Featured Nifty totem spoon

Well that’s incredibly insightful and interesting. Sad as well but it’s hard to get a wider look into the life on a Native American individual or individuals in that era and not strike sad aspects. It’s got to be pretty dang strong evidence for an attribution to him for mg spoon I’d think. Unless others that knew as little, or even less, were looking to his work for inspiration. It may have been more interesting if it was a spiritual type of symbology for him but your explanation makes sense practically speaking.

Btw it kind of looks like a cat on the totem pole in your photo no?

thanks!

 

That's how Casper did his bear....the figures on this pole are eagle, a sideways salmon, a bear, usually shown with speckles, and sometimes, as here, a human figure at the bottom. This pole, sometimes called the "good luck" totem, is specific to Metlakatla, not carved anywhere else. It represents a story that came originally from the Port Simpson area in what is now Canada.
It is an ancestral totem of the Gispaxlo'ots subgroup of the Tsimshians, and is an interesting twist to the sad story of Metlakatla. Even though William Duncan had banned traditional practices in Metlakatla, the people carved thousands of versions of this totem, representing their traditional crests, and sold them to tourists despite Duncan's ban. I doubt he ever knew what they were doing in carving this totem, but it is clear that at least some of the carvers knew perfectly well that they were keeping their traditions alive in this small way.
It is not known which Metlakatlan originated the carving of these small records of their past, and no full-size version of the pole is known to have existed in historic times.
But the story of the First Nations people is indeed a sad one. Casper Mather, for example, had 13 children. They all predeceased him, many in infancy or childhood. I can't imagine how that would feel. He adopted and raised two sons of his brother Paul Mather.
Versions of the Gispaxlo'ots or "good luck" totem, by Eli Tait and Casper Mather:

 

The story:
"Once there was an Indian village between the Nass and the Skeena River, and there was a Chief in this village who had a nephew who was going to take his place.... When he was supposed to be drying fish for the winter, the nephew instead fed the fish to eagles on the beach, leading to fears that the people would go hungry in the winter, which in fact happened. However, the eagles brought food for the people, salmon and halibut, and the warehouses were filled. Thus the boy became chief, and the eagle became the family crest. The old chief was of the bear clan...."
and so the bear appears on the totempole along with the eagle and salmon, and sometimes the boy's face is shown at the bottom.

 

But back on topic, that Walton spoon is a great find, Dragonfly!

 

Thank you! I have a lot of spoons, but some like that one, are extra special...

And thank you for sharing all the fascinating information!

~Cheryl

 

Seconded!