Controversial totem poles must return to Pike Place Market, says historical commission

The Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation had petitioned the Market Historical Commission to be allowed to replace the totem poles with art more representative of local tribes, and created entirely by Native artists.

The two totem poles were commissioned for Victor Steinbrueck Park in honor of the diverse native peoples who call Seattle home, and have stood in the park overlooking Elliott Bay since 1984.

During public outreach for the park's recent renovation, said parks department strategic advisor David Graves, “We heard pretty loud and clear from the Native communities that the poles aren't representative of local culture, and they should be replaced.”

Totem poles are not traditional to this region, but rather to the Indigenous peoples of Alaska and western Canada. Graves adds that a non-native artist, James Bender, was the lead carver of the poles.

"In our view, what should be there is something that was carved by local tribes," Graves told the historical commission.

Seattle city councilmember Debora Juarez, a member of the Blackfeet Nation, has also called for the poles' permanent removal.

Because the park sits within the Pike Place Market Historical District, the city had to appeal to the Historical Commission to replace the poles with new art.

"We heard from tribal leaders the importance of having tribal artwork displayed more prominently in the city, and the artwork of the local tribes being done and designed by the local tribes so that they could share their stories, share their history," said Puyallup tribal member Tim Reynon, who directs tribal relations for the city of Seattle.

Reynon said the Muckleshoot and Suquamish tribes have offered to create art to replace the poles.

However, public comment at the commission meeting, including from local tribal members, was overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the original totem poles standing.

Although they were primarily carved by a non-native artist, they were designed by a local tribal member: the renowned Quinault artist and University of Washington American Indian Studies professor Marvin Oliver, who died in 2019.

Ken Workman, who is Duwamish, said the totem poles stand on his people’s ancestral land.

“These poles are Duwamish. They are connected to the Duwamish, to Cecile Hansen, our chair, who was a cousin of Marvin Oliver. So I would implore you: keep these poles.”

Workman, a fifth-generation grandson of Chief Seattle, said the poles stood close to the final home of Princess Angeline, the Duwamish chief's oldest daughter.

“My grandfather said that you abandon your dead and think them powerless, but they are not," said Workman. "I am here to tell you that the Duwamish people are in the timbers. They're in the timbers of this market. They are in the timbers of the Steinbrueck poles.”

Makah carver Greg Colfax told the commission that the totem poles are rightfully attributed not to their carver, but to designer Marvin Oliver. “When it comes to carving it is the person who does the drawing, who does the design, does the architectural work on the poles. That's who owns it," Colfax said.

Colfax said he didn’t know Oliver personally, but they sold their work to the same galleries, and he knew Oliver’s work well.

He recognizes it in the totem poles.

“The one with the husband and the wife? That's a killer. That's top-notch," said Colfax. "That's Marvin’s thinking. That's Marvin’s brilliance.”

Some speakers, including Commissioner Elisa Shostak, lambasted the Parks Department for having stored the totem poles a few inches off the ground outdoors at Fort Lawton for most of this year. They showed pictures of the poles growing moss and lichens, pooling with water.

The historical commission voted to have Parks repair any damage to the totem poles and return them to Victor Steinbrueck Park.

They left the door open for adding new native art to the park to stand alongside the historic.