Spokane Tribe replaces "totem" art

Tribe raised $25,000 to replace cultural blunderA cultural blunder at a North Spokane park is getting a $25,000 replacement.

The Spokane Tribe and community leaders raised the money to purchase a new monument for Chief Garry Park in North Spokane. Tribal leaders want the current statue removed.

An art installment resembling a totem pole now sits in Chief Garry Park. The city installed the current statue a couple of years ago. City leaders removed the Chief Garry statue in 2008 because it was deteriorating. Tribal leaders call the totem pole art inappropriate.

Leaders told KREM 2 News that the totem pole does not represent any Eastern Washington tribes.Comment:  I'm always saying totem poles have specific roles and meanings in Native cultures. You can't put random figures and shapes on a pole and call it totem pole. Not a Native one, anyway.

Now here's evidence of that. Even though this pole is genuine art, it's not genuinely Native. As a totem pole, it's phony. So the Spokane Tribe is paying to replace it. They want a real totem pole, not totem-style art.

For more on the subject, see "Low Man on Totem Pole" in NCIS and Goofy Moments in GREEN LANTERN #79.