The house posts are back home.

If you were anywhere near downtown Wrangell on Wednesday morning, you probably heard the house posts making their way from the Nolan Center back home to Shakes Island.

Last April, all Chief Shakes artifacts were removed from the Tribal House to prepare for the renovation.  For the past 12 months, the artifacts and house posts were on loan to the Wrangell Museum, allowing the historic items to be on display to the public rather than stored away in a dark room somewhere.  Major renovation wrapped up months ago and all Project Manager Todd White was looking for was a nice window of weather to make the move.

That weather came this week and on Wednesday morning, nearly 200 were in attendance to escort the house posts through downtown Wrangell, across the 300 ft. bridge onto Shakes Island, and into the entrance of the brand-spankin-new Tribal House.  White had the posts trailered-up and was cruising ever so carefully, a giant wave of singers and dancers in beaded regalia flowing behind his Toyota pickup.  The high skies were exactly what Wrangell needed.

Once the parade hit the bridge, it was eight men per post, four on each side.  The posts crossed a freshly decked footbridge.  The crew recently installed new rails, new planks, even a few pilings, along the elevated path in a project overseen by Bill Williard, Project Manager for WCA Tribal Transportation.

With the amount of traffic that 300 ft. of wood will see in May, the sight of a new bridge is nice, but safety for all of those crossing the bridge is the main reason for the upgrade.  The money is coming from the Bureau of Indian Affairs travel and transportation program.

Once the house posts entered the room, they were met by another resident of the island.  Master Carver Steve Brown, along with carvers Linda Churchill and Susie Kasinger, are putting the finishing touches on the new bear screen, which will again meet visitors and oversee the main entrance of the Tribal House.

Using an overhead projector against perfectly adzed Cedar, Brown and the girls will have created one of only 3-4 bear screens in the world.  To ensure the screen will face the footbridge for years to come, the new version will not be a permanent fixture, but a removable work of Native art that can be packed away to avoid the unpredictable Southeast Alaska winters.

Re-dedication is only five weeks away.  This town is going to be bustling like it's the 4th of July, with three days of scheduled activities and food booths all over town.  More than 700 visitors have RSVP'd.  That doesn't include those who are just planning to show up.  The potlatch for the last Shakes Island opening attracted more than 1,200 out-of-towners, and that was in 1940.

Schedule of events:

Thursday, May 2nd

Canoe Landing - One People Canoe Society

Friday, May 3rd

1:30-2:30 p.m. Parade

2:30-4:30 p.m. Canoe Activities

4:30-5:40 p.m. Toddler Regalia Contest

7:00 p.m. Bingo or Native Dancing

Saturday, May 4th

10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Re-dedication Ceremony

3:00-9:00 p.m. Presentation of Gifts, Dancing, Dinner 

Thanks to Apryl Hutchinson and Greg Knight for tagging us in the photos.

KSTK - Chief Shakes Renovation Update

The Chief Shakes Tribal House renovation has wrapped for the time being.  Construction is complete.  The artifacts and house posts still need to make their way from their spot at the museum back to Shakes Island, but Project Manager Todd White says they'll need a good shot of weather for that.  So White, and the rest of the renovation crew, will get the holidays off, a vacation well-earned.  The crew will start back up in the new year, but at what capacity is still unknown.  The project is finally wrapping up.  Bring on the Re-dedication.

Greg Knight put together a great piece for KSTK on the status of the project and a recent open house.  Click here to check it out.

For a blog post on the canoe workshop put on by the Chilton brothers of the One People Canoe Society, and a complete schedule of events for the May 2013 ceremony, check out the Re-dedication blog.

We're going to need help to pull off this Re-dedication.  Hotels have no vacancies and beds are tough to come by in Wrangell.  We are looking for people to help house visitors over the weekend of May 3rd & 4th, 2013, or assist with housing in any way.  Whether that be renting out your guest place, loaning a spare bed or couch, or volunteering to help organize the Re-dedication housing process, contact WCA.

The Tree

Photo by Greg Knight

A debate has risen about the giant tree that guards Shakes Island.

The massive cottonwood, estimated by local botanist Glen Decker to be in the 100 year-old range, stands nearly 75 feet tall and could possibly pose a risk to the Tribal House or totems if it were to give way during a storm.  

During a recent WCA meeting, community members spoke on the tree, including Tlingit elder Marge Byrd, who claims her mother planted the tree.   A unanimous vote decided that the tree will still be standing during the re-dedication in May, 2013.

The following is from an article by Wrangell Sentinel reporter Greg Knight, from the November 21 edition of the newspaper.

“That tree has been there a long time,” Byrd began. “I called my family and some other people about because it’s very emotional, but I had some good input and some of them said they should brace it up so it’s there for the dedication. After that, they can take it down and maybe plant a new one that would have been planted the year of our dedication, which would still have a great meaning to it.” 

Eliciting laughter from the gathering, Byrd also commented on what a member of her family told her might be the best idea. 

