Artifact of the Month: November 2025

Totem Heritage Center's House Posts

With grant funding from the Alaska State Council on the Arts, a "Extended Learning Project" in 1987 gave highly skilled and driven Totem Heritage Center students the chance to work full-time under the direction of master carvers. Over the course of six months, students worked with Haida artist Freda Diesing and Tlingit artist Dempsey Bob in all aspects of carving. Students completed two-dimensional designs and relief carvings, masks, frog bowls, and, finally, the house posts made of red cedar donated by the Cape Fox Corporation.

House posts were placed in front of and inside Northwest Coast houses signifying the identity, status, and history of the people who owned them. The house posts at the Totem Heritage Center are inspired by this tradition and represent the four phratries, or moieties, of the local Native peoples. Among the Haida and Tlingit, Raven and Eagle represent a primary division of the tribes. Among the Tsimshian there are four phratries: Eagle, Raven, Killer Whale and Wolf. The Bear post is carved in honor of the Bear Clan, of the Eagle phratry, Tongass Tlingit tribe in whose locale Ketchikan is situated. Two posts were carved by the instructors and three by the students.

Raven: Carved by Sybrandt Painter, with some assistance in carving and painting by Delma Inman.

Wolf: Finished by Ernest Smeltzer after post was roughed in and shaped by Bill White.

Killer Whale: Carved in Haida style by Freda Diesing, following initial work by Everett Athorp.

Bear: Carved by Dempsey Bob in honor of the Tongass Bear Clan. Ken McNeill, Dempsey's nephew, also contributed.

Eagle: Completed by Dempsey Bob after initial work by students Harry Choquette and Frank Perez. Ken McNeill, Dempsey's nephew, also contributed.

The house posts were installed on the outside of the Totem Heritage Center in February 1988. In preparation for the Totem Heritage Center's 50th anniversary in 2026, the Eagle, Raven, and Killer Whale house posts were restored this year by Tlingit master carver Tommy Joseph.


Object ID #: KM 88.2.7.1-5