Chief Johnson Totem Pole Ketchikan, Alaska. Ketchikan.
1) Kaja (fabled bird), 2) Undecorated Space symbol of lofty habitat and high regard in which the crest is held. 3) Raven's Slaves. 4) Raven. 5) Fog Woman.
Totem poles are carved to honor deceased ancestors, record history, social events, and oral tradition. They
were never worshipped as religious objects.
This totem, carved by Israel Shotridge and raised in 1989, is a replica of the Chief Johnson, or Kjuk, Totem Pole raised in this general location in 1901 for the Ganaxadi Tlingit of the Raven moiety of the Tanta Kwan (Tongass) group. The original memorial pole stood until 1982.
Except for Kajuk atop the pole, the figures symbolize a single story about Raven. Fog Woman is identified with the summer salmon run when fog lies at the mouth of streams. She produces all salmon and causes them to return to the creeks of their birth.