The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe will erect a 12-foot totem pole at its health clinic, 243511 U.S. Highway 101, west of Port Angeles at 10 a.m. Sunday.
Fashioned by renowned Lummi carver Jewel James, the totem depicts a shape changer — a human who can assume animal form — clutching a canoe paddle as he sings wishes for all canoes and crews to have safe journeys.
Unveiled Aug. 6 at the potlatch that climaxed the 2005 Tribal Canoe Journey at the Lower Elwha Reservation, the totem pole is intended to stand at Tse-whit-zen, the ancestral village on the Port Angeles waterfront. The site’s future is in negotiations between the tribe and the state Department of Transportation.
The cedar pole, painted black, white, red and yellow, is 4 feet wide.