Bight Me

So, let’s talk totem poles. One of the most iconic symbols of the Pacific Northwest, totem poles were used as cultural symbols for the Pacific Northwest tribes. They told the story of the family that they guarded, its history, lineage, legends and wealth. The artists that were hired to create these works of art were highly regarded within their tribe and the raising of the totem pole was always accompanied by a potlatch (a feast where the family would celebrate by giving away as much of their worldly goods as they could.).

As late as the mid-1800’s, there were hundreds of these masterpieces clustered around clan houses from the Puget Sound north along the Canadian and Alaskan coastlines. Unfortunately, when the missionaries moved in, the totem pole tradition moved out and it wasn’t until someone with a brain decided, “Hey, maybe we shouldn’t let this art form die” that the totem pole was rescued from the same fate as the dodo. So, in the 1930’s, the Civilian Conservation Corps started salvaging poles and hiring native artists to restore and/or replicate unsalvageable poles using the same tools and methods as their ancestors. The elder carvers passed on the skills to the younger carver and, thus, the totem pole was saved. Don’t you love happy endings?

Luckily, here in Ketchikan, there are two totem parks where you can go to view some of these historic totem poles and also witness new poles being created. One of the parks, Totem Bight Historical State Park, is just down the road from where we’re staying so Erik and I headed on over. I have to say, the setting is just beautiful. You wander through dense rainforest until the trail opens up onto this point with 3 totem poles facing the Narrows with the long house dominating the rocky bluff overlooking the water. It was so impressive stumbling upon it from the land, I can only imagine how breathtaking it would have been discovering it from the sea.

And for me, I’d say the most impressive part was the long house. To think it was constructed by hand using tools made of stone and bone is unbelievable. The smoothness of the walls and flooring, the detail of the carvings and the sheer size of both the long house and the totem poles are just mind-blowing!

I now have a much greater appreciation of these massive works of art and hope each and every one of you gets the opportunity to one day walk among these magnificent, monolithic storytellers. And for all of you who are sitting there scratching your head and wondering, What the heck is a bight?, you’re just going to have to keep on scratching! (Ok, kidding, a bight is just a curve in the shoreline that looks, shall we say, almost as if someone took a “bite” out of it. Hey, if you don’t believe me, look it up!)