast Native Art?
Northwest Coast art is the term commonly applied to a style of art created primarily by artists from Tlingit, Haida, Heiltsuk, Nuxalk, Tsimshian, Kwakwaka’wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth and other First Nations and Native American tribes of the Northwest Coast of North America, from pre-European-contact times up to the present.
What did indigenous people carve into trees?
Aspen carvings are arborglyphs made in the bark of aspen trees by shepherds, many of them Basque and Irish American, throughout the Western United States. They have been documented across northern California and in areas such as Boise, Idaho and Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
What wood did Native Americans use for arrows?
Arrow shafts were made out of shoots, such as dogwood, wild rose, ash, birch, chokecherry, and black locust. Reeds from common reed grass were also used with some frequency throughout North America with the exception of the Plains where reeds did not grow. Shoots were shaved, sanded, or heat and pressure straightened.
How did Native Americans use cedar wood?
Tradition holds that the wood of the cedar tree holds powerful protective spirits for the Cherokee. Cedar is one of the most important Native American ceremonial plants, used by many tribes as an incense and purifying herb. Cedar is especially associated with prayer, healing, dreams, and protection against disease.
What trees make totem poles?
The poles are typically carved from the highly rot-resistant trunks of Thuja plicata trees (popularly known as giant cedar or western redcedar), which eventually decay in the moist, rainy climate of the coastal Pacific Northwest.
How do you make a totem pole out of wood?
- Select your wood.
- Prepare the initial shape of the pole before the detail is added.
- Consult your designs and draw them onto the wood with pencil.
- Use the scout knife, both chisels and a spoon gouge to carve, sculpt and bring your design on the wood to life.
- Gently sand down the totem pole.
- Paint your totem pole.