Mistikohkân ᒥᐢᑎᑯᐦᑳᐣ (Cree First Nations) - stock photo

Photograph taken around sunrise off Beacon Avenue beside the new bandstand in Beacon Park, on the promenade above the beach in Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Totem poles are known as ᒥᐢᑎᑯᐦᑳᐣ mistikohkân in Cree and Gyáa'aang in Haida Gwaii, derived from the Algonquian word odoodem [oˈtuːtɛm] meaning "(his) kinship group". They are poles, posts and pillars often made from Western Red cedar wood into which are carved or hung symbols or figures, by Tlingit, Tsimshian, Kwakwaka'wakw and Nuu-chah-nulth and northern Northwest Coast Haida Gwaii First Nations and indigenous peoples.