The Healing Totem Pole - Glacier Bay National Park

For several decades, the park service and the indigenous people of Glacier Bay were at odds regarding almost everything about the park from historical interpretation to indigenous fishing rights. A great deal of acrimony and mistrust arose in almost every interaction between park management and the tribe. That all began to change in 1995 when park management and the Hoona Indian Association signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing to work together and restore the Huna to Glacier Bay. Park management and tribal elders have found several issues on which they agree or at least can make compromises to move forward on shared goals.

Quoting from the Glacier Bay National Park website:

Yaa Naa Néx Kootéeyaa (Yah Nah NEX Koo-TEA-Uh), the Healing Totem Pole, stands at the head of the public dock in Bartlett Cove, Glacier Bay National Park. Designed by tribal elders, culture bearers, artists and National Park Service staff, it compresses centuries of history into 20 feet of yellow cedar. It tells the story of the evolving relationship between the National Park Service and the Hoonah Indian Association, the federally recognized tribal government of the Huna Tlingit clans. Mixing traditional form line design and modern artistic representations, it depicts the Huna Tlingit’s tragic migration from Glacier Bay Homeland, a painful period of alienation, and more recent collaborative efforts between the tribe and the NPS. The Healing Totem Pole was specifically designed not only to relate the difficult history between NPS and the Huna Tlingit, but also to relay the history of people working to overcome past hurts and heal.

We had the distinct honor to hear the story of the Healing Totem Pole from Darlene See, a member of the Hoona Indian Association. After the presentation, she took questions and explained more of the history and culture of the five clans that inhabitated what is now the park since "time immemorial". If you ever have the opportunity to hear her or interact with her in any capacity, I advise taking advantage of it as you will leave the encounter enriched. We visited the park in August, 2022.

The quotation above is from https://www.nps.gov/glba/learn/historyculture/healing-totem-pole.htm.

There is no entrance fee at Glacier Bay National Park.

The Glacier Bay National Park website is https://www.nps.gov/glba/index.htm.