I've long been very impressed with the carving tradition of the Pacific Northwest coast. Actually, all of their arts. A few years ago I revisited the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, which has a spectacular collection. They have a small forest of totem poles, hundreds of masks, entire lodge interiors. Also I visited the Portland, Oregon art museum which has a 2 floors devoted to mostly the art of natives of the Northwest coast.
Alas, walking sticks were hardly represented. I suppose this might be expected from people who mostly took their living from the sea. In Chicago, there was only one, and it was more of a status symbol. They also had several "talking sticks." Portland had 2 walking sticks on display. Because of their fragile nature, the lighting was very dim, but one was striking. The carved wood was black, perhaps w. age, but instead of being painted, it was inlaid with some sort of bluish nacreous material.
There were some carving tools shown. There was a bent, double edge knife. I had acquired one made in the northwest before seeing it in the museum. Very handy, can cut both ways without changing grip. And then there were small awl like chisels. I would suppose the largest work was done with some sort of ax, but if the primary tools were all small bladed hand tools, it would explain why much of the carving is in relief.
