NISQUALLY — Hundreds of hands, young and old, brown and white, have helped transform a 186-year-old cedar log into a traditional, coastal-style totem pole at the Nisqually tribe’s community carving studio.
“People kept asking when it was going to be done,” said Dave Wilson, who has led the carving project for the past four years. “I had to quit putting timelines on it.”
But there’s no doubt that the 15-foot totem pole is in its final stages. A coat of white primer was added a few weeks ago.
“It keeps the cedar oil from seeping out,” said Carol Geidel, 65, of Steilacoom.
Volunteers then began to bring the totem’s faces to life with bright-colored enamel paint. Once the painting is finished, a traditional blessing and pole-raising ceremony will be held, Wilson said.
The totem’s home has been chosen.
“It’s supposed to be going over to Nisqually Middle School,” said Kevin Moore, Nisqually tribe youth services director. “(That’s) where they started it.”
For years, the school, which draws a good share of kids from the nearby Nisqually reservation, has been “Home of the Totems.”
One day, art teacher Ginny Lane heard some students in her advisory class complain that they didn’t understand why the school had such an unusual mascot.
She decided to find a project that would help build a connection between the school and the community. Why not invite students and community members to work on a totem pole?
Things started to fall into place a couple of years later when she met Wilson, a Lummi master carver who taught carving and culture at Wa He Lut Indian School at the Frank’s Landing Indian Community in the Nisqually delta near the Thurston-Pierce county line.
In late 2003, Lane called Manke Lumber in Shelton for advice on how to find a log for a totem pole project. Much to her surprise, the owner offered to donate one right away. Within a few weeks, the log was delivered to the school in the back of a dump truck.
In the beginning, the project was led by an advisory committee with representatives from the school, community and tribe.
“It was a group dream,” Lane said.
It has been supported by several grants through the years — from school district multicultural mini-grants to state grants geared toward providing tribal youths activities to prevent drug and alcohol use.
“There’s been so much involvement,” Wilson said. “It’s way more than just carving a totem pole.”
The totem was designed by Nisqually Middle students, who chose animals that were featured in traditional Northwest coastal totem and story poles.
At the base, there is a child being held by a mother bear to represent nurturing, protection and wisdom.
On top of that, there’s a whale to represent strength and bravery. Within the whale, a human face represents family.
Above the whale, faces of more children represent the school and the surrounding community.
At the top, a thunderbird, which represents leadership, clutches a salmon, a symbol students chose to represent the people of the Northwest.
Lane said she’s excited the project is nearing completion.
“The native community is an important and living culture within our Nisqually school community,” she said. “The totem pole will be a great symbol of respect for the native members of our community.”
For months, the totem pole was kept under a canopy in the back of Nisqually Middle, where students, staff members and other volunteers worked after school and on weekends on the initial, rough cuts.
“It’s really cool,” said Querida Perez, 14, of Lacey. “First it was, like, nothing. Then it became something.”
Because the project was heavily dependent on volunteer labor, it wasn’t realistic to give it a deadline, Wilson said.
His standard answer to folks who pressed for a completion date: “When everybody who needs to carve on it has the opportunity to carve on it, then it will be done.”
Once the totem’s form lines were in place, it was moved to the Nisqually tribe’s carving studio, an old fire station, so that a cadre of experienced carvers — many of them elders in the community — could spend more time working on it.
“The bear knew where it was going to be, and the eagle knew where it was going to be, and the faces knew where they were going to be,” said volunteer Tamara Hinck, 57, of Chehalis. “We made the final cuts.”
Several youths, such as Perez, worked on the pole while it was at the school, and while it’s been at the tribal center. And the experience has inspired them to take on other carving projects, such as masks, canoe paddles and ceremonial rattles.
Hinck, a retired school teacher, said it’s exciting to watch tribal youths develop an interest in coastal artwork. Like many of the volunteers, she feels it’s an honor to be part of the project.
“When I come here, this fills me up,” Hinck said. “It will get me through for another week.”
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