Not only the first major publication to focus on button blankets, but also the first oral history about them and their place in the culture of the Northwest Coast.

Here is Marjorie Halpin's insightful exploration of Aboriginal motifs in Jack Shadbolt's painting, which reveal his emotional sympathy with Coastal peoples and anticipates the cultural quickening of Aboriginal Canadian society in recent years.

Combining archeology and ethnohistory, this book presents an integrated framework for understanding the physical structure of a Haida village, through remarkable photographs, site plans and detailed descriptions of fifteen major villages

This bestseling guide helps readers interpret and enjoy the form and meaning of totem poles -- as ancestral emblems and ceremonial objects, as expressions of wealth and power, as mythological symbols and magnificent artistic works of the people of the Pacific Northwest.