This Tlingit totem was carved around 1870 to honor a high-ranking tribal woman named Aanséet. The pole was named Naas-shagee-yéil and it was placed in Aanséet's village on Tongass Island on the Alaska coast. In 1899, a group of leading Seattle businessmen on a goodwill tour of southeastern Alaska stole the totem and brought it back to Pioneer Square. The businessmen were indicted for the theft, but the case was later dismissed. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which sponsored the tour, eventually paid a $500 fine to the Tlingit Tribe. After rot and fire damaged the original pole in 1938, Tlingit craftsmen, including several descendants of the carvers of the original pole, carved a replica and donated it to Seattle to replace the original, which was returned to Tlingit lands and laid to rest.

The wooden totem pole was later moved back from the corner. Judging by the businesses located across the street, this happened around 1923. This photo shows the totem pole moving project on a rainy afternoon. The workmen apparently supported the pole with cables and moved it vertically through a trench. The glass-covered pergola stands to the left.

Photographer's Reference Number: 96319

Caption information source: "Anisalaga's claim to the 'Seattle Pole,'" by Emily L. Moore, Smithsonian American Art Museum, American Art Vol. 37, No. 3, p 13-16.
Caption information source: "Seattle's Totem Poles," by Viola Garfield, Thistle Press, 1996.
Caption information source: "Stolen totem pole unveiled in Seattle's Pioneer Square on October 18, 1899," by David Wilma, HistoryLink, retrieved from https://www.historylink.org/File/2076