The Wrangell Cooperative Association has established an advisory council of clan leaders and representatives, in particular to help the tribe with a totem restoration and replacement project.
Feedback from the advisory group will help WCA determine which totems to select for the project, said Esther Aaltséen Reese, tribal administrator.
The tribal council received a $20,000 donation last year from the Wrangell Tlingit and Haida Community Council to pay for carving two replacement totem poles while also repairing older poles in town.
“It’s looking like it will start this summer,” Reese said of the work.
The advisory group will take on a more formal role in the totem project, she said, providing feedback on which poles to replace and which to restore, respecting the preferences of the several clans in Wrangell. “We look to the clan leaders for guidance.”
The funding came through a federal pandemic aid grant to the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. Matching funds from another grant will supplement the WCA budget for the work.
“It’s to start or repair totems because this whole island was full of totems,” Sue Stevens, speaking as president of the Wrangell Tlingit and Haida Council, said at last summer’s funding announcement.
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