List of totem poles

Totem poles or crest poles, an old Northwest coast art form, were historically created by the Tshimshian, Haida, Tlingit, and other First Nations and Alaska Native groups in Southeast Alaska and British Columbia. After contact with Europeans, totem poles spread around the world and were collected by museums. Most surviving totem poles which exist today were carved in the 1800s or later, and the majority of totem poles along the Inside Passage (which follows the Northwest Coast) were created no earlier than the 1930s.[1]

Notable totem poles include:

North America

Image Title Location Date Artist Source
Áakʼw Kootéeyaa Juneau, Alaska, United States 1981 Nathan Jackson [2]
Baranof totem pole Sitka, Alaska, United States 1942 George Benson, who later disavowed the pole [3]
Big Beaver Totem Pole Chicago, Illinois, United States 1982 Norman Tait
Boo-Qwilla Stanford, California, United States 1995 Art Thompson [4][5]
Canadian totem Mexico City, Mexico 1962 Mungo Martin [6][7]
Seattle Totem pole, also known as the Chief-of-All-Women pole or Pioneer Square totem pole Seattle, Washington, United States

(originally Tongass Island)

 c. 1790, installed in Seattle in 1899

Replica installed in the 1940s

 [8][9]
Chief Johnson totem pole Ketchikan, Alaska, United States 1901

Replica created 1980

 [10]
Farmer's Pole Seattle, Washington, United States 1984 James Bender and Victor Steinbrueck [11]
Gʼpsgolox totem pole Kitlope Valley, Canada

Formerly Museum of Ethnography, Sweden

 1872 [12]
Healing Heart totem pole Craig, Alaska, United States 1995 Stan Marsden [13]
Kakasoʼlas pole Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 1955 Ellen Neel [14]
Knowledge Totem Pole Victoria, British Columbia, Canada 1990 Cicero August with Darrel and Doug August [15]
Ni'isjoohl totem pole Nisg̱aʼa Museum in British Columbia, Canada

Formerly National Museum of Scotland

 1800s [16][17]
Nisgaʼa and Haida Crest Poles of the Royal Ontario Museum Royal Ontario Museum, Canada
Old Witch totem pole Juneau, Alaska, United States c. 1880 Dwight Wallace [18]
Raven Stealing the Sun totem pole Ketchikan, Alaska, United States 1983 Dempsey Bob [19]
Reconciliation Pole Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 2017 Jim Hart [20]
Seattle Center Totem Seattle Center in Seattle, Washington, United States 1970 Duane Pasco, Victor Mowatt, and Earl Muldon [21]
Soul Pole Seattle, Washington, United States [22]
The Stanford Legacy Stanford, California, United States 2002 Don Yeomans [23]
Swinomish totem pole Skagit County, Washington, United States 1938

Replica installed 1989

 Charlie Edwards [24]
Three Frogs pole Chief Shakes Historic Site, in Wrangell, Alaska, United States 1800s

Replicas created in 1940 and c. 2000 Removed in 2024

 [25][26][27]
Untitled Totem Pole Seattle, Washington, United States 1984 James Bender and Marvin Oliver [11]
Alert Bay Totem Pole Alert Bay, British Columbia, Canada 1973 World's Tallest Totem Pole[28] [29]
Wellbriety totem pole Sitka, Alaska, United States 2006 Wayne Price [30]
Wooshkeetaan Kootéeyaa Juneau, Alaska, United States 1980 Nathan Jackson [31][32]
Yaxté totem pole Juneau, Alaska, United States 1941 Linn A. Forrest [33]

Elsewhere

Image Title Location Date Artist Notes
Canadian totem Plaza Canadá in Buenos Aires, Argentina 1964 Henry Hunt and Tony Hunt Sr [34]
Kayung totem pole British Museum in London, England

Formerly Kayung, Graham Island, British Columbia, Canada

 c. 1850 [35]
Kʼëgit pole Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris, France 1860s [36]

