Entering from the east entrance of the museum, you are welcomed by 4 totems, two back to back on each side of the entrance.
When these totems were purchased there was no place to put them, so they were kept outdoors. Museum wrapped them up, resulting in losing the bright colors. When the museum was expanded, during construction, the totems were placed first, and then the scaffolding was put around it to build the spiral stairs. If you go to the top floor, you will see that the roof is only a few centimeters higher than the highest totem!
The tallest totems is 24.5 meters high, half of the Niagara falls. A chief of an indigenous tribe asked an artist to carve this totem to commemorate his uncle and ancestors, as in this tribe, chief is passed down from from uncle to nephew. The totem took a whole sequoia and a year to carve, but it was cut into three sections for easy transportation to the museum. Because of marriage, two tribe symbols are carved on it, which is very rare. They are the eagle at the top and the cormorant at the bottom.
The totem records some of the miracles the tribe encountered on their way from Alaska to British Columbia.
The part we see on the first floor tells the story of a nephew of the chief who was boating in a lake. A halibut suddenly jumped out of the water, swallowed the nephew in whole, and then turned into an eagle and flew away. Here you can see the uncle on the shore, the nephew in the belly of the fish, and the eagle in the middle.
Above it, is a giant bull-head fish with human faces on its ears and flipped-up tail.
The top part is that everyone witnessed a god rising from the sea, grabbing the tail of a big fish with both hands, and then sitting on the water and eating the fish.
The part in the basement is about a young man who was sucked by a big octopus when he was looking for shells on the shore. At the same time, his hand was caught by a big shell. People couldn't save him, and watched him helplessly, as he drowned in the tide.