Start Year: 1939

The Wandering Raven House Entrance Pole is the central totem that decorates the façade and marks the entrance of the clan house at Totem Bight. A 2013 Department of Natural Resources, Master Development Plan for Totem Bight describes the characteristics of the carving: “The pole against the front of the house is called Wandering Raven, named for the legendary Raven carved as the top figure. Raven can be recognized by his straight black beak. Underneath Raven and at his feet is a carved box containing daylight. Below a mink and a frog, the standing figure of a man, Natsihline, represents the...

The Eagle Grave Market Pole is a totem carved in the 1930s by John Wallace. The original was located in the old village of Howkan. The carving found today at the Totem Bight State Historical Park was reproduced from memory by John Wallace. Wallace’s carving has a Chilkat blanket, which is an uncommon detail for this type of totem, and was not present in the original design. The totem is 10’ high and has a 42” base below ground. The design of the blanket evokes clouds, mountains, and the symbolic characters that live in the forest. The photographic material published here...

The Clan House is a replica of a community house representative of houses built in the early nineteen-century native villages of Southeast Alaska. It served as the chieftain's dwelling and it also housed several families part of his clan. The structure and its totem art did not originally existed on the current site. The site was a fish camp prior to being turned into a totem park. The paining decorating the façade was created by Charles Brown. It represents a stylized raven figure painted in light blue and brown colors. The eyes of the raven are composed as two stylized faces. Such elaborate...

The Moon Raven Pole & Sun Raven Pole are two memorial poles that flank the stairs that lead up to the Clan House at the end of the Saxman Totem Park. The Sun Raven Pole is a memorial for Reynold Denny Sr., the Chief of Saxman Village. The Moon Raven Pole is a memorial for Martha Shields, a notable elder of the Village of Saxman.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) relocated the Raven Posts from a village in Southeast Alaska to the newly established Saxman Totem Park. The CCC set up a totem restoration project in 1938 and Tlingit carvers enrolled in the CCC lead the work. The photographic material published here by the Living New Deal was provided by courtesy of Linn A. Forrest (1905-1986), a practicing architect who photographed the totem poles at the time of their restoration, between 1939 and 1941. Forrest oversaw the joint program of the Forest Service and the Civilian Conservation Corps to recruit Alaska native carvers in the restoration and recarving of totem poles...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) relocated the Raven Pole, from a village in Southeast Alaska to the newly established Saxman Totem Park. CCC set up a totem restoration project in 1938 and Tlingit carvers enrolled in the CCC lead the work. In the 1961 volume, The Wolf and the Raven, anthropologist Viola Garfield and architect Linn Forrest describe the visual characteristics of the Raven Pole: "Raven on the top of the Raven Totem pole is carved with outspread wings ornamented with feather and wing-tip designs, and with breast feathers forming the hair or head dress of the human figure below. This is an arrangement similar...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) relocated the Grizzly Bear Post, from a village in Southeast Alaska to the newly established Saxman Totem Park. CCC set up a totem restoration project in 1938 and Tlingit carvers enrolled in the CCC lead the work. In the 1961 volume, The Wolf and the Raven, anthropologist Viola Garfield and architect Linn Forrest describe the visual characteristics of the Grizzly Bear Post: "The Grizzly Bear post (also identified as Kats and His Bear Wife) belongs to people of Kats House of the Tongass tribe. It was approximately one hundred years old when brought from Village Island to Saxman in...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) relocated the Owl Memorial Pole from a village in Southeast Alaska, to the newly established Saxman Totem Park. The CCC set up a totem restoration project in 1938 and Tlingit carvers enrolled in the CCC lead the work. In the 1961 volume, The Wolf and the Raven, anthropologist Viola Garfield and architect Linn Forrest describe the visual characteristics of the Owl Memorial Pole: "The owl at the top of the pole was the main crest of the medicine man, or shaman, in whose memory the carving was dedicated. The owl crest is explained by the legend of a...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) relocated the Dogfish Pole, also called the Chief Ebbits Pole, from a village in Southeast Alaska to the newly established Saxman Totem Park. The totem was erected in 1892 in memory of Chief Ebbits, head chief of the Tongass, at Old Tongass Village. The CCC set up a totem restoration project in 1938 and Tlingit carvers enrolled in the CCC lead the work. In the 1961 volume, The Wolf and the Raven, anthropologist Viola Garfield and architect Linn Forrest describe the visual characteristics of the Dogfish Pole: “The contrast in appearance between an unpainted and a painted pole was...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) relocated the Loon Tree totem from a village in Southeast Alaska to the newly established Saxman Totem Park. At Saxman, the Tlingit craftsmen created a copy of the original totem. The CCC set up a totem restoration project in 1938 under the supervision of architect Linn A. Forrest. Tlingit carvers enrolled in the CCC carried out the restoration and carving work. In the 1961 volume, The Wolf and the Raven, anthropologist Viola Garfield and architect Linn Forrest describe the visual characteristics of the Loon Tree totem: "The original Loon Tree Totem was brought from Cape Fox Village and copied at the Saxman...