Wolf Grave Totem
🪵 Part of a Series on Wrangell Totems 🪵
The Wolf Grave Totem is a detailed carving that formerly appeared along the Ḵaachx̱ana.áakʼw waterfront until being moved next to the Kadashan totems. It is featured in historic photographs from the 1880s through the 1920s.
(background image: Luke Johnson)
Grave Marker
The Wolf Grave Totem is visible in the center of this undated photograph. Because the Killer Whale Grave Totem is not featured in this photograph, it is possible that the Wolf Grave Totem appeared on this spot first, followed by the Killer Whale Grave Totem. (image credit: Presbyterian Historical Society)
The first written account the Wolf Grave Totem may come from Eliza Scidmore’s 1883 visit to Alaska. He wrote in her book, "Over the graves of the dead, which are square log boxes or houses, they put full-length representations of the dead man’s totemic beast, or smooth poles finished at the top with the family crest. One old chief’s tomb at Fort Wrangel has a very realistic whale on its moss-grown roof, another a bear, and another an otter.” Scidmore may have mistaken the wolf for a bear. She published this illustration in her book, Alaska, Its Southern Coast and the Sitkan Archipelago. (image credit: Wikipedia Commons)
Artist Theodore Richardson visited Fort Wrangel in 1884 and made an illustration of the Wolf Grave Totem. (image credit: Our New Alaskaby Charles Hallock, 1886.)
Later on, Theodore Richardson turned his illustration into a painting. (image credit: Smithsonian American Art Museum.)
Theodore Richardson also painted the a scene of Ḵaachx̱ana.áakʼw featuring the Wolf Grave Totem. Richardson produced many versions of this painting, some without the Killer Whale Grave Totem. For visual effect, Richardson compressed the distance from the grave totems to the taller totems in the distance. (image credit: Smithsonian American Art Museum)
Historically, these grave totems stood on what is today the southern half of the Sentry Hardware parking lot (visit the Killer Whale Grave Totem page to learn more). Both grave carvings sat parallel to each other and faced the same direction. They sat near the northern edge of Ḵaachx̱ana.áakʼw, ensuring that tourists and visitors to the village would pass by these carvings as they walked into the village.
Kadashan’s House
At some point around 1890, both grave totems were permanently moved to new spots. The Killer Whale Grave Totem went north to the Fort Wrangel courtyard, and the Wolf Grave Totem moved a short distance to the west, in front of the newly constructed home of Kadashan, an impressive modern-style 2-story home featuring two prominent totem poles bearing his name. (image credit: Michael & Carolyn Nore Collection)
According to the handwritten label in the corner, this photograph was taken in 1891. That year, Raymond & Whitcomb published Two Grand Summer Tours to Alaska, “In addition to the totem poles in front of the habitations in Wrangel, there are some curiously marked graves, one being surmounted by a huge carving of a wolf. This has lately been removed from its former site to another part of the village, near the saw mill.” (image credit: Wikipedia Commons)
The carving added to the impressive quality of Kadashan’s home, which drew tourists and photographers who could snap a photograph of three pieces of art in one take.
In 1898, photographer A.C. Pillsbury visited Fort Wrangel to capture the town amidst the Klondike Gold Rush. He took several photos of Kadashan’s home, including this one of two women sitting casually on the Wolf Grave Totem. (Photo credit: Ketchikan Museums)
A traveler’s handbook entitled The Dominion of Canada, published 1900, said: “The old Graveyard is so overgrown with vegetation as to be difficult of access and now contains little of typical interest. The carved figure of a bear (or wolf) which surmounted one of the graves now lies on the ground near two totem-poles.” In this photograph, the Wolf Grave Totem is partially buried under a messy stack of lose boards. (image credit: Smithsonian)
This undated photo may be one of the last images of the Wolf Grave Totem. By the 1920s, the sawmill operation expanded to completely surround Kadashan’s home with boards of timber. It created a risky situation, where one spark from Kadashan’s wood stove could ignite the unchecked towering stacks of lumber and sawdust surrounding his home.
In 1926, Kadashan’s totems were moved to a spot adjacent to the Kiks.ádi totem pole. The Wolf Grave Totem simply disappears from photographs at this point, and it is not clear from the public record what became of it.