The U.S. Forest Service plans to raise five new totem poles – called kootéeyaa in Lingít – at the Mendenhall Glacier.
At an open house on Wednesday, it was clear that the kootéeyaa are meant to honor and acknowledge the original people of the land. But some of those original people say they should be included in creating the plan.
The discussion got heated as soon as leaders from the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska and the Forest Service unveiled the plan. They came with slideshows and maps, but soon the conversation among the two dozen attendees turned to how the kootéeyaa would represent the people and history of this place.
The proposal brought up conversations about stewardship, clan representation and belonging. Several tribal members said they’re upset about the lack of consultation in this process.
Seikoonie Fran Houston was one of them. She’s the spokesperson for the Áak’w Ḵwáan – the Lingít people who originally lived in what’s now called Auke Bay.
“Sometimes I feel like I’m being stomped on,” she said. “We’re being stomped on.”
Houston asked where the plan for this project came from, and why her clan, the L’eeneidí, wasn’t consulted sooner.
Neilg̱áa Koogéi Taija Revels is the executive director of Goldbelt Heritage Foundation. She stood to defend the project, but also to acknowledge that this project has departed from the Lingít way of raising kootéeyaa.
“I know this isn’t the way that we do things,” she said. “That we’re forced into a Western process where we have to get permission first before we can start talking to the clans about designs, how we’re going to do this properly.”
But Revels said this is also a chance to “correct the lie” that natural spaces like the glacier are inherently devoid of Indigenous people.
“We were the natural landscape. We were the last frontier,” she said. “This gives us an opportunity, when visitors come to see the gorgeous lands that we are either guests on or stewards of, to see that Lingít people have always been in these places.”
Michael Downs, the district ranger for the U.S. Forest Service, was quick to say the plan isn’t even close to final.
“No big decisions have been made,” he said. “There’s plenty of time for these great discussions. I want you to all understand that.”
To address some of the frustration shared by tribal members, Downs said the Forest Service plans to have many meetings in the future about the kootéeyaa.
“This is not like something’s going to happen tomorrow,” he said. “I mean, I’m just being honest there. They’re probably going to be about $250,000 a piece, and we don’t have no money right now.”
This co-management relationship between the tribe and the Forest Service is only a couple of years old.
Lee Miller is Áak’w Ḵwáan, and he worked as a cultural ambassador at the glacier last year. That’s a new role: tribal members educate tourists on Lingít culture and its connections to the landscape.
“Last year we saw fantastic changes and more to come,” Miller said. “This is our opportunity, folks. Put aside the bickering. Make this ours. Own it. It’s been a long time coming.”
Miller said an opportunity for more Lingít representation at the glacier wasn’t imaginable a few years ago.
“What was out there? The glacier, the waterfall, the wildlife, and it’s still there. But we’re there,” he said. “We are finally there.”
Sa.áax’w Margaret Katzeek, who is Jilkaat Ḵwaan, came to the meeting with several of her nieces and nephews. She grew up here, and plans to raise her family here.
“I just think that it would be really important for them to be able to see something like this, wherever they are,” she said. “And know that they are part of this land as well, and that they belong here and that they are important and cared about and respected.”
She said kootéeyaa at the glacier would show future generations their reflections in the landscape.
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