Report from Alaska, Part III
We learned so much about totem pole culture through pre-reading, on-board lectures and in-person tours. It’s such an evocative, deep and moving culture, here’s a snapshot of the process:
A family would get together, choose a tree, fell the tree, figure out what spirits or story they want to tell or who they want to honor, then carve it, then dig a hole and place it in the ground. There are elaborate ceremonies for all these steps and the whole thing takes years and years to complete. Once a totem falls over, they just leave them where they lay to become “nursery trees”, which starts the cycle anew. They carve Ravens, Owls, Thunderbirds, Beavers, Eagles, and all have distinctive personalities. We saw how they are carved – the noses and beaks are carved separately, then added to the pole with dowels.
Turns out Skagway was my favorite town in Alaska. It’s a gold rush town, complete with false wooden storefronts, boardwalks, saloons, etc. It’s a little bit Disney, but also not – the Gold Rush National Park is made up of several buildings throughout the downtown, where you can truly experience the real thing.
We took a train from the center of town along a track that was built on the trail that gold miners (and associated entrepreneurs) had to cross in order to get to the goldfields. There were very limited supplies and food in the boom towns, so the Royal Canadian Mounted Police insisted that each group had to show one ton of supplies before being allowed to cross into the Klondike. Humans had to carry these supplies on their backs, 20 miles, +3000 ft elevation. Horses couldn’t hack it. This took several trips, and one had to negotiate with people on the top to not steal your stuff while you make the next trip!
We had days of cruising, plus stops in Juneau and Ketchikan, all totally fascinating. The scale of everything remained awesome throughout. A friend of mine who is very familiar with Alaska explained it thus: Mount Everest is 29,000’, but it rises up out of the Himalayas. The Alaskan mountains rise 19,000 feet, but you see the whole thing right up out of the sea level.
Deck from Juneau