![]() Beginning in the 19th century, the federal government sought to assimilate First Nations by banning various cultural practices in the Indian Act, including the potlatch, which is the ceremony during which totem poles are often erected. Colonization also threatened the very existence of totem poles. The arrival of Europeans altered the construction of contemporary poles, as they introduced new materials and carving tools to Indigenous peoples through trade in the 19th century. The Coast Salish carve planks of wood that attach to the interior or exterior of their ceremonial houses. The Coast Salish people also make carvings out of cedar, but they are not really totem poles. First Nations credited with making some of the earliest totem poles include the Haida, Nuxalk (Bella Coola), Kwakwaka’wakw, Tsimshian and Łingít. ![]() The practice then spread south along the coast into the rest of British Columbia and Washington state. Archeological evidence suggests that the northern peoples of the West Coast were among the first to create totem poles before the arrival of Europeans.
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