People looking at Tlingit totem poles, including the Sockeye Salmon pole and the Bullhead and the Fight with the Land Otters pole at Klawock, Alaska, circa 1960s

• Main Author: Clifford, Howard
• Other Authors: University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Subjects: Totem poles > Alaska > Klawock; Tlingit Indians > Arts & crafts > Alaska > Klawock; Tlingit sculpture > Alaska > Klawock; Tlingit wood-carving > Alaska > Klawock; Klawock (Alaska) > Buildings; structures; etc.; Pacific; Sockeye; Clifford; Prince of Wales Island; tlingit; Alaska
• Online Access: http://cdm16786.contentdm.oclc.org:80/cdm/ref/collection/alaskawcanada/id/4492

Caption with image: Totem poles at Klawock are neatly arranged and easy to picture and study. Shown above in the foreground is the lower portion of the Sockeye Salmon Pole. The upper portion is a wolf's head, then the face of a wolf, representing the mouth of a stream with salmon entering. Below is a portion of a trap, to catch the salmon. The second pole is Bullhead and the Fight with the Land Otters. Raven is sitting on the tail of bullhead. The side markings represent the backbone, ribs, and skeletal design. Clifford 400 Klawock (sometimes spelled Klawak), is a Tlingit village located on the west coast of Prince of Wales Island. Klawock is the home to many totem pole carvings, mostly grave markers, sepulchers, and commemorative carvings. These carvings all came from the old Tlingit town of Tuxekan. Carvers from Tuxekan practiced a distinctive form of wood carving in which undecorated portions of the totem pole were left squared. As part of the Civilian Conservation Corps project to preserve indigenous totem poles, a number of totem poles were identified to be moved from Tuxekan to Klawock in 1939. Visible in this picture are the Sockeye Salmon Pole (foreground), a mortuary column of a Wolf clansman, and Bullhead and the Fight with the Land Otters (middle), which is a grave marker of a member of a Raven clan. (Sources: The Wolf and the Raven: Totem Poles of Southeastern Alaska by Viola E. Garfield and Linn A. Forrest; and Much About Totems by Pacific Northern Airlines)