Northwest Poles

TOTEM TOUR: A week or so ago, CJ completed a report about totem poles currently on display in Seattle. The project involved our doing a fair amount of running around to track down said poles, so he could get original photos. Seeing them in person was much better than just reading about them online.

Below is his report. 

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Since time immemorial, Native American people and nations have crafted countless different works of art in many different styles and fashions across North and South America. In Seattle, a prominent form of Native American art is totem poles. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a totem pole is “A tall, usually wooden pole that is carved and painted with symbols, figures, or masks which represent different Native American tribes”.

In Pioneer Square, a historic spot in Downtown Seattle, there is a Tlingit totem pole. According to the National Park Service, the totem pole first appeared in 1899, after members of the Chamber of Commerce, on vacation in Alaska, stole it from Tlingit people. The men stole the totem pole because they wanted to advertise Seattle as the "Gateway to Alaska", a nickname given to Seattle because it was the closest and largest American continental city to Alaska. The Chamber of Commerce members brought the pole back to Seattle as a gift, but the Tlingit nation quickly sued the city government for two thousand dollars and demanded payment for damages. However, the city government would end up keeping the totem pole.

In 1938, the pole was subject to arson, and the remaining pieces were sent to descendants of the original carvers so they could make a replica, which would arrive in 1940. In 1972, the pole was refurbished, and the pole stands in Pioneer Square to this day.

The Red Mill Totem House (below) is a historic restaurant and landmark opened in 1939 in the neighborhood of Ballard. The Totem House is known for the tall totem pole at the front of the restaurant, which, according to the Burke Museum, is often attributed to Jimmy John, a Nuu-chah-nulth woodcarver from Vancouver Island's west coast.

While two of the watchmen figures inside the restaurant were likely carved by Jimmy John, more recent evidence shows that the totem pole at the front of the building is most likely a replica of a totem pole by a different carver made in 1939 by Totem House employee Leonard Porter, as well as J. Houston. The Red Mill Totem House's totem pole is most likely a replica of a totem pole made by a more obscure Haida artist, Zacherias Nicholas.

In Belvedere Park in West Seattle, there have been three totem poles, the Belvedere Point Park totem pole, Admiral totem pole and the Michael Halady story pole. According to the Southwest Seattle Historical Society, the first totem pole at Belvedere park was carved in 1901 by Native Americans living in the coastal region of British Columbia, but was brought to Seattle in 1939 by J.E. “Daddy” Standley, resident of the Admiral area of West Seattle and proprietor of the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop.

In 1966, as a result of severe deterioration over the prior sixty-five years, the original totem pole was replaced with the Admiral totem pole. The Admiral totem pole was a replica of the first Belvedere Point Park totem pole carved out of a tree from Schmitz Park by Michael Morgan and Bob Fleischmann, who were Boeing engineers.

The totem pole pictured above, the Admiral totem pole, stands in front of the Log Cabin Museum in West Seattle's Alki neighborhood.

Along the north shore of West Seattle stands the Admiral Viewpoint Story Pole. 

By 2006, the original Admiral totem pole had suffered deterioration, not unlike the first totem pole in Belvedere Point Park, and was replaced with the Michael Halady story pole (below), carved by Michael Halady, a fifth-generation descendant of Chief Seattle.

In 2014, the restoration of the Admiral totem pole was complete, and it was put on display at the Southwest Seattle Historical Society’s “Birthplace of Seattle” Log House Museum on a ceremony held on June 6, 2014.

                      

Located at Broad St. & Fourth Ave. N in Seattle is the Seattle Center Totem, which, according to Waymarking.com, was carved in 1970 by Duane Pasco, a Native American art teacher and, according to his own website, Korean War veteran, with the help of fellow woodcarvers Earl Muldon and Victor Mowatt. Pasco worked at the Gitanmaax (’Ksan) School of Northwest Coast Indian Art in Hazelton, B.C. while he was commissioned to carve the Seattle Center Totem. 

From the bottom of the totem pole to the top, the figures are an orca, a raven, a bear holding a salmon, and a hawk, watching over Seattle Center.

In Queen Anne, on the site former Washington State Senator Warren G. Magnuson's house, there is a totem pole from the Lummi Nation. 

According to the Seattle Times, the totem pole was a gift from Lummi people to Warren G. Magnuson, given to him for his seventieth birthday in 1975. 

When Warren's wife died in 2011, Gerry and Linda, a couple who had lived four blocks away from the Magnuson house, purchased the property, and with it, the totem pole. In 2014, Linda and Gerry sent the totem pole away from Queen Anne to be refurbished by a new carver, who later returned the refurbished version of the totem pole.

According to the City of Seattle's website, on Elliott Bay, there is a 1.25 mile long trail known as the Myrtle Edwards Park. At one point on the trail, there is a thirty-two-foot-tall Tlingit totem pole, which, according to a sign at the park, was crafted by Alaska Indian Arts, Inc. in 1975. 

The totem pole was crafted by woodcarvers John Hagen, Ed Kasko, and Cliff Thomas out of a cedar tree and using traditional Tlingit colors. In June of 2009, the totem pole was brought from Pier 48 to the Myrtle Edwards Park, where it stands today. Here is a part of the sign at the park, showing the various meanings behind the stages of the totem pole.

In West Seattle, placed at the address of 4622 35 Avenue Southwest, there is the Rotary View Point Park, managed by the Rotary Club of West Seattle. In the center of the park, there is an eighteen-foot-tall totem pole. 

 According to an interview by the West Seattle Blog with woodcarver Robin Young, he had carved the totem pole in the Summer of 1976. According to Robin, prior to carving the West Seattle totem pole, he had previously carved two totem poles for the Highline Community College, located in Des Moines.

According to the Seattle Times, on December 3, 2009, the totem pole went missing from its spot in the park! A week and a half later, West Seattle resident Charles Edward Jenks then 70 years old, was found to be likely connected to the theft of the pole and was arrested (with no charges filed), and the totem pole was found in the Salem, Oregon area, of all places. Prior to carving the West Seattle totem pole, Robin had previously carved two totem poles for the Highline Community College, located in Des Moines.

In Victor Steinbrueck park, located near the iconic Pike Place Market and named for the famous Seattle architect Victor Steinbrueck, there are two fifty-foot-tall totem poles present. The first one features carvings of a man and a woman at the top, and the second resembles a more traditional totem pole. 

According to the City of Seattle's website, both of the totem poles were designed by Victor Steinbrueck and carved by Native American artist James P. Bender in 1982. James, according to his own website, had been woodcarving for ten years prior.  Below is a photo of them from Wikimedia Commons.
          

On August 30, 2010, John T. Williams, a seventh-generation woodcarver of the Nuu-chah-nulth nation, was crossing the street when he was shot and killed by SPD officer Ian Birk. Many people, including his brother, workd on a memorial pole forhim. 

According to the Seattle Times, on February 26, 2012, the evening of what would've been Williams' fifty-second birthday, the thirty-four-foot-tall John T. Williams Memorial Totem Pole was carried half a mile by hand from Pier 57 to be raised in Seattle Center, just yards East of the Space Needle. Today, the totem pole rests at the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center in Discovery Park.