(upbeat music)
- [Lauren] We're here at the Totem Heritage Center
in Ketchikan, standing in front of a mortuary
totem pole of the Tongass people.
- [Teresa] The totem pole is the oldest
that we have in our collection that comes
from the Tongass tribe, and this pole
is estimated to be about 200-years-old
and possibly older.
- [Lauren] Let's unpack this term totem pole.
- [Teresa] So when you see the totem poles
that are in the building here or outside,
what there are is great reminders of stories of people,
of clan events that happened decades ago.
Or maybe in this past 10 years, if it's a current pole.
Then we could find out the story
and then we'll better understand how the pole is designed
and what it represents.
- [Lauren] That importance of oral tradition
in connection to the pole that we're looking at.
- [Teresa] With all that happened when the newcomers
came here, there was a lot of change
and a lot of suppression of our Tingit, Haida
and Tsimshian culture, and unfortunately,
throughout their change of the simulation
of our people here, there was some loss of stories
and a loss of some precious things important to us.
And unfortunately with this pole,
there was quite a bit that was lost.
There's four things that help us identify
more about this pole.
When you look at the face, you could tell it's a human face
in the way the body is shaped.
On the top of hand there, you see a club.
We don't know if it's a fishing club
or if it's a battle club.
Below it, you see a shape that looks like a pear.
And we know that's a sculpin fish.
There's a fourth thing that we'll notice
around the back of the pole, where it's hollowed out.
When you see a totem pole that has hollowed out,
we know it's a mortuary pole.
When somebody that was very highly respected
within the clan passed away,
sometimes they'd have a totem pole raised to memorialize
the individual and they would put their remains,
their cremations inside of a bentwood box normally.
That space that's hollowed out is where the bentwood box
would go with the remains in it.
It's a mortuary pole comparison to a memorial pole.
You could have a memorial pole up to honor somebody
that passed away, but the difference is a mortuary pole
would have that hollowed out part.
You're still memorializing somebody that passed away,
but the difference is you have the remains inside
of the pole.
Unfortunately, when they brought this pole
from its original village where it stood,
there was no remains inside of there.
So we know four things, that's a mortuary pole,
it's a human figure on there,
and it has a club in its upper hand and a Sculpin
in its lower hand.
Now what we don't know about this pole,
what clan they came from, how tall the pole was,
if there's any clan crests on top.
There is a small remnants
on top of the head of the human figure.
We don't know if that was one time, a mink,
a bear or another figure.
Maybe it was a clan hat that was placed on top
of the human figure, all we know is what we see.
So unfortunately this is one of the stories that was lost,
but fortunate enough that we have the totem pole here.
One of the big decisions is when the newcomers came up,
that they seen these villages that was unoccupied
at the time to them.
And they automatically thought it was abandoned,
unfortunately, and they had misconceptions of the pole.
So there's a lot of poles that was being destroyed
when the newcomers came up here out of disrespect
and out of lack of knowledge
of where they're at and the people
and their surroundings around them.
When this all was going on,
they're able to retrieve some of the poles
from the original villages and bring them here.
So we're excited enough to have these totem poles,
'cause it was a big decision to bring them
because traditionally, when a totem pole is raised,
that would be the expectancy of the pole.
We wouldn't move it.
We wouldn't transplant it anywhere else normally.
So once the totem pole is raised,
it would stay there until it started to deteriorate
or if it would fall down on its own,
or if it would cause harm, possibly
if it started leaning too much.
And that would be the only time the men of the village
would take the pole and let it come down.
And then it put it somewhere by the woods
and they let it go back to the earth to have its full cycle.
So when they brought it here to the center
and they created a center, it was a big step,
but it was a great step because the people nowadays
could look at these and they could cherish more
about their culture.
The history continue to carry it on.
Even if it's just one story or one explanation
of a pole for the younger generation,
then it's kept and preserved.
- [Lauren] I just want to look more closely
at the figure that we're seeing here.
You mentioned, we're able to identify
this as a human because of the high cheekbones,
and the shape of the eyes, and the wide mouth.
- [Teresa] So between the characteristics of the human face,
the arms, hands, and the legs,
that's how we can tell it's a human.
Plus, it's a very oblong and it's standing up.
Unfortunately, you can't see the feet on this pole here
in front of us because it's deteriorated away.
But it's definitely the shape of the legs
is one of the great indicators.
- [Lauren] At one point, this pole would have been painted.
And so there's no longer any surviving paint
on this particular pole.
I want to go back to what you were saying earlier
about the newcomers coming to this area
and misunderstanding these poles.
- [Teresa] Well, when the newcomers came up here,
there's a lot of misconceptions that our people
of this area of worship, the poles,
and that there were coming from a religious standing point
and their misconceptions caused them to burn the poles
entirely or cut them down and destroy them in.
Unfortunately there was even newcomers
that came up and used the polls as target practices.
- [Lauren] So while we don't know which clan
owned this particular pole, there is another pole
here in , hotem Heritage
where we are able to identify who owned the pole.
- [Teresa] The pole directly behind is a pole
that has two figures on there.
At the very top is a solid figure
that's attached to the totem pole.
The figure that's looking down
at us has a very strong jaw line.
You can see the teeth and the nose,
the eyes at the very top
of the head of and at one time there were ears there.
Unfortunately it deteriorated off.
That is actually a bear that's looking down at us
and it has the claws underneath the jawline.
So if we go behind the totem pole,
we can look at the figure on top and there's no tail.
So we know it's a bear.
Then if you look down below the jaw line,
you could see the human face and you can compare
it to the human face on the pole in front of it.
And you see that characteristics of the cheekbones,
the nose, the shape of the eye and that oval mouth,
that face actually sits on the tail of a killer whale.
As you go down below the face,
you can see the hollowed out heart.
That one time was a dorsal fin sticking out of the pole.
Right on each side of the dorsal fin you could see
the side fins of the killer whale,
but if you keep going down, you could see the teeth
of the killer whale on each side of the pole.
If you look at the top of the pole is much wider
then as you go down to the bottom of the pole,
it's more narrow, that helps give the effect
of the killer whale diving downwards into the water.
So we know this one belonged to a clan that claimed the
killer whale and the bear as part of their clan quests.
- [Lauren] I feel very honored to be here, today
and to learn about these two poles.
(upbeat music)