“My niece Dawn said, ‘You get down there and chain yourself to that tree,’” she said. “I know the Eagles aren’t going to be very happy, but it’s something that needs to be done because 15 or 20 years from now if you get a big wind that blows it over, there goes our house.” 

Todd White, the project manager for the renovation project on the island, said the need to remove the tree comes out of an abundance of economic caution on the part of the WCA board. 

“I know it has been there a long time and it’s very important to Marge,” White said. “We have a report that says we can band it and trim it and it might stand for years. But, the thing about cottonwoods is they are extremely heavy and when they fall they don’t come down the way they are supposed to. The concerns that the council has are that if it falls forward, it takes out the Eagle Totem, which has a price of $220,000. If it falls backwards, it takes out the house. That is $1 million with another million worth of artwork in it.” 

Decker’s report, which was commissioned by the WCA, states that his study of the tree shows an old tree in the middle of its life cycle. 

“The lifespan of Cottonwoods can run from 100 to 400 years old, but more commonly tends to be from 100 to 200 years old,” Decker’s report states. “The tree has a healthy root zone, trunk flare and crown. The codominant stems, or ‘fork’ of the tree is the only visible defect. The fork union is ‘U’ shaped and without decay, which is a good sign, however any fork attached this low on the tree can pose a hazard.” 

The possibility of the tree falling over and into the new Shakes Tribal House, while not directly addressed, is briefly touched upon in the report. 

“As far as the potential for the tree falling over, with the healthy root zone and overall health of the tree, combined with the pruning treatments it has received previously, I would say that it is unlikely to fall over with normal weather situations,” Decker added.
Decker also included that recommended hazard abatements would be to prune the upper canopy first, remove some of the larger branches under what he calls the “pedestrian zone,” and, “above where the new totem will be positioned.” 

Another safety feature Decker recommended would be the installation of a brace in the fork of the tree, which he states, “will reinforce the codominant or ‘fork’ stems while still allowing the crown of the tree to move naturally.” 

According to White, Decker has purchased an appropriate brace for installation in the near future.

For more, check out the complete article on the Sentinel's website.

The 1869 Bombardment of Wrangell

What if I told you that over 150 years ago, Wrangell was almost blown to smithereens by the U.S. Military after a member of the Stikine tribe bit off a white woman's finger?

You wouldn't believe me.  I didn't believe it at first.  How had I not heard this story before?

While not a lot of documentation exists on the Bombardment, most tell a very similar tale.  If you haven't heard of the 1869 Bombardment of Wrangell yet ... spoiler alert!

... The US Army was also involved in a shelling, later in 1869. 

George Thornton Emmons, a US Naval officer in Alaska from 1882 to 1899, and later one the first ethnographers to study Alaska Natives, wrote about the Wrangell incident in "The Tlingit Indians" his masterwork, which was written in the 1930s and 1940s but not published until 1991. 

"The shelling of Wrangell in 1869 by the Army at Fort Wrangel was ordered to enforce the surrender of an Indian named Scutdoo or Scutdor who had killed a White trader in retaliation for the wanton and unjustifiable killing of an Indian name Si-Wau by Lt. Loucks the second in command of the post," Emmons wrote. "Si Wau was drunk at the time and had bitten off part of a finger of (another soldier's) wife."

Emmons noted that Scutdoo was a cousin of Si Wau and felt duty bound to kill a white to avenge the death. The Army shelled a large portion of the Indian village and then took Scutdoo's mother and another Native hostage. Scutdoo gave himself up and was tried, convicted and hanged for the murder.

Emmons reported that before the execution Scutdoo expressed sorrow over the killing and said he had nothing personal against the dead trader and he hoped to meet up with him in the afterlife.

That's the Cliffs Notes version, courtesy of Dave Kiffen from his article US Navy Bombed Angoon 125 Years Ago, which can be found at Sitnews.us.

What that clip leaves out is that the U.S. Military blasted a few cannon balls into what was then Fort Wrangel and threatened to take the whole place down if Scutdoo didn't give himself up to be hung.  Well, he did.  In fact, Scutdoo's hanging was the first recorded in Alaska (Dec. 29, 1869), according to DeathPenaltyUSA.org.

  

The Bombardment made waves in the National news, but somehow isn't remembered when we, the locals, celebrate Wrangell history.  Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) and WCA hope to change that thanks to a new grant.  SHI was the recipient of a one-year National Park Service (NPS) Battlefield Preservation Grant to document 1869 Bombardment through oral history work with elders in partnership with the WCA.  This is the first ever NPS grant awarded to an organization in Alaska to study a U.S. conflict with a Native tribe.

The final report generated through the grant will be given to the WCA and community of Wrangell to allow them to determine what could be done to preserve, market, develop or memorialize the conflict for the community’s advantage.  Some Battlefield Grant recipients in years past have gone on to build memorials, or be recognized as a National Historic Site, like Chief Shakes Tribal House.

