My Favorite Totems
Read MoreMosquito Legend Pole
This village watchman sits atop the Mosquito Legend pole in Sitka National Historical Park. The mosquito-like figure is immediatley below the watchman. The pole is a replica of one carved in the 1938-41 CCC restoration project. The following synopsis of the Tlingit mosquito legend appears in the guidebook to the Sitka National Historical Park (Carved History): "An unusual child was born to a chief's daughter, not exactly in human form, for he had sharp arrow points in his head. One day the mother angered him, and he killed her by driving the arrow points into her breast. Afterward he fled into the woods, where he continued to kill other villagers out hunting or collecting wood. "One of the village men, the boy's uncle, set a trap for the boy and succeeded in wounding him with a poison arrow. His uncle trapped him by following his blood stains and eventually found him. The boy protested and pleaded for his life, but his uncle killed him for having destroyed so many villagers. The boy's body was burned, leaving only ashes. These ashes were driven about by the wind and became the mosquitos that still torment people today."