Alaskans finally get back totem pole stolen by screen legend in 1931

HONOLULU— A stolen totem pole that went from the garden decor of two golden-age movie actors to the basement of a Hawaii museum has been returned to Alaska tribal members.

Screen legend John Barrymore was travelling along the Alaska coast by yacht and directed crew members to take the totem pole from an unoccupied village in 1931, said University of Alaska Anchorage professor Steve Langdon, who has long researched the object.

They sawed it in three pieces.

Barrymore, star of Grand Hotel and grandfather of actress Drew Barrymore, displayed the pole in the garden of his California estate.

After Barrymore died, actor Vincent Price, known for horror flicks such as House of Wax, and his wife bought it and also used it as a yard decoration. The couple donated it to the Honolulu Museum of Art in 1981.

Langdon’s interest in the piece came from a visit to an Alaska museum where he saw a photo of Price standing next to the approximately 12-metre pole. “It was totally out of place,” he recalled. “Here’s this rec- ognizable Hollywood figure in a backyard estate with a totem pole . . . that was surrounded by cactus.”

Langdon learned the pole was used for burials, and that there were remains of a man inside before Barrymore had it erected at his home. Langdon does not know what happened to the remains after they were removed from the pole.

Museum officials didn’t know the pole was stolen.

With permission from tribal leaders, Langdon came to Honolulu in 2013 to examine the pole, setting into motion a repatriation process fund- ed by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

On Thursday, seven Tlingit tribal members who travelled to Honolulu from the southeast village of Klawock wore lei, sang sombre songs, handed out gifts and thanked Hawaii for taking good care of the pole.

“We too also are ocean people,” said Jonathan Rowan, master carver and cultural educator. “We live on an island also.”

With the scent of cedar in the air, his daughter Eva Rowan brushed three feathers along the pole pieces bearing carved images of a killer whale, a raven, an eagle and a wolf.

“It gives my heart great peace that my ancestors can go home,” she said. “I feel my father’s people here. I feel my grandfather’s people here, giving us strength right now.”

It was among more than 100 totem poles that once stood in the old village of Tuxecan on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, which was inhabited by the Tlingit people.

Of the original Tuxecan poles, only two remain, both in Klawock, the village of 800 people where the tribe moved, according to the museum.