Traditionally, trees were treated respectfully in native American culture: before use they were told what they were to be cut down for.

When an artefact made of wood, eg a canoe, had reached the end of its useful life, it would be ceremonially disposed of, by burning, rather than left to rot.

However, a totem was expected to gradually return to the earth, and a dim view is taken by purists of the tendency for modern museum curators to preserve totem poles, artificially prolonging their life indefinitely in defiance of native American tradition.