Native Heritage at Ketchikan



View from Cape Fox Lodge



Saxman Totem Park



After completing our circuit of Behm Canal and the Misty Fiords, we returned to Ketchikan and toured several museums with our friends Pam and Bruce, who spent another two nights with us aboard “Got d’ Fever.”  Our friends treated us to a special dinner at the Cape Fox Lodge overlooking Ketchikan.  After a delicious seafood dinner, we viewed the displays of Tlingit traditional art work housed in the Lodge.  The Lodge is part of the Cape Fox Corporation and shareholders are direct descendants of those who lived in Old Cape Fox Village near the Alaska/B.C. border.  The following day, we rode bicycles to the Totem Heritage Center housing old photographs and a collection of totem poles retrieved from two Tlingit Indian villages - Tongass Island and Village Island near Cape Fox; and totems from one Haida village on Prince of Wales Island west of Ketchikan.  The museum was helpful in explaining the five different purposes for totems:  1) House Post - decorative support structures for a Longhouse; 2) Memorial Post - remembrance for an important individual and transfer to a successor; 3) Crest Post -  insignias proclaiming the lineage and social standing of a family; 4) Mortuary Post - ashes of the deceased placed in a cavity of the post; and 5) Story Post - to document events, which could include someone who owed a debt or other obligation, the post was taken down when the debt was paid.  Before lunch, we rode our bikes to an ocean side beach for a picnic and visited the Saxman Totem Park, a collection of totems also moved from Tongass & Village Islands, Old Cape Fox Village, and additionally from Pennock Island.  The period of wealth for these villages lasted 40-50 years, reaching its peak in the 1860’s (“the Golden Age”) when many of the totem poles were carved.  Villages and totems were ultimately abandoned as Natives moved to Ketchikan to find employment in fishing and mining idustries and to be near schools and churches.  Fortunately, the Totem Heritage Center in Ketchikan holds classes and workshops to preserve the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian art and culture.



Weaved Baskets - Totem Heritage Center



Totems - Totem Heritage Center



Picnic Lunch



Bike Path