totem pole

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A post carved and painted with a series of family or clan crests or with figures representing mythic beings and erected usually before a dwelling, as among certain Native American peoples of the northwest coast of North America.
• noun Slang A hierarchy.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A post erected in front of an Indian house, carved so as to represent totem-animals, ancestral figures, or a. series of figures that illustrate a clan legend. Totem-poles are used by the Indians of the coasts of Alaska and British Columbia. See totem.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• A pole or pillar, carved and painted with a series of totemic symbols, set up before the house of certain Indian tribes of the northwest coast of North America, esp. Indians of the Koluschan stock.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun Native American sculpture made by carving trees.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a tribal emblem consisting of a pillar carved and painted with totemic figures; erected by Indian tribes of the northwest Pacific coast