Title: Northwest Coast Indians  - Students | Britannica Kids | Homework Help
Headings: Northwest Coast Indians
Northwest Coast Indians
Introduction
Traditional Culture
Peoples and Languages
Food
Settlements and Housing
Clothing
Technology and Arts
Society
Religion
European Contact and Cultural Change

Content: Some of these boxes were built to hold the huge winter stores of dried food. Others were used for cooking, which was done by adding hot rocks to the food in the boxes. Other everyday items made of wood included spoons and ladles, canoe bailers, trinket boxes, chamber pots, fishhooks, and even the triggers of animal traps. Many items made by the woodworkers were artistic as well as functional. Dishes, for example, were sometimes in the form of animals or monsters. Faces of animals, birds, and people were carved on boxes, house fronts, house posts, boats, and grave posts. Woodworkers made wooden helmets and masks for ceremonial dances and dramatic performances. Most spectacular of the artworks was the totem or memorial pole. Northwest craftsmen also had some native copper to work with. They made some of their arrowheads from it, as well as copper knives for weapons of war.