Saxman Totem Park, the Blackfish Fin – Saxman AK

Description

In the 1961 volume, The Wolf and the Raven, anthropologist Viola Garfield and architect Linn Forrest describe the visual characteristics of the totem pole: “The Klawak Blackfish Fin carving symbolizes a mythical monster of the sea about which the south eastern Alaska Indians tell many tales. It has the head and body of a bear and the fins of the blackfish or killer whale. In the carving the dorsal fin is represented as a slender shaft, rounded at the top. The pole stood in front of a house in the Tongass village on Cat Island. The story and carving belong to a Tlingit group of Klawak, hence its name. It is estimated that this pole was made about 1900, since a photograph of it taken in 1915 or 1916 by the Forest Service shows no signs of deterioration.”