Here it is we find the true Coast Indian spirit where each clan had
its own artist (and jealously were his designs kept for the clan!),
where no two totem animals were ever quite alike in form or colour,
for a copy was a disgrace and the artist discredited forever. As every
village had its own separate clans (though each might belong to the
Raven or Eagle crests) and each clan had its individual version of
its crest, one can easily imagine the tremendous variety of designs
the artists were called upon to make! Most totemic designs are crests
pure and simple, but some are story totems, which, when one is well
versed in the art, can be read as one would read a Grimm’s fairy tale
and with as much enjoyment.

One interesting totem tells a tale of the chief, so famous and so
powerful that he had many cylinders on his hat (some are known to
have had as many as eighteen of these round basketwork additions! )
who, when a great flood came, clapped his hat on his head and as
the tide rose higher and higher his people swarmed up it to escape
from the rising water! The stories, that have been repeated from
generation to generation, are very naive (and are often without a
plot) but are merely incidents in the lives of the owners or else ex-
planations of the mythical animal crests.

In strong contrast to the coastal, line, form and colour, is the Prairie
Indian—whose myths and tales are rich in their beauty of incident
and story, but whose Graphic Art is extremely weak and forlorn.
What tremendous potentialities British Columbia has for expressing
herself. In her totems, her mountains, her Indians, her legends, her
islands, her sea-animals, her land animals, and even (as experiments
here in the school have proved) in the clay of her own earth she
holds inspiration!

It is a dream well worth the time used in dreaming, or—is it a
dream?

We are the tools with which she must work!

To go forward! SYBIL HILL.

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