The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1899-05-20
TIL E TOTEM POSTS.
THE FAMILY CREST >5oF THE
5 = BARBARIAN. HI. -. y
The Indian Belief That They Descended
from Some Beast, Bird or Fish-The
Totem Poles and Their Significance to
the Tribes.

CTal lallS, eV1QenclnS, with more or less
of truth, the antiquity or valor of the
dwellers therein, are the heraldic de-
scendants OF totem posts or veritable
family trees, found among red Indians
and other barbaric folk. Therefore, the
unlucky burning of one or more of
these interesting relics at Fort Wran-
gel, in Alaska, should command the
sympathy of our Kings of Arms, Rouge
Croix, Blue Mantle and Rouge Dragon.
For the totem is the family crest of
the barbarian, the genuineness of
which not even that merciless exposer
of sham coats-of-arms would venture
to question. Moreover, it has a sig
nifcance, and, assuredly, a history,
usually lacking in the devices which,
for consideration, your genealogy
hunter will discover or invent. And
the significance lies in the words with
which a Micmac legend begins: "In
the olden time men were as animals,
and animals as men; how this was no
one knows" For in early barbaric
thought there was no dividing line be-
tween living things, d fact to which,
only on more assured ground, modern
science bears witness, the vague
guesses of the past thus having con-
firmation from the certainties of the
present.
The barbaric idea carried with it be-
lief in the descent of the tribe from
some beast or bird, fish, or even insect,
and, since the savage also saw no di-
vlding line between the living and nom
living, in descent from the great sun
himself or a wayside stone. The an
cestor from whom descent was traced
was his totem" or "otem,'' a corrup-
tion of the Algonkin dodhaim, mean
ing "clan mark" The Haidas believed
in their descent from the crow; the
Chippewyan totem is the dog, for
which reason that tribe would not
make the creature a beast of burden;
while the Delawares were as proud of
their tortoise world bearing ancestor
as our old nobility of their forefathers'
arrival here in the Conqueror's ret
: inue
,4 Among some Australian blackfellows
the word 'tkobong, meaning - FRIEND
or 'protector,' is the generic term for
the animal or plant from which de-
scent is claimed. Now this remarka-
BILE belief in the totem or "kobong,"
the range of which is world wide, both
in time and space-traces of it in these
islands and other civilized parts of the
globe having been discovered-affects
the life OF the savage constantly and
deeply. And, notably, in three ways
first, in worship Of the totem; second,
in abstaining from eating the totemic
animal or plant; third, in forbidding,
with the severest penalties against
transgressors, marriage between per-
sons of the same totem; that is, having
the same name, and wearing or using
the same crest.
Then theories of transmigration en-
ter into the general idea, the Moquis,
for example, believing that after death
they live in the form of their totemic
animals, those of the deer family be-
coming deer, of the bear becoming
bears, and so forth. Hence, too, the
respect paid to the cries of animals
and the songs of birds, since it is ar
gued that that which is akin to man
must have communion with him. The
subject neighbors itself to number of
others in directions which cannot be
followed in this outline, but, obviously,
has it's chief Importance in the three
customs noted above. AS to the first
named, it here suf1ces to say that the
worship Of animals has it's source or
impetus in the attribution of some
spirit or power incarnate in them,
which, for the time being, puts them
on higher plane than man, for whom
dread of thing exists in the degree
that the thing is unknown.
The properties of stimulating to fren-
zy, Or of soothing as narcotics, or of
healing Or poisoning, which certain
plants possess, would foster like belief
in them, as among the Ojibways, who
believe that the god of the buffalo
grass causes madness, and among the
who credit the corn, the to-
bacco and other plants with indwelling
spirits. The reluctance to eat the to-
TEN, overcome only by threatening
when the animals pardon
is asked, and propitiatory sacrifices Of
fered at the slaughter, is probably the
parent of the division of foods into |
clean and unclean ruling many an OBJ |
scure custom, and explaining many
prejudice, as that, for example, against /
eating the hare, which Caesar speaks
0f as prevailing in Britain in his time.
when our forefathers were SO primi-
i've. Ix ..c I'LL
Tne totem poles represent the clan
,rests OF those living in the house out
'ide which 81 they are fixed, and, as fam
lies OF different totems sometimes
iwell together, the poles offer strange
mixtures Of figures. The destruction
# the poles at Fort Wrangel is re-
but ortunately other groups
\ = :. Alaska las survive, notably that at Fort
Fonlgas;s on and, pictorially. the totem is
With W Us in the ornamented bows CT