Alert Bay totem poles

Alert Bay is a good place to see Indian totem poles. There is a graveyard there where totem poles serve as tomb markers. They are erected there but not forever, they are supposed to decay and fall in time. Consequently not all of them are in perfect condition. There are also other poles inside their ceremonial big house. They are in better condition.

There are several styles of totem pole sculpture, the poles in Alert Bay are good examples of what anthropologists call “Kwakiutl style” (although the Alert Bay people protest that they should not be called Kwakiutl because they are Namgis).