Rules and customs
Each culture typically has complex rules and customs regarding the designs which
are represented on poles. The designs themselves are generally considered the
property of a particular clan or family group, and this ownership may not be
transferred to the owner of a pole. As such, pictures, paintings, and other
copies of the designs may be an infringement of posessory rights of a certain
family or cultural group.
Thus it is important that the ownership of the
artistic designs represented on a pole are respected as private property to the
same extent that the pole itself is property. Public display and sale of
pictures and other representations of totem pole designs should be cleared with
both the owners of the pole and the cultural group or tribal government
associated with the designs on the pole. It is commonly believed that totem
poles were built in a "reverse hierarchy" style, with the most important
representations being on the bottom, and the least important being on top. In
truth, though, there was no such set of guidelines: the most revered of gods
appear on the tops of many poles as well as on the bottoms.
However totem poles in general are not the exclusive cultural property of a
single culture, so the designs are not easily protected. The art and tourist
trinket worlds have become inundated by cheap imitations of totem poles executed
with little or no knowledge of the complex stylistic conventions demanded by
Northwest Coast art. This proliferation of "totem junk" has diluted the public
interest and respect for the artistic skill and deep cultural knowledge required
to produce a pole.
The World's Largest Totem Pole is or has been claimed by several
towns along the coast:
* Alert Bay, British Columbia — 173 feet (56.4 m), Kwakiutl
* Vancouver, British Columbia (Maritime Museum) — 100 feet (30.5 m), Kwakiutl,
carved by Mungo Martin with Henry Hunt and David Martin
* Victoria, British Columbia (Beacon Hill Park) — 127.5 feet (38.9 m), Kwakiutl,
carved by Mungo Martin with Henry Hunt and David Martin
* Kalama, Washington — 140 feet (42.6 m), carved by Chief Lalooska
* Kake, Alaska — 137.5 feet (41.9 m), Tlingit
There are disputes over which is genuinely the tallest, depending on constraints
such as construction from a single log or the affiliation of the carver.
Competition for making the tallest pole is still prevalent, although it is
becoming more difficult to procure trees of such heights.
The thickest totem pole ever carved to date is in Duncan, British Columbia,
carved by Richard Hunt in 1988, and measures over 6 feet (1.8 m) in diameter. It
is carved in the Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw) style, and represents Cedar Man
transforming into his human form.