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Tlingit Tote After 88 years in Greeley, a campus icon will return home The story of how the the Native American Graves Bear Clan Totem, which Protection and Repatriation generations of UNC stu- Tlingit Tote ... Act, enacted by Congress in dents called Totem Teddy, 1990. disappeared from its home The university will honor in Angoon, Alaska, is lost the claim, says UNC in the mists of time. Some President Kay Norton, who say a smallpox epidemic became involved when she early in the 20th century was the institution's general forced the Tlingit Indians to counsel. abandon their village. When "It's absolutely the right they later returned, the thing to do ," Norton says. totem was gone. Others "The totem is clearly an suggest that profiteers spir­ important cultural and spiri­ ited it away in the middle tual artifact to the Tlingits, of the night. and that is where it This much we know is belongs." true - it arrived in Greeley Over the years, Totem on the back of a trailer Teddy has had several shortly before Christmas in homes on campus. Its most 1914. Alumnus Andrew recent is in the atrium in the Thompson, then superinten­ University Center. It was a dant of schools in the south­ touchstone for generations eastern district of Alaska, of university students, who shipped the totem to his used it as a gathering place alma mater as a gift, perhaps and celebrated it as a point as the start of a museum col­ of pride. During the early lection. Contemporary 1960s after then-President reports are vague on the William Ross had details of how Thompson sequestered the totem in came by it. storage due to the abuse it But after 88 years on was getting from weather campus, during which he and rival schools, Michael went from college icon to Sheehan (BA-63) launched a relative obscurity, the totem petition drive to bring it out formerly known as Teddy is of hibernation. "I wanted to heading home. A delegation see the totem back on cam­ of members of the Tlingit pus before I graduated," he tribe of Alaska visited cam­ says. He gathered more than pus in March to see if a part 1,000 signatures and of UNC's history was also a marched into Ross' office to part of theirs. Satisfied that demand Teddy's return to tribal and photographic evi­ campus. Ross glanced at the dence clearly shows that the petition and told Sheehan, totem is indeed the Bear "Why didn't you just ask?" Clan Totem, the Tlingits It was soon reinstated, and filed a cultural resources housed in the ballroom in claim under the auspices of l Gray Hall. 6 • UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO . SPECTRUM No such drive was neces­ artifacts. Others, however, cate a new clan house until which covered him and pro­ sary for the totem's most have been cooperative. the totem is returned. tected him. They fell in recent repatriation. The Nearly 100 ceremonial and The pole that has so love, and had two bear cubs. claim clearly makes the case spiritual items have been much significance for UNC Meanwhile, Kaats' human for Tlingit ownership. returned in recent years, has even greater signifi­ wife sent the dogs to search The exact timing of its including totems, headdress­ cance for the Tlingit. The for him. But the dogs did return has yet to be deter­ es and ceremonial robes. story the totem tells is that not have the proper prepara­ mined, but it is expected to Members of the Bear Clan Kaats, the upside-down man tion (fasting and abstaining be before winter. Both the Tlingit and the university IIWe/ve been a foster family for several decades, but now it's time for the are working to obtain grants or gifts to help with ship­ totem to return home." ping costs. The totem will return to Angoon, its home from their mates) and could in Alaska. not see Kaats in the bear's The UNC Alumni den. When a dog with the Association is looking into proper preparation found the possibility of making a Kaats, he was returned to replica of the totem that his wife, but was responsi­ would stay on campus. ble for bringing the bear The Tlingit discovered cubs' food and was not that the totem was in allowed to talk with his Greeley when a UNC alum­ human wife. The arrange­ nus, Peter Corey, from the ment worked while the cubs Sheldon Jackson Museum in were small. Soon, however, Sitka, Alaska, mentioned to Kaats' human wife insisted members of the Tlingit tribe that he stop ignoring her. that a totem resided at his When he did, and broke alma mater. the bond with his bear wife, Harold Jacobs, cultural the cubs tore him limb from resources director for the limb. The bear wife