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Totem Raising Ceremony – Chief Johnson Pole

Carved by: Israel Shotridge, Tlingit carver and member of the Tongass Tribe.

commissioned by the Tongass Tribe

Opening and Sharing of Cultures

totem

Photo courtesy of Shotridge Galleries

The phone rang at my home.  It was Dana Jackson, one of my Tlingit students.  “Ms. Roppel, you ready to go?  The pole is going up at 10:00 a.m.  Meet you there.”

I glanced at the raven jumping around on my porch picking up the last crumbs of my breakfast toast, and then I jumped on my bicycle and headed six blocks to the center of town where I was meeting many of the Ketchikan and Tlingit community members to raise the new Chief Johnson Totem. As usual, the sun strained to burn a hole in the low hanging mist obscuring the 3000 foot Deer Mountain peak behind the town.  Bald eagles screeched from the top of snags between the wooden buildings.

My mom (80, now 90) and Dana and I met at the old Native baseball field on a tide flat, now a parking lot next to Ketchikan Creek. This new replica of the original, which had stood on this property many years ago, was for “reunification by the people of the Tongass Tribe…[and] to reinstate the people's claim to the land of their ancestors”(Shotridge).   My friends were staking out a line on which to tug.  Israel Shotridge had been carving on this totem for a year and a half.  Before the raising, we smiled and he leaned over and jokingly said,  “If it splits, it will be in your direction.”  We laughed.  I was honored to be able to participate…so was everyone else in town.  Even though the totem belonged to the Tongass Tribe, we feel like it belongs to all the members of the town. Raising a totem pole is not an everyday occurrence.  It is carved only for specific occasions:  to commemorate a chief, a story, or special historical event,  to ridicule someone, or to be used as a burial pole.

I didn’t know which line to select; my friends were in all the lines.  So I jumped on behind Mom and in front of one of my students.  I winked at a student standing next to me.

The drumming had started.

The mayor of Saxman Native Village presided, “Goona sheesh!”  (Thank you for coming)  Chief Williams and Representative Williams gave their blessings.  Reverend gave the benediction. 

The chorus began:

Oh ya eeeee, oh ya eee.

Eieeeeyahhhh.

Three grandmothers, all in their 80’s

In their red and black regalia

Swayed as they chanted, chanted,

All holding carved eagle cedar staffs

Signifying their clan.

Oh ya eeee, oh ya eee.

Eieeeeyahhhh.

Black shawls covered their shoulders.

Each with the crest of their clan

Carefully beaded with abalone shells and pearl buttons

Making a design of an eagle, raven, or beaver

In red, black, and turquoise.

All Tlingit elders from the Tongass Tribe

Surrounded by children,

Grandchildren and

Great grandchildren

And great-great grandchildren

Clad in a varying design of the same

Regalia (traditional dress).

They all chanted:

Yeee ah yeh. Yee ah yeh.

The Tribal Dancers swayed, swayed.

Step, step, step, step.

The men wearing carved cedar raven

 and

eagle masks painted red

Black, and yellow

Leered out at the crowd.

They crouched waaaayyyyy down and

Stepped and leeeeered, stepped and leeeeered

They spun on one foot and lightly tapped the other

Deer skinned and beaded moccasins.

Their masks’ beaks moved up and down, looking this way and that.

The totem pole lifting ropes were put in place

All stretching straight out from the totem lying on its side

Like half a pinwheel.

People moved with the ropes, taking a bracing stance.

Drum, drum, drum, drum

Drum, drum, drum, drum

The spirits came to lift the totem as everyone

Put a hand on a rope.

Drum, drum, drum, drum

We pulled, pulled, pulled

And the singers chanted, chanted, chanted,

And the dancers

Danced, danced, danced

We pulled together

And prayed for good health

For all our families

Friends

All the people in the world

For all the animals,

As the Chief Johnson Pole

Rose gradually

Gradually,

Gradually,

Balancing,

To honor Chief Johnson

To reunify the people of the Tongass

And reclaim the land where it

Originally stood…

And the carver

Israel Shotridge,

Of this mighty cedar tree

Grown in the Tongass National Forest.

55 feet tall, it stands looking proudly out

To greet the ships,

The visitors,

The town peoples,

The cars,

The ferries,

The shoppers

And to remind us that this totem

 Chief Johnson

Stood from 1901-1982

At the center of

Kish Kan (Tlingit for Ketchikan)

The People of the Creek.

Oh ya sheeeee.  Oh ya sheeee

Great cheering,

More singing, and dancing, and blessings.

Everyone gave a little speech.

The Potlatch followed at Schoenbar School

A large enough area for everyone from all over

Alaska to fit.

This pole opened communication between many people

These people will certainly

Have good luck for many years to follow.

Goona sheesh ho ho!!!

(Thank you very much for coming!)

Rosie Roppel

About the totem

This significant totem pole was commissioned by the Tongass Tribe and funded through a grant from the state of Alaska. This totem was the first totem pole in over 50 years to be carved and raised in a traditional manner in downtown Ketchikan, where at one time , there were dozens of totem poles standing.

In a statement of reunification by the people of the Tongass Tribe, the replica of the Chief Johnson Totem Pole - which originally stood from 1901 to 1982 at the center of the community at the mouth of Ketchikan Creek - was raised on October 7, 1989, to reinstate the people's claim to the land of their ancestors.

The pole was carved by Israel Shotridge, Tlingit carver and member of the Tongass Tribe.

carver

As the legend of the Fog Woman and the creation of the Salmon is once told through the carvings on the pole, the people rediscover themselves, along with Israel himself who was searching for his ties to a culture that was forgotten all around him. This totem pole was Israel's first monumental totem that he carved himself.

Many Tribal elders, dignitaries, Haida, Tlingit and Tshimpsian people from throughout the Northwest Coast came to celebrate this pole raising. A Potlatch Feast to commemorate this special event followed the pole raising. The guests were treated to a traditional salmon dinner with over 15 Native dance groups performing into the early morning. Along with the feast were speeches, Native adoptions, and name-giving.

Taken from Israel Shotridge’s webpage: http://www.shotridgestudios.com