It was quiet in the museum as they worked, except for the soft sound of the blades slicing away thin layers of wood.
According to the legend, in olden times a young Indian walking along a beach freed an eagle snared in a fishing net, unaware that it was a nax nox — a spirit guardian.
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Years later, when the Indian was a chief and his people were starving, the eagle returned and brought him a salmon, then halibut, a porpoise and a whale, and his village was saved.
“The whole idea is: One good turn deserves another,” the elder Boxley said.
His son said it seemed fitting for today. “There’s so much negativity,” he said. “Everywhere.”
Bringing culture back
The totem depicts the black-eyed eagle with a huge beak on top, a cluster of villagers crouching in the middle, and the chief on the bottom, embracing the brightly colored salmon with both arms.
The elder Boxley said the story is his favorite.
His late grandfather, who raised him, was a canoe carver and showed him how to make an adze handle out of a tree branch, and the blade from a leaf spring of a Volkswagen.
Many in the tribe, originally based in British Columbia, relocated via canoe in 1887 to Metlakatla, Alaska, on Annette Island, about 200 miles southeast of Juneau. But in the process, they were compelled to abandon most of their traditions, the younger Boxley said.
“You had to give up everything,” he said. “Ceremonies, totem poles . . . we had to give it up . . . no more heathen activities. . . . It was a bad thing to be an Indian. . . . For all intent and purposes, the culture itself — at least the visual culture — was gone.”
His father, he said, grew up in Metlakatla, and has worked much of his life to bring Tsimshian culture back. Today about 15,000 Tsimshian live in Alaska and Canada.
“This is a big honor for not only my son and I, and our family, but my whole tribe,” the elder Boxley said.
Family stories, legends
The totem pole, the Boxleys noted, is not a religious icon, but was traditionally a residential signpost erected outside a house to tell about who lived within. “They told the stories and legends of the people who owned those houses,” the younger Boxley said.
The elder Boxley, a wiry man with thick, dark hair, and wearing jeans, sneakers and a black fleece, said he grew up working on fishing boats and in canneries. He also worked as a schoolteacher and basketball coach. But he was fascinated by art, and his culture called him, he said.
He said the totem log is red cedar, slowly grown in a canopied forest, and may be 500 or 600 years old. He said cedar is called aam gan — “good wood” — in the Tsimshian language.
And the pole is an emblem of the native communities of the Northwest coast. “It’s a pretty strong symbol of who we are,” he said. “It represents the stories and the great things that happened to our people.”
Personally, “I am carrying the flag for my grandfather,” he said. “He’s my guardian. He’s always with me. He’s not with me anymore, but he’s always there. In that way, I’m very proud to hold his spirit in my hands when I’m carving.”
“I’m a link in a chain,” he said. “Over here is my grandpa. Over here is my kids. I feel real honored to be the one that joins them together.”
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