Cape Sable Totem Poles

Welcome to this page, here is a short story about a totem pole, carved right here at Cape Sable,beautiful south shore of Nova Scotia. With the sight and sound of the Atlantic ocean always near,clean white sandy beaches,the waves rolling in, invite you to come for a leisure walk.
The pleasure of seagulls all around, plus hundreds of shore birds, with their tiny legs scampering about for food as the tide rolls in.They are an awesome site when in flight.

This is a fine place to share with and be part of nature.

Most of the people here make their living from the sea , or are connected to it one way or another.Just as their ancestors have for over two hundred years. It has been a wonderful natural resource,there is now more prosperity and better way of life, especially the last twenty-five years.
My ancestors came here from Massachusetts, in the early part of the seventeenth century, to fish the fertile fishing grounds along the coast, with good fishing they decided to bring their families and settle here.

My husband`s grandfather ( Anderson) and great grandfather (Dahlgren) imigrated here from Sweden.Other ancestors came from England,France and Ireland during the great potato famine
of eighteenth century.

Some surnames here are Anderson,Atkinson, Atwood,Blades, Brannen,Newell,Nickerson, Penny, Ross,Smith Symonds and Swim.

Over the years the people have survived the hard times, for most that meant doing their best to put food on the table and hand me down clothes for their large families. Especially during the depression, so called the hungry thirties.

My grandparents planted their garden,grampy Benny planted blue potatoes , he had bins of them in his cellar for winter. They were so good with salt mackerel and fish. They used brine in those days to keep the fish and meat from spoiling .I remember my father ,mixing the salt and water, he used a raw potato to do a test, if the potato floated, he thought it was salt enough.They also had a cow that supplied the family with fresh milk , cream and butter.In the summer they mowed the hay , dried and stored it in the hay loft for the cow in winter, I remember the smell of the new hay when i helped my grandfather rake it up.

Also watching my grammie Thelma milk the cow, one time she squirted the milk right in my eye, and we both laughed.

She worked hard to do all the cooking for a large family, they used an apple barrel to store the flour,it came in fifty pound bags, especially with making all their bread it did not last long.She made the best bread pudding, topped with thick cream.

Grammie Daisy raised a cow, hens and a pig, in the fall when they killed the pig, they sugar cured the hams , she had the ham hanging on the house to keep it cool,when she fried the ham you could smell it as soon as you opened the door.

Our school was nearby her house and at recess i used to go there,i loved her molasses cookies with the crinkles all round.

My mother is an excellent cook, she too has worked very hard,and has done very well on her own in the twenty years, since my father passed away.

Women as well as the men work very hard,Through the years,they made beautiful quilts, my neighbour was kind enough to make one for me.Also my sister has made many different patterns, she has a natural talent and does a great job. My sister had hers at the Sandspit Gallery in Shelburne.

They take great pride in their homes, with beautiful flower gardens. We have good schools for our children,many of them go on to University, some become computer programmers, teachers, nurses, dentists and lawyers.

Some stay here to carry on the family tradition of fishing.Where the buisness is often passed from one generation to the next. We are proud of them whatever profession they choose,it is difficult for one to stay away from Cape Sable for very long. What brings them back is the ocean, the smell of the nice salt air,fish fresh from the ocean, and the best lobsters in the world.

About thirty years ago, Canada Post issued a stamp to honor Emily Carr ( born1871 died1946), a great artist and fine writer. We were stamp collectors, and at the time the more i knew about her the more interested i became.I really admired her,she spent her life painting the villages and totem poles among the native people of British Colombia.

She was a very independant and strong woman,she is still remembered for the the beautiful totem poles that she painted.At the time she probably did not receive the money for her paintings or the recognition she deserved.She would be surprised, recently one of her paintings sold for forty thousand dollars.

She took her little dog on her trips to keep her company and travelled around the coast by any means that was available to her. On one occasion she was travelling on a rickety old wagon,
the road was so bad, it hit a bump, everyone fell off in the mud.

There was such a cloud of dust, they hardly knew where they were.Luckily there was a stream nearby,all hands fell on their bellies in the water , it sure made for a good laugh.
Another time she was in the cabin of an old boat,when she could almost feel the water on her body, from beneath her and on both sides.On some occasions she had to climb up the slippery old ladders, and get ashore the best she could, by the time she reached the top rung, she would throw herself over the dock , so happy she was on shore. She wrote seven books, one of them titled "Klee Wick", the name natives gave her which meant laughing one.

