Although our annual calendar is full, there is one special day lacking: an American Indian Day,"" says Mr. Wherry in his introduction to a book intended to balance the account at least a little bit. He writes of the Pacific Northwest Coast
Although our annual calendar is full, there is one special day lacking: an American Indian Day,"" says Mr. Wherry in his introduction to a book intended to balance the account at least a little bit. He writes of the Pacific Northwest Coast, an area he calls Totemland, where such clans as the Tlingit, the Haida, and the Tsimsyan, the Kwaklubi, Della Colla and Nootka dwell. He speculates on their origin as Asiatic, tells of their contacting by the Russians, British, Americans. Their architecture, myths, the role of the shaman, a list of the guardian spirits lead to a discussion, of the totem pole itself, the greatest of status symbols, of its creation by carver and celebration by songwriter at the potlatch held in its honor. Mr. Wherry's casualness might startle the scholar, but aside form speculation he does pass on a good deal of information.