was Central Council of Tlingit devastated, and tried to and Haida Indians of reassemble Kaats and Alaska, says the totem's restore his life. return will be welcome, Unsuccessful, she sang a though not all entities that lament that the Tlingit sing have Tlingit artifacts have to this day. It is considered been so forthcoming about the anthem of the Bear repatriation. A delegation Clan, which regards bears from the tribe visited cam­ as grandparents. pus in March. And while the bear is also "We had a good reception highly regarded at UNC, when we were there," he A painting of Totem Teddy by Carol Knapp featured on the inaugural returning it to Alaska is the says. "Every place should be issue of Spectrum April 1988. right thing, says Norton. so cooperative." have yet to determine where at the bottom of the pole, "We've been a foster fam­ Jacobs says some muse­ the totem will reside when it went hunting with his two ily for several decades, but ums will not acknowledge comes back, he says. They dogs for bear. He fell into now it's time for the totem claims the tribe has made on have delayed plans to dedi- the den of a female bear, to return home," she says . • SPECTRUM . UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN COLORADO . 7 Totem Teddy has had a colorful history at UN C From his perch atop a 15- Thompson would send his foot-tall totem pole, the bear old school the totem pole; that was the inspiration for Lif. at the top how he came to possess it is UNC's athletic mascot has By Mary Linscome still unknown. seen much in 88 years. He's Thus, as the Mirror of watched soldiers head off to responsible for educational, The first mention of the Nov. 11 , 1923, relates, the two world wars, seen the uni­ sanitary and social work Bear Clan pole in Greeley "Teachers" became the versity cope with the Great among the natives, with the appeared in the Christmas "Bears" when in 1923 the Depression and viewed goal of nurturing them into issue of the school's newspa­ lettermen of the college countless fads and fashions American ways of life. The per/magazine, The Crucible, formed a club to advance with a detached r------~-----------_____, 1914, "The athletics on campus. The stoicism. But all Totem Pole and group's first action was to the while, the bear Totemism." decide upon a name more may have longed Professor Edwin "indicative of the fighting to return home. B. Smith, using spirit." The totem became the When Totem the College's visible rallying point for Teddy returns to experiment in school spirit from that time Alaska sometime simplified forth. No record exists of in the coming spelling, writes: how Totem Teddy got his months, it will "Thru his resi­ name, but the "Teddy Bear" close a nearly dence and travel phenomenon was certainly a nine-decade chap­ among the part of American culture ter in the universi­ Alaskan Indians, from 1902, when President ty's history. Mr. Thompson Theodore Roosevelt spared The Greeley . was enabled to the life of an orphaned bear segment of the procure this fine cub while hunting in Totem Teddy saga specimen of the Mississippi, an event depict­ began on gradua­ totems which ar ed in a famous cartoon that tion day 1897, common among began the "Teddy Bear" when 44 students the nativs of the phase of American history. became alumni of northwest. An Over the years, the Mirror the Colorado State estimate of the has carried a steady stream Normal School. valu attached to of news about Totem Teddy. One, Andrew such an emblem As early as 1927, woodpeck­ Thompson, went to of a primitiv peo­ er damage to his back was Alaska, where ple is indicated reported, and students from 1908-10, he by the efforts of adorned him with a metal was superintendent the University of vest to protect against this of schools in the ~ Oxford, England vicious predator. In 1947, southeastern dis- ~ to secure an after having just had a new, trict, headquartered ;. Alaskan totem." and for the first time, techni­ in Juneau. Annual i Smith relates that color paint job, Teddy was reports of the l L....:~-..!::~...... L..:::~ __ students, faculty kidnapped and not recovered Commissioner of Education in educators spent as much or and alumni were interested until he was found almost a 1910 and 1911 paint grim pic­ more time with adult and fam­ in building collections for the month later on the oval at tures of Indian life in Alaska. ily groups outside of school as Greeley school's several Colorado State University, They relate how Bureau of they did with children in the departmental museums, per­ 35 miles away.
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