Sitka National Historical Park, AK
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Bicentennial Pole by Duane Pasco
Duane Pasco won a design competition by the Sitka National Historical Park for this pole in 1976. It depicts 200 years of Pacific Northwest Coast Indian cultural history. According to Jonaitis and Glass (The Totem Pole, p. 196) it reads from bottom to top "a Tlingit prior to contact (with white man), a raven and eagle,. ..a white man with a gun and a cross synbolizing colonial intervention; and, on top, a Tlingit of today who holds two staffs, one richly carved, the other an unfinished piece of wood. The completed carving refers to the rich artistic and cultural heritage of the Tlingit, while the uncarved piece signifies uncertainty about what the future will bring. Today this pole stands directly in front of the Sitka National Historical Park'svisitor center with a plaque explaining its imagery but omitting the non-Native status of its carver."
