Page:The American Indian.djvu/128

88 reach the Haida of the Queen Charlotte Islands which seems to be its geographical center. In the central part of the area we find the great totem poles and colossal grave figures, besides an endless array of smaller objects, all in wood. As we proceed still farther northward, wood tends to disappear and ivory to take its place. Like most other traits, ivory carving begins to be frequent with the Tlingit and gradually grows in intensity as wood disappears, the difference appearing merely as a matter of environment. Then as we go around the north coast of Alaska and eastward along the extended habitat of the Eskimo, carving almost dies out. This peculiar distribution among the Eskimo suggests an indirect historical relation with the carving center.

The intense development of carving at this center has a noticeable effect upon decoration. Boas has shown how the very curious relief carving upon the outsides of wooden vessels results from an attempt to carry around the contour of animals or men in such a way that the whole may stand for a realistic model. Naturally, when flat surfaces are treated the whole figure is spread out upon it. Sometimes these designs are merely laid out in color and though no doubt more conventionalized thereby, they are still the undeniable offspring of carving. All this is a feature of the central group of tribes where the art is most intense and where it is, in part, at least, the expression of a very complex system of beliefs concerning family ancestors. North from the Tlingit and south from the Nootka of Vancouver Island we have many vessels carved in the life-like forms of animals, but practically no trace of the relief ornamentation just mentioned, a fact which strongly suggests that this feature is purely a development of the more intense art at the center and that it is, therefore, relatively recent.

We have noted that there is also a textile center in this region, but we now see that it does not coincide with that for carving, its location being inland among the Salish peoples. Emmons has made a good case for the relatively recent introduction of the Chilkat blanket to that tribe. In this famous textile we usually find the queer spread-out animal