Summer Rose's grand father used to tell her stories of the big wooden poles with all the faces and animals on them. Lots of Indian families used to have them in front of their tents or near their homes on the reservation or where ever they lived.

He called them Totem Poles. He said each face or character or bird or animal told a story that belong to a member of that family.

Most totem Poles had animals because animals were honored by the Indians and respected. The Indians always gave thanks for everything and were taught to make use of everything, nothing was to be thrown away.

Summer Rose loved her visits from her grand father and knew with each visit he would have a wonderful story for her.

She remembered he told her that her family had a large black raven on the top of their Totem Pole. That was their family emblem. The Raven was one of the most famous characters and very tricky.

Ravens usually travel together and watch out for one another.

Not just anyone could read totem poles but some were gifted in it and could tell the story about the carvings. They would teach the children what they meant by taking each carving and explaining the story.

Summer was too small to carve but Grand father told her to draw it out and when she was through he would tell her the story. She really had no idea what to do, so she called her grand Father and he told her to start with the raven and then under it draw who and what she had seen for the day or week.

Summer was so excited because she thought of the Frog she had led to the pond and how happy he was, now to figure out how to lay the drawings out in a story.

First she drew a Raven on the very top of her picture, as she thought, she drew and then she called her Grand father to see if she had done it right, he knew nothing of the frog or what had happened.

He came over and as he looked at he drawing he begin to tell her the story .

On the top is the raven, sign of your family, then the small frog is a creature you have come in contact with and he had very large eyes, someone special to you, the flower represents the Lilly Pad on which the frog sat and then the circle with the wavy lines is the pond with water in it where the frog now lives. She fully understood now how important the totem poles are. Once the totem pole is placed in the yard of the person that carved it, the story belongs to that person and his family to be told by them and passed on for generations.