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Although often considered to be art of Native Americans in many regions, the totem pole is a genre of the Pacific Northwest. Many of the people there set great store by their lineage, and totem poles are indeed family trees indicating clans which are often associated with totemic animals such as the eagle and the bear.
Totem poles normally face toward the water: in effect, they greet mariners heading ashore, and in long houses they have a similar welcoming function.
The poles may stand in isolation as public monuments as in the case of an extremely high one in Alert Bay, but they can also appear in cemeteries, as in the one at left, as well as in front of a private residence.
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