Totem Pole in Hawaii Returned to Alaska

HONOLULU, HAWAII—With the assistance of Steve Langdon of the University of Alaska, Anchorage, the Honolulu Museum of Art has repatriated a totem pole to Tlingit tribal members from the village of Klawock, whose ancestors lived in the village of Tuxecan on Prince William Island, Alaska. In 1931, actor John Barrymore was traveling by yacht along the Alaska coast when he spotted the totem pole in the unoccupied village and had it removed and taken to his California estate. After his death, the totem pole was moved to the yard of actor Vincent Price, who donated it to the museum in 1981. Langdon saw a picture of Price with the pole, which was originally 40 feet tall and would have held human remains, in a museum exhibit in Alaska and contacted tribal leaders and the museum to begin the repatriation process through the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Seven Tlingit tribal members traveled to Honolulu to reclaim the pole, but what happened to the human remains that had been in it is unknown. “I take some comfort in the fact that we’ve taken good care of it,” museum curator Stephan Jost told the Associated Press. To read about archaeology in Alaska, go to "Cultural Revival."