SITKA, ALASKA
A totem pole raising and other weekend events at Sitka National Historical Park are on hold thanks to the potential government shutdown. The park was ordered to close over the weekend. And a totem pole scheduled to be raised Saturday morning to commemorate the park’s centennial is now inside the visitors center, waiting.

Friday afternoon, workers rolled the enormous 35-foot red cedar pole into the visitors center here at Sitka National Historical Park. Artist Tommy Joseph, whose crew worked for the last month to complete the pole, helped guide it into the building.

“Found out this morning that the government will be shutting down,” Joseph said. “It shut down our pole-raising event for tomorrow, so we’re storing it in here. That gives us a dry place to work on it now. We were out in the elements for the past couple of days. Now we’re inside.”

And inside is NOT where this pole is supposed to be right now. It was scheduled to be raised Saturday morning, as part of the park’s centennial celebration. Carving and painting poles this size usually takes five months. Sitka carver Tommy Joseph designed the pole, which was completed in about a month.

“We worked hard day and night on this thing, and we come in today and find out the pole is not going up as scheduled,” Joseph said. “Some of the guys who are here they’re from Ketchikan, Kotzebue…”

Nobody here is blaming the Park Service of course. The shutdown is the result of discussions an entire continent away. And even the park service staffers appeared frustrated. The park released a statement Thursday afternoon saying the events will be rescheduled when government operations and schedules allow, and that it regrets this turn of events.

But on directions from Washington, no park officials were allowed to go on tape.

Dignitaries, including the leader of the Kiks.adi clan flew into Sitka for the pole raising and other events that were set for this weekend.

So did Andy Hall, with the Alaska Geographic Association, a nonprofit that works with public lands, including the National Park Service. Among other things, they run the store at the park.

“I’m also here for personal reasons,” Hall said. “My dad used to be the park historian here in the 50s and 60s. I was actually born here. I’ve got my mom and my daughter here.”

Hall is also the publisher of Alaska Magazine. He was hoping to get some good pictures with the big camera hanging around his neck. Instead, he and his daughter and his mother, went out to enjoy a walk on the trails in the few minutes before they shut down.

Outside the visitors center and next to the shoreline, some palettes are covering the hole where this totem pole would have been placed tomorrow.

But for now it will be staying indoors at the visitor’s center here at Sitka National Historical Park. And the pole will not be raised in Sitka until the deals are brokered in Washington.

All weekend events at the park have been postponed, including a community dance celebration set for 4:30 p.m. Saturday, and the dedication of the Kiks.adi Surival March plaque that was scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Sunday.
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