Sea and Skyline

Sea and Skyline. Native and Western cultures at a crossroads. A city arose at the mouth of Ketchikan Creek early in the 20th century, where Native people had camped for uncountable centuries to fish and hunt, houses, stores, hotels and sawmills uprooted the rainforest skyline in a sort of land-rush flurry of newcomers and commerce. But amid all the hurly-burly in 1901, a Native family raised a stately symbol of the Native heritage in this area. The totem pole's stature and artistry commanded the skyline for more than 80 years. Indeed, the totem pole familiarly named Chief Johnson after its sponsor became one of the most popular symbols of this community., A pole above it all , Chief George Johnson wasn't born to the manor, at least not to Kadjuk House on Ketchikan Creek. He was born Gut Wain in 1840 at Kake, Alaska, in the northern Panhandle , a member of another Tlingit group. He moved to this area and married a descendant of the Ganaxadi branch of the Tongass Tlingits. George Johnson gained the honorific “chief” by succeeding to leadership of the Kadjuk House family, who had long been seasonal subsistence users of Ketchikan Creek, then permanent residents. Johnson's mother died in Kake about 1900 and he received his relatives' permission to commission a totem pole in her honor on Ketchikan Creek. A Tlingit artist created the massive work of art and George Johnson spent much of his possessions on the Kadjuk pole and the potlatch that celebrated its raising in front of his house in 1901. Johnson and the Kadjuk House later put up a community house behind the pole and marked it with a killer whale emblem. The majestic original pole long outlived its sponsor, who died in a Juneau hospital in 1938., Ketchikan's first pioneers and property owners were Tlingits who scooped pink salmon out of the creek in spruce root nets and set up hunting camps at the creek mouth. Natives based their resource rights on traditional use: ownership was held by families and clans, not by individuals. White pioneers brought confusion and encroachment. Federal authorities in pre-territorial days couldn't keep pace with real and rigged land transfers as salmon processors, mill operators, and settlers crowded into Native country. In 1905, Natives owned 46 of 50 townsite lots; 10 years later, Natives owned just 13. In a notorious case, a Native man sold 160 acres on the creek to a white businessman for $100; the buyer had sold the land to a cannery for $10,000 a month prior. Chief George Johnson stayed on his land until his death, maintaining his rights; after that, a whirlwind: the city sold the site to a white man for back taxes; the feds said the land was tax-exempt and deeded to them by Johnson's trustees: Johnson's kin laid claim to it. The chief's wish for preservation of the site eroded. In the end, the city claimed the site by condemnation and paved it. In 1982, the original pole was cut down., Cedar grandeur on the city skyline , Chief Johnson's totem pole was refurbished slightly in the 1930s in the Civilian Conservation Corps program. It remained in place until 1982, when the city sawed down the decaying cedar monument for preservation. Tongass Tlingits refreshed their culture seven years later by raising a replica., [left column] , Atop the Chief Johnson pole lies Kadjuk the bird, who is the crest of the chief's Kadjuk House of the Raven clan of the Tongass Tribe of the Tlingit people. The stretch beneath Kadjuk depicts the sky in which the mythical bird scars as well as the high status of Kadjuk House. Figures below are Gitsaqeq and Gitsaruk, slaves of Raven. Beneath them Raven spreads his wings and his chest is the headdress of his wife Fog Woman, who brought salmon to the people. She is a woman of high rank, indicated by lip plugs in her mouth. Her wealth is shown by the two faces on her chest. Fog Woman holds two salmon representing the life giving bounty of the sea that she brought to the Tlingit people. The Chief Johnson pole standing today is a replication of the original. It was carved by Israel Shotridge, an artist of the Tongass Tribe, and was raised with great ceremony in 1989 , almost 90 years after Chief Johnson raised the original Kadjuk pole where a onetime Tlingit fish camp was fast turning into a city., Captions , (Top) Chief George Johnson, in regalia, poses with a friend not long after the pole was raised. Tongass Historical Society , (Center) From sawmill to creek, the town crowded the shore in about 1905. Many people were soon crowded out. Tongass Historical Society , (Bottom, clockwise from top) , . George Johnson bridged traditional Tlingit life and settled city life. Through it all, his totem stood tall and challenged all to remember the culture that was here first. (Photo) Chief George Johnson in the mid-1930s posing with Tlingit art and the U.S. flag: a melange of regalia for a people in transition. Tongass Historical Society , . The pole and the mill Commerce in the form of a water-driven shingle mill was close by the prominent memorial pole when this undated photo mas made. By this time, “Indian Town” was well-established on the other side of the creek and few Tlingits remained in the fast-changing commercial area. Chief Johnson built the community house behind his pole. It burned down twice , for the last time in the early 1940s. Tongass Historical Society , . The Johnson pole was salient on Stedman Street in a view ca. 1915 from the busy harbor. Tongass Historical Society