Anisa̱lag̱a’s Claim to the “Seattle Pole”

Abstract

The “Seattle Pole” is a Taantʼa ḵwáan G̱aanax̱.ádi Tlingit totem pole that Seattle businessmen stole from Alaska in 1899 and that still stands in replica in Seattleʼs Pioneer Square today. Although the history of its heist is well-known on the Northwest Coast, the efforts of Indigenous people to reclaim it are not well-documented. This essay considers a little-known newspaper statement of a Tlingit woman named Anisa̱lag̱a (Mary Ebbets Hunt) who claimed the pole based on Tlingit copyright law for at.óow and other crest objects. In Tlingit culture, the commissioning clan (and not the artist) has the right to display and commission at.óow and tell their associated stories. The paper considers Tlingit copyright law in relationship to Western patrilineal inheritance laws that Tlingit people like Anisa̱lag̱a had to negotiate in seeking settlement for the theft of clan at.óow.