Jenny made her presentation on the significance of totem poles today. Her presentation reminded me of Plains Indian Drawings 1865-1935: Pages from a Visual History, a great book I came across when looking for resources for my essay topic on residential schooling. These drawings by native Plains men were in fact ledger drawings, yet unraveling these drawings reveal a sociocultural portrait in which the artist inscribes his subtle assessment of the time when Native American cultures were under assault. Many of these drawings depicted residential schooling. Moreover, given the circumstances in which European settlers were imposing their ideals, many artists of ledger drawings practiced self-censorship, altering their drawings and frequently portraying hunting scenes or skirmished in which other natives, rather than whites, are the adversaries.

Ledger drawings were not considered art because Euro-American prejudices deemed the drawings as not "authentic" or "traditional" in their materials and genres. Because there have been recent paradigm shifts in both anthropology and art history, we cannot correspond between an image and a single historical event-All artistic representations are multivalent. Randa, in her presentation, reported that Picasso chose strictly to convey one single meaning to his audience, arming his artwork with "razor blades" against wandering interpretations.

When Jenny had asked the class how we could explain why the totem pole she chose alternated with animal and human figures, many of us were at a loss for words. These totem poles which embodied cultural animals such as the thunderbird and raven, Jenny explained, have traditional folklore significance. Because we are not part of the First Nations culture, we are all outsiders who enjoy the beauty in craftsmanship, or looking to interpret the meanings and often come up empty-handed. This can be illustrated in history where military men from the United States were sent to wipe out the Native culture. The soldiers were interested in native traditional drawings yet did not understand the true significance of their art. These indigenous people were killed, yet their art valued as relics of a vanishing civilization.

Because meanings are made, change hands, and often become significant decades later, totem poles, these ledger drawings, and perhaps even Picasso's art may inscribe meanings that cannot easily be narrated by our present discourse, or by Western conventions alone.