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SITKA, ALASKA
A 35-foot red cedar pole commemorating the 100-year history of Sitka National Historical Park will be raised in a ceremony on Sunday.

The ceremony was originally scheduled for April 9, but was canceled just hours before a midnight deadline for a government shutdown. The shutdown never happened, but by then it was too late to hold the ceremony.

Dusty Kidd is with the National Park Service. He says park officials were disappointed in the delay but that there’s a silver lining.

“The delay actually helped us a bit because we have beautiful weather and it’s predicted to be pretty nice on Sunday, so we’re hopefully going to stick to that,” he said.

The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m., with the pole raising to follow at about 4:30. Kidd says clan leaders and elders from Sitka’s historic clans are expected to be in town for the event.

“There have been some people who aren’t going to be able to come back, most notably a group of dancers from the interior of Canada who are Tlingit, who could not come back. We feel badly for them,” he said. “But generally we’ll have the same group. Sue Masica, who’s the regional director of the National Park Service will be here to keynote the ceremony. That will be a real special honor for us.”

Sitka National Historical Park is built around a Kiksadi fort site. The fort was lost to the Russians in 1804, and a plaque to be dedicated Sunday will commemorate the Kiksadi survival march across Baranof Island. That begins at 6 p.m.

Kidd says the raising of a totem pole is a major cultural event, steeped in protocol and ceremony.

“It’s a big deal,” he said. “It connects in a lot of different directions. One is obviously to the past. This is a tradition that’s been part of northwest coast art for centuries. It tells stories and our totem pole, which Tommy Joseph and a team of carvers have done a beautiful job creating, tells the story of the park’s 100 years, so for us, that’s significant. The building we’re in here – the visitor’s center – was designed to mimic the concept of a clan house, so this is the only pole that’s going to face to the ocean from the park, and that’s symbolic of totems that always told people as they approached the clan houses from the sea, who they were approaching, and what the stories were that they thought were important. So all of those things connect in a nice way.”

The totem pole and plaque dedication are the final events in the park’s yearlong Centennial celebration.
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