Totems & Lumberjacks

Our day in Ketchikan was spent learning about two important aspects of Alaska’s culture: totem poles and logging. We once again enjoyed beautiful weather, close to 70 degrees with sunny skies. We heard again and again what rare weather this was for Ketchikan, which is known for its year round rain.

At Totem Bight State Park, we saw totem poles created by two different native tribes, the Tlingit and the Haida. You can see that one tribe used much more detail in their totem poles than the other.

Our guide explained the symbolism of many of the poles, as well as the varying purposes such as memorial poles, shame poles and potlatch (gathering) poles. You can get some idea of the size of the tall totem poles in the photo of the Fog Woman totem pole below.

 

The Clan House was really interesting. It was a wooden structure comprised of three interior levels with a gravel fire pit in the center. (The railings and benches that you see in the photo have been added for the tourists.)

Several families lived inside with the flat areas on each level being used for sleeping with storage below. Our guide joked that we have ‘walk in’ closets in our homes, while the clan houses contained ‘walk on’ closets!

Above the fire area there was an opening in the roof, but there were no windows and only one small entrance.

Here’s Bill – the low man on the totem pole – as he stepped out of the Clan House.

Before we left Ketchikan, we attended The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show, a very entertaining demonstration of skills used by loggers. The lumberjacks competed in various competitions including log-rolling, pole-climbing, axe-throwing and buck-sawing.

  We also ran into these two mushers who seem a little confused. They have the dog sled, but no dogs. Peggy and I tried to ignore them, but they followed us onto the bus and right back to the ship!