You can still purchase prints and cards of her work at the Emily Carr House in British Colombia.There family and friends are keeping her memory alive so one can learn about her. She had to give up painting due to ill health,and wrote her first book "Klee Wick"and received the Govenor General Award for general literature for it.

This is a few lines taken from that book,you can read of her love of totem poles(pages 39 -40).
An eagle flew out of its nest and back again. Once again it broke silence, calling after him, "Tell D`Sonoqua"and turning saw her close,towering above me in the jungle.Like the D `Sonoqua of the other villages,she was carved into the bole of the red cedar tree.Sun and storm have bleached the wood,moss here and there softened the crudeness of the modelling,sincerity underlay every stroke.
She appeared to be neither wood or stationery,but a single spirit young and fresh passing through the jungle.No violence coarsened her, no power domineered to wither her, she was graciously feminine. Across her forehead her creator had fashioned the Sistheutl or mystical two headed sea serpent.One of it`s heads fell to either shoulder, hiding the stuck out ears and framing her face from the central parting on her forehead ,seemed to increace her womanliness. She caught her breath, this D`Sonoqua alive in the dead bole of the cedar.She summed up the depth and charm of the whole forest, driving away it`s menace.

If you have a computer you can find out more about her at http://www.emilycarr.ca and
ecar@island.net. In the west they have the huge cedar trees,some of the totem poles are still standing after a hundred years or more.

In the spring i saw some beautiful pictures of the poles Emily Carr painted.In passing i said,i would like to have one. This day my husband was gone all afternoon, when he returned he said, I cut the pole , it is still in the woods, i did not think he was serious.that he would carve a totem pole.It was very heavy when first cut ,so he got some help to get it out of the woods. I am sure it was a challenge, what to carve first or how it would look.

He started with his mallet and chisel and soon he had a raven, when he saw this taking shape, he kept on carving the wolf, bear, woman and man sun faces.At the bottom he carved the little bear that is on the cover of Emily Carr`s book and the words "Klee Wick".

He started it on May 11th. 2000, He put it up June 22nd and just missed National Aborigonal Day.
Alan, Douglas , Garvin and David all came to help, it wasn`t long before it was in the ground.
He surprised himself, to look and see it in the yard, a short time earlier it was just a dream.
It does look nice standing on the edge of the lawn , facing east so it cathes the rays of the early morning sun.

My favorite carving is the woman sun face with her hands uplifting as if she were in prayer.
Cathy Johnson came from the local paper , did the story and took a picture of the carver and the pole.

Many people have been here to see and take pictures.
The images look very real, when you look up it`s like they are looking down at you.
Two native ladies came and had a smudging ceremony to bless us and the pole,I love the smell of the braided sweetgrass.It is a spiritual connection with mother earth,in friendship they gave us a gift of tobacco. Sweetgrass,sage and cedar are sacred plants of our native people.
When driving by, feel free to stop you too may feel the spirit of our native ancestors, who had so much respect for mother earth and all of God`s creatures.

Meanings of the characters on the totem pole are .______
Hawk___Messenger,Woodpecker___Oppertunity,Bear __Protection-Introspection,Sun-East Direction _(male Energy),
Moon-West Direction _( Female Energy),Raven__Bringer of Light From Darkness(Magic),Wolf___Teacher and Family.

July 2002
My daughter Linda went on a motorcycle trip from Oshawa to British Colombia , travelling through these U S states. Michigan,Wisconsin, Dakota`s, Whyoming,Montana, Idaho and Washington.She went through the Badlands,Mount Rushmore and in Yellowstone National Park where she could of reached out and touched the buffalo as they walked across the road. That was the highlight of her vacation.

She sent me a book titled,Legend Of the Medicine Man.
Here is a recipe for sunburn

1 tsp. basil,1 tsp. lemonbalm,1 tbsp .crushed cucumber,1 tbsp.aloe vera,1 tbsp vinegar.Mix ingredients together, put in warm bath to soothe and soak the aches of sunburn.

A SIOUX PRAYER
My Father , Great Spirit,
Who send,est The Wind And White Snow From The North,
To Make Thy Creation Clean And Pure,
Father Make Me Clean and Pure Within My Heart,
That I May Be Accepted In Thy Site And Judgement,
Father , Great Spirit,
To The East From Wence Cometh The Rising Sun,
And All Thy Living creation,
Thou Has Added Another Day To Thy Life,
For Which I give Thee Thanks With All Thine Heart.