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Explores the stories behind the making and displaying of 90 different totem poles

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Seattle

1. The Seattle Totem Pole at Pioneer Square

2. Grizzly Bear House Posts at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture Victoria

3. Wawadit’la, the Mungo Martin House at the Royal British Columbia Museum

4. Sgaang Gwaii (Ninstints) Poles at the Royal British Columbia Museum

5. Tony Hunt’s Grizzly Bear and Human Post at Horseshoe Bay

Vancouver

6. Haesemhliyawn Memorial Totem Pole of the Gitk’san fromGitanyow (Kitwancool) at the Museum of Anthropology

7. Monuments by Bill Reid, Doug Cranmer, and Jim Hart at the Museum of Anthropology

8. The Thunderbird House Post by Tony Hunt at Stanley Park

9. Carvings by Susan Point, Joe David, and Don Yeomans at Vancouver International Airport

Vancouver Island

10. The World’s Tallest Pole at Alert Bay

11. The Poles in Alert Bay Prince Rupert

12. Eagle on the Decayed Pole at Prince Rupert by Dempsey Bob and Glen Wood

Haida Gw aii

13. Qay’llnagaay (Sea Lion Town) Ketchikan

14. Saxman and Totem Bight

15. A Portrait in Saxman Park

16. The Clan House at Totem Bight

17. The Chief Kyan Pole

18. The Ketchikan Indian Community Tribal Health Center Totem Poles Sitka

19. Chief Saanaheit’s Poles at the Sitka National Historical Park

20. Sitka’s Monuments at World’s Fairs

21. The K’aylaan Pole by Tommy Joseph

22. The Sitka Wellbreity Totem Pole by Wayne Price

Juneau

23. Culturally Modified Trees by Richard Beasley at Mount Roberts

24. The Waasgo Pole at the Alaska State Office Building

25. The Wooshkeetan Pole by Nathan Jackson and Steve Brown

Conclusion

Suggested Further Reading

Index

About the Author

Aldona Jonaitis is the author of a number of books including Art of the Northwest Coast and, with Aaron Glass, The Totem Pole: An Intercultural History. She is director emerita of the University of Alaska Museum of the North.

Reviews

"Discovering Totem Poles is, as the title makes clear, geared toward travelers, but there is plenty here to hold the interest of Southeast Alaskans as well."
*Juneau Empire*

"Jonaitis is refreshingly iconoclastic, reminding us that totem poles were never worshipped or considered sacred and the concept of 'low man on the totem pole' has no meaning."
*City Living*