Totem pole to be raised at Chicago museum

[Okwes]

Totem pole to be raised at Chicago museum

EMILIE REAUME
Ketchikan Daily News


KETCHIKAN, Alaska — Nathan and Stephen Jackson have totem poles
around the country, the newest 14-foot totem pole will be raised at the
Field Museum in Chicago.

The Jacksons were commissioned by the museum to create the pole for its
permanent collection.

Nathan said the museum started talking to them about the pole two years
ago, but "we didn't have the log." When the Cape Fox Corp. donated the
log, they were able to start.

Janet Hong, project manager for exhibitions at the Field Museum, said
that Nathan and Stephen will be artists in residence for two weeks this
month so people can watch them finish the pole.

The pole raising will be April 2 and a private dedication celebration
will be held April 4, she said. Three representatives from the Cape Fox
Corp. are scheduled to attend the celebration, as are representatives of
Chicago-area tribes.

"The pole will be inside a museum gallery so there isn't a traditional
raising, but I think Nathan will sing a song and say a prayer as the
pole is installed," Hong said.

Stephen said the totem pole was commissioned to replace one the Field
Museum returned to the Cape Fox Natives in compliance with the federal
Repatriation Act passed in 1990. The repatriated poles were taken by
from Cape Fox by Harriman Expedition in 1899.

"The Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., the Burke Museum in Seattle
and the Field Museum in Chicago wanted poles to replace the ones they
had returned," Stephen said.

Hong said when the repatriated pole was returned by the Field Museum,
the people of Cape Fox chose a red cedar log as a goodwill gift to the
museum. The museum chose Nathan and Stephen as carvers.

"It's a real honor to have this new artwork in the gallery. It will
serve as the iconic object in the gallery that will introduce people to
Northwest Coast and Arctic Circle art," Hong said.

The museum is creating a special platform for the pole and it will be
one of two large pieces in the exhibit.

"It's sort of a gateway gallery about Northwest Coast and Arctic
cultures," she said.

Stephen lives and works in New York so the design was formed through
e-mailed pictures and sketches. Stephen said he took a picture of the
pole he had created for the Smithsonian Institution and made random
distortions of it with photo editing software.

"I e-mailed the distorted picture to my dad and he would fill in the
holes with more traditional designs and then e-mail it back to me,"
Stephen said.

He then redrew the pole to incorporate the designs.

"It's not necessarily a traditional pole, but it is a partial reflection
of tradition," Stephen said. "I think tradition has been interrupted,
anyway."

Nathan said, "I let Stephen take the lead in design and I incorporated
traditional aspects. We just tried to make it work and have the same
kind of flow.

"It certainly will be an original piece. But we don't care much for
duplicating things that have been done."

He said the pole is asymmetrical, which isn't common for traditional
totem poles.

Hong said the museum was excited about getting the pole.

"It is a great collaboration between Nathan and Stephen. It's a really
beautiful design and we feel grateful to have a work grounded in this
long tradition that is contemporary artwork as well."

Nathan said work started in the fall last year. Most of the work was
done in the Saxman carving shed.

Bill Pfeifer helps carve on the weekends and on Wednesday afternoons
— his half-day off, Pfeifer said. He helped carve a pole for the
Burke Museum in Seattle and will be working on a pole for Sitka through
this summer.

"My family originated from Hoonah. When Hoonah burnt in the 1940s, all
the artifacts were lost," he said. "My passion is to learn to recreate
it. My ultimate goal is to do a totem pole."

He said he has a 26-foot pole at his house that he is working on to
"honor my dad and uncles.

"Working with Nathan has let me gain those skills that I need," Pfeifer
said. "I also took a lot of classes and worked with (Ketchikan Indian
Community) in the dance group and in making regalia. I took classes at
the Totem Heritage Center and refined my skills to a point where I could
be useful (at the carving shed)."

The unfinished pole was shipped by barge to Seattle in February to be
trucked to Chicago. A company there was scheduled to put supports in the
back of it, Stephen said. Nathan and Stephen will then finish carving
the pole in Chicago. Stephen has a silicone piece he created in New York
that he will overlay on part of the pole.

The Jacksons have been significant in the replacements of poles that
were repatriated.

The Burke Museum in Seattle has a grizzly bear house post that Nathan
carved and a pole from Stephen that is a contemporary take on
traditional art cast in resin. Both are in the museum's permanent
collection and were installed Aug. 26, 2005.

The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian commissioned a
20-foot totem pole from Nathan after it returned a totem pole and a
house front.

The returned poles are at the Saxman Seaport and were well cared for by
the museum conservators, Nathan said. He said he didn't know for sure
where the returned poles eventually will be displayed.