page_title: Pioneer Square totem pole
section_title: Seattle Post-Intelligencer expedition
hierarchical_section_title: Pioneer Square totem pole / History / Seattle Post-Intelligencer expedition
caption_attribution_description: English: Steamship City of Seattle alongside wharf in Victoria BC harbor, circa 1897.
context_page_description: The Pioneer Square totem pole, also referred to as the Seattle totem pole and historically as the Chief-of-All-Women pole, is a Tlingit totem pole located in Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle, Washington.
  The original totem pole was carved in 1790 and raised in the Tlingit village on Tongass Island, Alaska to honor the Tlingit woman Chief-of-All-Women. The totem pole was later stolen by Seattle businessmen on an expedition to Alaska and subsequently gifted to the City of Seattle in 1899, where it was raised in Pioneer Square and became a source of civic pride. The totem pole was later damaged by arson and a replica was commissioned and installed in its place in 1940, which is now designated a National Historic Landmark.
context_section_description: In 1899, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer sponsored an expedition of "leading Seattle citizens" to the District of Alaska. The expedition was meant to be a "goodwill tour," with a mixture of business and pleasure, and the goal of investigating increased trade and investment in Alaska. However, even as the Klondike Gold Rush came to an end, civic leaders also wanted to solidify Seattle as the "Gateway to Alaska" and the Seattle Chamber of Commerce included a committee of prominent businessmen on the expedition.
  On August 17, 1899, the expedition set sail on the steamship City of Seattle with a total of 165 men and women. The expedition included stops at Vancouver, Mary Island, New Metlakahtla, Ketckikan, Wrangel, Juneau, the Treadwell Mines, Skagway, Lake Bennett, Dyea, Pyramid Harbor, Glacier Bay, Muir Glacier, Killisnoo, Sitka and Victoria.
  
  On the morning of August 28, 1899, the City of Seattle stopped at the Tlingit village at Fort Tongass when members of the Chamber of Commerce committee spotted multiple totem poles. The village appeared to be deserted and they decided to take a totem pole as a souvenir. Third mate R. D. McGillvery and other members of the expedition went ashore and McGillvery later described the events as:
  The Indians were all away fishing, except for one who stayed in his house and looked scared to death. We picked out the best looking totem pole... I took a couple of sailors ashore and we chopped it down—just like you'd chop down a tree. It was too big to roll down the beach, so we sawed it in two.
  During the process, McGillvery and the other sailors broke the beak on the bottom figure which was later incorrectly reconstructed. A carving of a seal, about 8 feet (2.4 m) in length, was also taken from the Tlingit village. After the totem pole was floated back to the ship, the Chamber of Commerce committee collectively paid McGillvery $2.50 for his labor. The expedition returned to Seattle on August 30, 1899, and the Chamber of Commerce committee subsequently presented the totem pole to the Seattle City Council as a gift to the city.
caption: The steamship City of Seattle
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