Klawock Totem Park, The Long-Eared Monster Pole – Klawock AK

Description

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) restored/recarved the Long-Eared Monster Pole between 1938 and 1940. The restoration was part of a larger U.S. Forest Service program focused on the conservation of totems and Native cultural assets. The pole was originally found on a rocky point in the abandoned village of Tuxekan. With the accord of the former residents, the CCC and the U.S. Forrest Service relocated the pole to the Klawock Totem Park on the Prince of Wales Island.

This pole belongs to the Raven clan, the same lineage that created the Bullhead and the Fight with the Land Otters Pole. It was created by a Haida carver. According to Viola Garfield and Linn Forrest (1961), the pole bears the typical Haida stylistic characteristics, such as the grooving of the ears that can be observed in this figure. Such markings are encountered only in Haida carvings, and are not found in Tlingit art.

In their 1961 volume, The Wolf and the Raven, anthropologist Viola Garfield and architect Linn Forrest recount the legend illustrated by the carving: “According to the legend, Raven clansmen, passing the point en route to the village of Sqa-an, saw a strange creature rise slowly out of the water and then disappear. It looked like a very large man with long, fin-like ears and a human body. They took the monster as a crest of their lineage and named the point Giant Monster Point, the name by which it is still known. The creature is seen occasionally but has never harmed anyone.”