Wood chips and sawdust cover the floor as carver Mike Hoyt rhythmically adzes a red cedar pole. Some chips and dust lay on the older totems laying horizontally nearby in the Wrangell Cooperative Association’s Cultural Center and Carving Shed. Initially, he felt bad about that. But then …
“I was thinking like, ‘Well, no, it probably enjoys it in a way,’” he said. “I think something about the spirit of the poles being around that creative process is kind of nice.”
Hoyt said a lot of the original totem work he and another Wrangell carver has been working on as a gift for the school district was inspired by ancestors who were carvers.
The idea for the new pole came from Kevin McCallister. As the school district’s maintenance director, he was removing a rotten wooden post in the courtyard between the middle school and high school and he thought it would be cool to have a totem pole there.
“My entire family grew up on reservations back east, on Native reservations,” he said. “And so I try to respect the culture everywhere I live.”
He asked Wrangell’s carvers about it. Hoyt said they liked the idea so much they decided to carve one for free.
“We just told him, if you guys get a log for us, we’ll carve it because we want to do something for the school anyway,” he said. “We love the idea of having more Native art at the school. We both have worked at the school. Tony’s a graduate of there.”
As in Tony Harding, the other main carver on the project.
The carvers’ families have been here for generations
Hoyt said his family has been here for generations. Both of his grandmothers were cheerleaders.
“It’ll be right by the gym,” he said. “Just knowing that it’s something that, in a way, kind of honors that connection, that history, I think that’s what’s important to me.”
On and off for the past few months, the distinct thuds of adzing can be heard in the large room as they’ve been carving the red cedar pole, sometimes with others’ help. It will stand just shy of 9 feet tall. The central figure on the pole is a wolf.
Hoyt said, “We looked at a lot of different wolf designs all up and down the Northwest coast, and kind of settled on taking different elements from different pieces, changing them, kind of making it our own.”
He said this pole looks like a mix of Haida and Tlingit styles.
“A connection of standing on your history, on your past.”
Hoyt said in Wrangell, there’s only one other totem pole with a wolf on it.
At the bottom of the totem is a face inspired by Chief Shakes house posts.
“It’s kind of a way of giving a nod to some of Wrangell’s carving history into Wrangell’s Indigenous history,” Hoyt said. “I kind of like that it’s the foundation that the wolf is standing on, in a way that kind of is a connection of standing on your history, on your past.”
Hoyt said an eagle is on top, between the wolf’s ears, to represent the elementary students who are known as Evergreen Eagles.
The hope for inspiring the younger generation
The other carver, Tony Harding, hopes this inspires the younger generation to take part in revitalizing their Alaska Native culture.
“I think it’s great that I get to honor our culture in a very cool way with the high school and our culture,” he said. “Hopefully this inspires the kids to want to carve.”
They hope to share their carving skills with youth in the future. At least for now, while they scrape away the wood when they carve, they’re excited to see this new totem raised.
The totem unveiling will be held in the courtyard between the middle and high schools at 12 p.m. on Saturday, the day of Wrangell’s homecoming.
