Proposal:Totem pole
| Tag:man_made=totem_pole | |
|---|---|
| Proposal status: | Draft (under way) |
| Proposed by: | Jfact0ry |
| Tagging: | man_made=totem_pole |
| Applies to: | nodes |
| Definition: | A monumental sculpture carved on a pole made from a large tree. |
| Statistics: |
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| Rendered as: | 
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| Draft started: | 2015-09-02 |
Proposal
Totem poles are found throughout the Pacific Northwest of the United States and British Columbia, Canada. They have significant cultural, historical, and artistic value. New poles are still being constructed to this day.
Rationale
Totem poles dot the landscape of areas rich in cultural history. Each totem pole has a unique story and/or meaning. Having totem poles mapped will help people connect to the history of a place. A totem pole tag in OpenStreetMap will allow people to keep a database of totem poles and categorize different features like the name, carver, and culture.
Examples
Sitka, Alaska's National Historical Park features a totem pole collection that contain over a dozen totem poles, some of which are over 100 years old. http://www.nps.gov/sitk/learn/historyculture/totem-poles.htm Totem poles can be found in other areas throughout the Pacific coast of North America.
Tagging
The man_made tag with a value of totem_pole for a node would be sufficient to map totem poles. A culture tag could distinguish between varying cultures that are known to carve totem poles and have unique customs for pole-carving. Eg. Tlingit, Haida, Gitxsan, et al.
Applies to
nodes
Rendering
Features/Pages affected
There have been a few different tags for this feature. http://www.openstreetmap.org/node/2983858380 contains the tag "culture=totem pole". http://www.openstreetmap.org/node/660080581 and http://www.openstreetmap.org/node/660434648 each are tagged with historic=monument, monument=totem_pole. This is a possible alternative, but I suggest man_made=totem_pole due to its efficiency.
There are currently over 20 totem poles marked with:
tourism=artwork
artwork_type=totem_pole
Usage statistics
Here are the current tag counts for various possible tags:
Comments
There was some discussion of the tag and the proposed feature in this forum thread https://help.openstreetmap.org/questions/45029/how-do-i-go-about-gaining-support-for-a-new-tag