This image shows Lummi carver Verne Johnson, Jr. (1952-1994), named Tsow-sum in the Lummi language, working on an 8-foot totem pole. Ken Cooper, also a Lummi carver, stands behind him. The pole was a gift from the city of Ferndale, Washington (near the Lummi reservation) to its sister city of Miyoshi-mura in Japan. Johnson was a graduate of the Lummi School of Aquaculture and the University of Washington, and he served in the US Army during the Vietnam War. In addition to his carving work, Johnson directed water policy on the Lummi Indian Business Council. Johnson was suffering from cancer while carving the pole and unfortunately passed away before finishing it; Cooper completed his work.

Caption information source: “More than a totem pole,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 27, 1993, page B2.
Caption information source: “Tsow-sum Verne A “Sonny” Johnson Jr.,” Find a Grave, retrieved from https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/97434155/tsow-sum_verne-a-johnson