Edward Rilatos, president of the WCA tribal council, left, smiles and jokes with Sue Stevens after accepting a $20,000 check from Stevens, who is president of the Wrangell Tlingit and Haida Community Council. The money will go toward WCA's project to repair and also carve new totem poles for display in town. Lynn Allen, right, and other members of both councils attended the event at Chief Shakes Island last Saturday.
Many of Wrangell's totems have fallen into disrepair and need rehab work or replacement.
Thanks to a $20,000 donation from the Wrangell Tlingit and Haida Community Council, the Wrangell Cooperative Association tribal council will be able to move forward with plans to carve two new totems while repairing older ones.
Last Saturday, Sue Stevens, president of the WTHCC, presented Edward Rilatos, WCA tribal council president, with a check that will go toward the work. The funds came through a grant from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.
The project will be helped by matching funds from another grant, as the work can be extensive and expensive.
"It's to start or repair totems because this whole island was full of totems," Stevens said during a small ceremony on Chief Shakes Island in front of the tribal house. "Now there's just the Three Frogs Totem. All the rest are in need of repair. They're stored at the (WCA) carving shed. A couple are laying over there (behind the tribal house)."
The tribal council has confirmed that master carver Steve Brown will create or repair the totems, though they still need to determine whether the existing totems can be repaired or if new ones should be created first.
"We have to look at what can be repaired," Rilatos said. "We have to look at Totem Park totem poles, too. We have to make sure they're sound. We're trying to move as fast as we can."
One of the possible new poles would replace the 50-foot-tall Eagle totem that used to be on Shakes Island. Others like Bear Up the Mountain, which the front of Shakes House also depicts, would be around 40-feet tall.
Rilatos said they want to make sure the new ones would be as tall as what they replace.
"That's going to be a problem getting that 50-foot log," he said. "We could get 40-foot logs fairly simple. We have a few down there by the carving shed now, but we have to see how sound they are. We've talked to Sealaska and the Forest Service and they're more than willing to help us get logs."
Stevens gave a brief introduction before presenting the funds to Rilatos and the WCA council, emphasizing the importance of the totems and their cultural significance.
"This is our ancestral home of the Naanyaa.aayí clan," she said. "We're going to say a prayer so that this can be carried out."
Rilatos made a pledge that the WCA "will use it wisely."
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