Zachary Jones, SHI Archivist & Collection Manager and PhD student in Ethnohistory at University of Alaska Fairbanks focusing on Tlingit and Russian relations, will serve as the primary investigator on the Bombardment and believes “past writings do not do the situation justice.  Reports out there now largely represent only one side of the story.  They didn’t go far enough. One needs to understand Tlingit law, the cultural context and aspects of Federal Indian policy to address the whole situation.  I look forward to working with and serving the WCA and community of Wrangell in bringing this complex issue forward."

Fort Wrangell, 1869, by Vincent Colyer, who reported to President Ulysses S. Grant on the Bombardment

Shakes Island and the Civilian Conservation Corps

By Emily Moore

The Shakes Island Restoration Project belongs to a long history of restorations at Wrangell that dates back to the 1930s (if not before). During the Great Depression, the U.S. Forest Service oversaw a restoration of Shakes Island as part of a major federal initiative to preserve Tlingit and Haida totem poles in Southeast Alaska. Local Tlingit men were hired to do the restoration work through the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the relief program that was the hallmark of President Roosevelt's New Deal. The hope of the CCC restoration program was to provide local men with short-term jobs preserving totem poles in a "totem park" that would attract tourists and thus provide long-term jobs for Native artists. During the New Deal restoration project, the lead carvers at Wrangell were Joe Thomas and Tom Ukas. Many other local men helped to adze boards, rough out the totem poles, and erect a new version of the Shakes House. When the park was completed, Natives and non-Natives celebrated with the Wrangell Potlatch, June 3-4, 1940. It was then that Charles Jones, who had also worked for the CCC, was named the next Chief Shakes.

Shakes Island is one of six totem parks established by the CCC in Southeast Alaska during the Great Depression. (Klawock, Hydaburg, Kasaan, Saxman and Totem Bight are the other parks.) The CCC also restored totem poles at the park in Sitka and carved three totem poles for Juneau. Some scholars have argued that these New Deal totem parks represented a government appropriation of Native heritage. They point out that the idea of a "totem park" was not a Tlingit or Haida concept, and that traditionally totem poles were not preserved but were allowed to decay naturally. While this is true, it is also important to note that Tlingit and Haida peoples have adopted the New Deal totem parks for their own cultural needs. The Wrangell Potlatch and the succession of Charles Jones to the rank of Chief Shakes is one example of how Wrangell Tlingits used the totem park to advance Tlingit traditions in the 1940s. And the Shakes Island Restoration project today shows how the park continues to serve as a site for Tlingit art and culture. A hundred years from now, historians may study this restoration project as part of a long and proud tradition of totem pole restoration at Shakes Island.

Emily Moore is PhD Candidate in the history of art at the University of California, Berkeley. Raised in Ketchikan, she is completing her dissertation on the six totem parks in Southeast Alaska created during the New Deal, 1938-1941. Anyone with information on carvers who participated in the New Deal projects are encouraged to contact Emily at emilylmoore@berkeley.edu, so that she can honor their role in this early restoration project. You can also view her presentation to the Sealaska Heritage Institute by going to http://vimeo.com/29455942.

Photo is courtesy of University of Washington Libraries. The caption reads "Tlingit totem pole being carved inside the Civilian Conservation Corps workshop, Wrangell, Alaska, 1939."

Linda Churchill on Carving and Her Dad

[My goals are to] be a better adzer and try and work on my own at home. And I want to try and make a mask. My dad made several masks that I can look at and try and study. And he made beautiful, beautiful eight-foot long medicine paddles or shaman paddles and he used my hair on them. If I could get good photos of what he has left here, I’d like to try and make my father happy even though he’s not right here with me. In fact, there’s a two-finned killer whale he did down at Chief Shakes grave. A couple of years ago I noticed the wind had blown and one fin was missing. I got hold of three different people trying to get somebody replicate it while the one fin was still there [to copy]. And no one did anything and last year the second fin disappeared. So, I mentioned it to John Martin, and he said he’s going to get a special piece of wood, and make a template, and I get to do copy my Dad’s fins. So that’s cool.

Wayne Price on Why He Wanted to Work on This Project

Wrangell is pretty close to my heart…I have my artwork before the Chief Shakes house posts and then I have my artwork after. When Steve Brown and I did the house posts in the 80s, we did 6 totem poles plus the 4 house posts. So, I spent 6 or 7 years here living in Wrangell. My son was born here in Wrangell—my first born—and I have a pretty good standing history from that time here in Wrangell. So, I went out there carving in a lot of other places, [but] I knew Chief Shakes clan house had to be done. And, they’ve had a rough road to get here. If it wasn’t for a few people standing their post during the hard times, we may not be where we’re at right now. I commend those that stayed with it. I built a clan house up in Anchorage at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in the year 2000 and I know what it takes to build a clan house. Anything about carving wood, I like to be involved. Big projects, I like to be involved…If the chance came up in my lifetime to do the Chief Shakes house, I wanted to be here.