UNM Newsroom / News / Century-old totem pole becomes inspiration for using the past to fix the future

Totem pole

The Smith Family and the Tlowitsis Nation totem pole in the courtyard of the Maxwell Museum before restoration.

Looking up...

The totem pole is 40-feet-tall and weighs around two-thousand pounds.

Restoration

Kwakwaka’wakw carvers spent weeks working to restore the pole.

Hibben Center Atrium

Hibben Center Atrium

The large, sacred object was moved inside the Hibben Center to protect it from the elements.

Century-old totem pole becomes inspiration for using the past to fix the future

Anthropologists go back in time to repair relationship over prominent indigenous object

By Katie Williams September 14, 2017

Categories: Front Page Anthropology

Tags: UNM Anthropology Maxwell Museum of Anthropology Tlowitsis Nation Kwakwaka’wakw carvers totem pole

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