Pioneer Square totem pole facts for kids
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The original totem pole, circa 1911
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| Location | Pioneer Square Seattle, Washington, U.S. |
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| Type | Totem pole |
| Material | Hemlock (original) Red cedar (replica) |
| Width | 4.5 feet (1.4 m) (replica) |
| Height | 49 feet 8 inches (15.14 m) (original) 50 feet (15 m) (replica) |
| Completion date | c. 1790 (original) 1940 (replica) |
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U.S. Historic district
Contributing property |
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 Location in Seattle WA Downtown
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| Part of | Pioneer Square–Skid Road District (ID70000086) |
| NRHP reference No. | 77001340 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | May 5, 1977 |
| Designated NHL | May 5, 1977 |
| Designated CP | June 22, 1970 |
The Pioneer Square totem pole, also referred to as the Seattle totem pole and historically as the Chief-of-All-Women pole, is a Tlingit totem pole located in Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle, Washington.
The original totem pole was carved in 1790 and raised in the Tlingit village on Tongass Island, Alaska to honor the Tlingit woman Chief-of-All-Women. The totem pole was later stolen by Seattle businessmen on an expedition to Alaska and subsequently gifted to the City of Seattle in 1899, where it was raised in Pioneer Square and became a source of civic pride. The totem pole was later damaged by arson and a replica was commissioned and installed in its place in 1940, which is now designated a National Historic Landmark.
Contents
History
Tlingit origin
The totem pole was initially carved around the year 1790 and belonged to the Kinninook family, a Tlingit clan of the Raven moiety. It was carved to honor Chief-of-All-Women, a Tlingit woman who drowned in the Nass River while traveling to visit an ill sister. Her family hired a carver and gathered to tell him stories they wanted represented on her totem pole. When the totem pole was complete, they organized a potlatch and raised the totem pole in her honor in the Tlingit village on Tongass Island. It was one of the few totem poles dedicated to a woman.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer expedition
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In 1899, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer sponsored an expedition of "leading Seattle citizens" to the District of Alaska. The expedition was meant to be a "goodwill tour," with a mixture of business and pleasure, and the goal of investigating increased trade and investment in Alaska. However, even as the Klondike Gold Rush came to an end, civic leaders also wanted to solidify Seattle as the "Gateway to Alaska" and the Seattle Chamber of Commerce included a committee of prominent businessmen on the expedition.
On August 17, 1899, the expedition set sail on the steamship City of Seattle with a total of 165 men and women. The expedition included stops at Vancouver, Mary Island, New Metlakahtla, Ketckikan, Wrangel, Juneau, the Treadwell Mines, Skagway, Lake Bennett, Dyea, Pyramid Harbor, Glacier Bay, Muir Glacier, Killisnoo, Sitka and Victoria.
On the morning of August 28, 1899, the City of Seattle stopped at the Tlingit village at Fort Tongass when members of the Chamber of Commerce committee spotted multiple totem poles. The village appeared to be deserted and they decided to take a totem pole as a souvenir. Third mate R. D. McGillvery and other members of the expedition went ashore and McGillvery later described the events as:
The Indians were all away fishing, except for one who stayed in his house and looked scared to death. We picked out the best looking totem pole... I took a couple of sailors ashore and we chopped it down—just like you'd chop down a tree. It was too big to roll down the beach, so we sawed it in two.
During the process, McGillvery and the other sailors broke the beak on the bottom figure which was later incorrectly reconstructed. A carving of a seal, about 8 feet (2.4 m) in length, was also taken from the Tlingit village. After the totem pole was floated back to the ship, the Chamber of Commerce committee collectively paid McGillvery $2.50 for his labor. The expedition returned to Seattle on August 30, 1899, and the Chamber of Commerce committee subsequently presented the totem pole to the Seattle City Council as a gift to the city.
Installation in Pioneer Square
The totem pole was repaired, repainted, and stored at the Denny Hotel in Denny Hill under watch of three members of the Chamber of Commerce committee. On October 18, 1899, the totem pole was raised in Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle and was "greeted by cheers of a multitude of people." At the ceremony, city officials praised the Chamber of Commerce committee for their gift and assured the gathered crowd that no one had owned the totem pole and that the expedition saved it from its certain destruction.
The Tlingit however, with the exception of the elderly and small children, had simply been away for the fishing and cannery season when the City of Seattle arrived at Fort Tongass and they were shocked to discover the totem pole gone when they returned. David E. Kinninook, who was a descendant of Chief-of-All-Women, and Tlingit witnesses of the theft contacted the governor of the District of Alaska John Green Brady and demanded legal action and $20,000 for the totem pole. The Kinninook family also sent a delegation to Seattle in an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve the totem pole.
The demand for legal action led to a federal grand jury in Alaska indicting eight men on the Chamber of Commerce committee for theft of government property. Attorney William H. Thompson, who was also on the expedition, defended the indicted men and said:
The village has long since been deserted ... Here the totem will voice the natives' deeds with surer speech than if lying prone on moss and fern on the shore of Tongass Island.
The suit was dismissed after a U.S. District Court Judge stopped in Seattle on the way to his new Alaska posting and was entertained at the private Rainier Club. The City of Seattle was allowed to keep the totem pole and the Chamber of Commerce committee was charged a nominal fine of $500, which the Seattle Post-Intelligencer paid on their behalf.
In the interim, the totem pole had become a source of civic pride for Seattle and was featured on post cards and brochures. In 1909, Seattle hosted the Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition, which in part celebrated the transformation of Seattle from a small town to a booming city, and the totem pole was featured on the official brochure. The totem pole had lost all association with the Tlingit owners and a 1910 article described it as the "totem pole that made Seattle famous."
Destruction and commission of replica
In October 1938, the totem pole was damaged by an arsonist and was found to be too damaged by dry rot for repair; the Seattle City Council and Park Board sought to have a replica commissioned. The United States Forest Service was directing a totem pole restoration project in southeastern Alaska and offered to employ Civilian Conservation Corps Tlingit carvers to craft a replica.
The damaged totem pole was shipped to Saxman, Alaska, where Tlingit carver Charles Brown directed a team of carvers which included members of the Kinninook family. The replica was completed after three months of work, and because the red cedar used to carve the totem pole had come from Forest Service land and the carvers were paid by the government, a special act of Congress was passed to allow transfer of ownership of the totem pole from the Forest Service to the City of Seattle. The completed replica was dedicated with tribal blessings and shipped to Seattle in April 1940 and then raised in Pioneer Square in a ceremony on July 24, 1940.
In 1972, Tsimshian carver John C. Hudson, Jr. restored and repainted the totem pole. In 1977, the totem pole—along with the Pioneer Building and pergola in Pioneer Square—was designated a National Historic Landmark.
Images for kids
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The replica's base, 2007
