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1899 totem pole gone home so Field Museum has new one carved

CHICAGO -- A new 15-foot totem pole that marries traditional carving styles with contemporary techniques was erected Monday at The Field Museum, replacing a pole that was returned to an Alaskan tribe.

The new totem pole was carved by a father-and-son team from a western red cedar tree given as a gift to the museum from the Tlingit community of Cape Fox, Alaska.

In 2001, the museum returned one of its most treasured items -- a 26-foot totem pole removed from southeast Alaska in 1899 by a scientific expedition -- to the Tlingit people.

The new pole was carved by Nathan Jackson, a master carver and member of the Chilkoot-Tlingit Tribe of Alaska, and his son, Stephen Jackson, a sculptor based in New York City...

Following months of work in the family's workshop in Ketchikan, Alaska, the three have been putting the finishing touches on the totem pole for the last two weeks, working in front of the public in the museum's massive Stanley Field Hall.
Read entire article at AP