Proud Raven, Panting Wolf: Carving Alaska's New Deal Totem Parks by Emily L. Moore (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Proud Raven, Panting Wolf: Carving Alaska's New Deal Totem Parks by Emily L. Moore John R. Legg (bio) Proud Raven, Panting Wolf: Carving Alaska's New Deal Totem Parks by Emily L. Moore University of Washington Press, 2019 HOW DID SIX TOTEM POLE PARKS come to be in southeast Alaska during and after the New Deal era? In precise detail, Emily L. Moore's masterfully written study, Proud Raven, Panting Wolf, answers this question. Planned during the years of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and developed between 1938 and 1942, six totem pole parks (also known as "crest poles") were constructed on the traditional homelands of the Tlingit and Haida people, and in many cases, reworked by the very Indigenous people who had previously been barred from practicing these culturally important ceremonies of constructing and carving totem poles. These Indigenous communities held the poles in sacred regard, as Moore describes, as the poles ranged in meaning: some represented mortuary poles and some told "stories of clan history of origins of world phenomena," while others visualized influential people or the public shaming of others in their home community (6). The story of their re-creation during the New Deal era comes from America's quest to build tourism in Alaska and redefine an "American heritage." Overall, Moore's book shows us the binary of American visions of the authentic performance of indigeneity. At the same time, Indigenous people used this moment of negotiation and redevelopment to deploy their sovereignty. Through eight chapters, Moore tells a story ranging from the thought process of engineering these parks to boost American tourism to the lasting legacy the parks have today. Chapter 1, "Archival Claims," demonstrates how non-Native peoples viewed the totem poles as relics of the past even though Tlingit and Haida people actively used the poles to recount clan histories and stories. Chapter 2, "Exacting Copies," shows how the U.S. Forest Service's decision to develop exact replicas of the totem poles clashed with how Indigenous people perceived the process and meaning of their construction. In "French and English Totems," chapter 3, Moore recounts how Linne A. Forrest Sr., the architect of the U.S. Forest Service, imagined the totem parks through the lens of French and English parks; a jarring vision that differed from Indigenous perceptions of their homelands. Chapters 4 and 5 look at specific totem poles and their carvers to explore how Indigenous carving skills challenged federal expectations that the poles look similar. Chapter 5 [End Page 169] offers a unique story of the "Lincoln Pole," a totem pole that visually looks like President Abraham Lincoln but represents the region's first white settler. This book's point could have offered more profound insights into the perception of Lincoln as the "Great Emancipator," which is antithetical to his relationship with Indigenous people. Chapter 6 explores the rise of American tourism in the parks and the presentation of totem poles to the American public. On the flip side of chapter 6's exploration, Moore writes in chapter 7 about Indigenous carvers who sought to make money after the CCC ended the totem pole restoration project. Moore finishes the book with a story of the 1940 Wrangell Potlatch commemorative celebration of the totem park on Shakes Island (in chapter 8) and an epilogue that describes the enduring legacy of these totem pole parks to Tlingit and Haida people today. The narrative arc centers on how Indigenous people perceived, produced, and preserved these totem poles as culturally significant monuments, and in so doing, reinforced their claims of sovereignty and self-determination. As a resource for those interested in Native American and Indigenous studies, Moore's book centers Indigenous voices and perspectives surrounding the totem pole parks. By using their perspective and reading against the grain of colonial-produced documents, Proud Raven, Panting Wolf shows the ways in which Indigenous people actively worked to preserve their cultures and survive colonial expansion onto their lands. In this regard, Moore's book would pair well with two similar works: with Jean Dennison's Colonial Entanglement (2012) to show how deeply entrenched settler colonialism works inside Indigenous communities and with Cathleen Cahill...