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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;all_fakes, post: 11616414, member: 55&quot;]It is a long story...in brief, when the lay preacher William Duncan founded Old Metlakatla in what would become Canada, and later brought a group of Tsimshian followers to (New) Metlakatla in 1887, he banned the making of traditional totem poles and dance regalia, but encouraged the making of small items for sale as souvenirs, such as model totempoles and spoons. Those Tsimshian followers thus had a multiple loss of their traditions...they were transplanted from their Tsimshian homeland to a Tlingit area; their traditional practices were banned, and they lost the traditional methods of cultural transmission; young people, even if they had aspirations to be carvers, were not able to apprentice to older uncles or others. They didn&#039;t even have nearby full-size totems to use as models.</p><p><br /></p><p>Casper Mather (1876-1972) grew up without any role models or artists that he could imitate. He knew that there were traditional forms; but he had no training with them. So when he wanted to put traditional forms on his carvings, he kind of had to make them up for himself.&nbsp; He often used an eye-like shape, likely based on traditional shapes now called &quot;ovoids&quot; and placed it on his carvings where he imagined or hoped it might be appropriate.&nbsp; His shape was a rounded rectangle, with a symmetrical eye-like shape in the center.</p><p>Below: jpg of traditional ovoid forms; Casper Mather totempole showing at the bottom left one of his eye or ovoid forms. The shape has no meaning in traditional terms, or any reason for being at that spot on the totempole....To put it bluntly, his carvings are not very good in technical terms, but Mather did the best he could considering his lack of formal training. (P.S. Edward Keith Mather was an uncle of Casper Mather)</p><p>(More info on the souvenir totem poles from Metlakatla; history, Mather photos... can be found at <a href="https://bluemando.homestead.com/MetlakatlaCarvers.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://bluemando.homestead.com/MetlakatlaCarvers.html" rel="nofollow">Metlakatla carvers site map</a> )</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]546141[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]546142[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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