Totem Pole Honors Shareholder Descendant

First Totem Pole Raised in Yakutat in 100 Years Honors and Remembers

On July 22, for the first time in more than 100 years, the Yakutat community raised a totem pole. The pole was carved in honor of Nathan Bremner, a shareholder descendant from Yakutat, known as “Sunshine Boy” to his family. He passed away July 4, 2005 at age sixteen after a three-month battle with leukemia. “He loved to laugh and tease, and he was always ready and waiting to give the biggest hug when you really needed it,” said his mother, Shelley Bremner.

During his illness, the Yakutat community came together to support the family, and expressed love and compassion upon Nathan’s passing. “The love shown to our family by the community of Yakutat was unbelievable,” said Nathan’s mother. Shelley commissioned the pole as an expression of her gratitude for Nathan’s father’s clan, the L’uknax.ádi. “I am so grateful for the Tlingit culture,” she stated.

At the potlatch held in honor of the pole raising, Tsimshian carver David Boxley, who created the pole remarked, “At the potlatch I looked at everyone around me and realized that this was the first time they’ve done this. There was a sense of history being made.” The totem pole carved in memory of Nathan Bremner stands along a trail just outside of Yakutat. Community members carried the pole from the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall and through the village along the trail where it was placed.

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