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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;all_fakes, post: 11622788, member: 55&quot;]That&#039;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 &quot;good luck&quot; 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.</p><p>It is an ancestral totem of the Gispaxlo&#039;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&#039;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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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&#039;t imagine how that would feel. He adopted and raised two sons of his brother Paul Mather.</p><p>Versions of the Gispaxlo&#039;ots or &quot;good luck&quot; totem, by Eli Tait and Casper Mather:</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>[ATTACH=full]546232[/ATTACH]&nbsp; </b>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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