Sources

  1. ↑ Jonaitis 2012, pp. ix–xiii
  2. ↑ "Centennial totem pole heading to high school". Anchorage Daily News. Associated Press. 2003-08-04. p. 10. Retrieved 2026-04-18.
  3. ↑ Moore 2018, pp. 62–66
  4. ↑ Hickman, Kurt (May 30, 2013). "Pacific Northwest artists restore Stanford totem poles to their original grandeur". Stanford Report. Stanford University. Archived from the original on October 16, 2019. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
  5. ↑ "New totem pole at Stanford". Palo Alto Weekly. May 10, 2002. Archived from the original on April 11, 2021. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
  6. ↑ "Conoce la historia del tótem canadiense del Bosque de Chapultepec". El Heraldo de México (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 11 December 2022. Retrieved 19 May 2026.
  7. ↑ Smart, Amy (6 April 2014). "High anxiety: Totem angst, from Victoria to Mexico City". Times Colonist. Archived from the original on 19 May 2026. Retrieved 19 May 2026.
  8. ↑ Jonaitis 2012, pp. 3–6
  9. ↑ Garfield 1996, p. 9.
  10. ↑ Moore 2018, p. 112, 219
  11. 1 2 "Weekly Art Hit: 'Untitled Totem Pole' by James Bender and Marvin Oliver, 'Farmer's Pole' by James Bender and Victor Steinbrueck". artbeat.seattle.gov. 28 June 2013. Archived from the original on 2019-02-19. Retrieved 2019-02-18.
  12. ↑ Anders Björklund. "The case of Chief G'psgolox's totem pole « balticworlds.com". balticworlds.com (in Swedish). Retrieved 2019-10-13.
  13. ↑ Jonaitis & Glass 2010, p. 256
  14. ↑ Stewart 1993, p. 86
  15. ↑ Layne, Les (1990-02-03). "Schoolchildren wave to world as first Salish totem raised". Times Colonist. p. 51. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
  16. ↑ "Nisga'a delegation heads to Scotland in bid to repatriate totem pole". CBC News. 21 August 2022. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  17. ↑ Selkirk, Diane (22 December 2022). "Inside the Nisga'a Nation's Fight to Get a 36-Foot Totem Pole Back From Scotland". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  18. ↑ Jonaitis & Glass 2010, pp. 79–81
  19. ↑ Stewart 1993, p. 180
  20. ↑ Tallulah (2017-04-25). "James Hart's Reconciliation Pole". MONTECRISTO. Retrieved 2026-02-14.
  21. ↑ "Public Art". www.seattlecenter.com. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
  22. ↑ "Douglass-Truth Library Resurrects Its Soul Pole". South Seattle Emerald. 2022-04-11. Archived from the original on 2023-01-01. Retrieved 2023-08-02.
  23. ↑ "The Stanford Legacy totem pole installed". Stanford Report. Stanford University. May 8, 2002. Archived from the original on June 14, 2016. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
  24. ↑ Stapp, Darby C.; Mierendorf, Robert R. (2023-09-29). "Impacts and Legacy of the New Deal on Pacific Northwest Heritage Preservation". In Pool, Kelly J.; Howe, Mark L. (eds.). New Deal Archaeology in the West. University of Utah Press. pp. 40–42. doi:10.2307/jj.8763116.7. ISBN 978-1-64769-131-8.
  25. ↑ Keithahn, Edward L. (1963) [1945]. Monuments in Cedar. Bonanza Books. pp. 56–57.
  26. ↑ Pausman, Sam (2024-10-18). "Clans take down Wrangell's Three-Frog Totem on Shakes Island". Anchorage Daily News. pp. A2. Retrieved 2026-06-15.
  27. ↑ Moore 2018, pp. 62–63, 168, 170, 206
  28. ↑ https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/209650-tallest-totem-pole-wooden-sculpture
  29. ↑ Cite error: The named reference : was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  30. ↑ Jonaitis & Glass 2010, pp. 73–75
  31. ↑ Jonaitis 2012, pp. 81–83
  32. ↑ Zigmund, Dana (2021-11-02). "On the Move". Juneau Empire. p. 1. Retrieved 2026-04-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  33. ↑ "Yaxté Totem Pole". United States Forest Service. March 7, 2025. Retrieved April 20, 2026.
  34. ↑ "B.C. totem in Argentine". The Province. 1964-03-06. p. 11. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
  35. ↑ "totem-pole". British Museum. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
  36. ↑ Mauze, Marie. "The Kaiget Pole at the Musee de l'Homme" in Jonaitis & Glass 2010, p. 139

Bibliography

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