When the Yax té (Big Dipper) totem pole at Auke Recreation Area was taken down in 2010, Rosa Miller spoke to the spirits in the totem.
From the bear at the base of the totem (which represents the Dipper house of the Áak’w Kwáan, that Miller leads) to the Raven at the top to symbolize the moiety of the house, Miller ensured the spirits that the totem wouldn’t be taken down for long.
“We’re not getting rid of you,” Miller said. “We’re just here to fix you up some.”
The pole was riddled with rot, insect damage, woodpecker marks and even bullet holes — Miller counted 11 of them — from people using it for target practice. It needed to be restored.
On Tuesday, that renovation process came to a close, as the restored pole was returned to its place at Auke Recreation Area. The U.S. Forest Service, which owns the pole, restored and raised it in honor of the Áak’w Kwáan people who used to inhabit the area. There’s now a coating on it to deter insects, the woodpecker holes are patched up and the pole is now placed on a large metal mount instead of directly in the ground to further protect it from rot.
Since its installation in 1941, the pole has had a somewhat unfortunate history. In the mid-1990s, arsonists attempted to burn the pole down. It was taken down afterward, and carver Arnold Dalton restored it to its former condition and it was re-installed. Then it was taken down again in 2010 with the rot and animal damage.
The restoration of the pole is unusual, said Carla Casulucan, a Tribal Relations Specialist for the Tongass National Forest. Traditionally, when a pole went up, it stayed up until it grew old and fell down. Then the pole’s timeline ended.
Now, however, the landscape of tribal knowledge is different. In previous generations, there were people all over who knew the ways of carving a totem.
“That was in an era when we had plenty of master carvers,” Casulucan said. “Now we only have a few master carvers. That traditional knowledge is going away a little bit.”
With this knowledge slipping away, tribes are looking to restore old totem poles, Casulucan said. The Forest Service, which has owned this pole since its initial installation in 1941, enlisted Master Carver Wayne Price to restore the pole. Price, a Tlingit from Haines, brought on Fred Fulmer as a carving assistant. Fulmer, who was the Mentor Carver for a recent healing totem pole on Douglas Island, is a descendant of the original carver of the Áak’w Kwáan pole.
Tuesday’s quiet unveiling of the restored pole was very much a family affair. The event wasn’t advertised or open to the public, with Miller’s family as the only guests. Without counting the construction workers there putting up the pole, there were only about a dozen people watching as the pole was moved into place on the sunny morning.
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The public unveiling will take place Friday, June 16. With limited parking at Auke Rec, shuttles will be available, running both from the University of Alaska Southeast and Auke Bay Elementary School starting at 9:30 a.m. The ceremony will start at 10 a.m., and is expected to last four hours or so.
There was plenty of celebration as the totem pole was put in place Tuesday, as Miller began singing and beating her Dog Salmon drum long before the pole rose. As the workers prepared the pole for the raising, Miller sang “How Great Thou Art” both in English and in Tlingit.
Two hours later, Miller and her family members, including her son Frank Miller and daughter Fran Houston, gathered in front of the pole and sang two songs. Miller directed her family members during the first song and beat her drum during the second song while Miller and Houston danced.
The joyful scene was a far cry from two years earlier, when Miller had gone to examine the pole during its renovation. She cried as she examined it, but made the spirits a promise that ended up coming true on Tuesday.
“Don’t you worry,” Miller had told the spirits then. “We’ll fix you so that you’ll look as good as new. You’ll be whole again.”
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at alex.mccarthy@juneauempire.com.
225;an, leads a song as the house’s Yax t&
233; totem pole is raised at Auke Recreation Area on Tuesday. The pole was taken down in 2010 and restored due to rot, insect damage and even bullet holes. (Alex McCarthy | Juneau Empire)
The Dipper house, named for the Great Dipper, is represented by a bear. The bear serves as the base of the Yax t&
