REGION
THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A3
Talking about the John Day totem pole
By BENNETT HALL
Blue Mountain Eagle
TOTEM POLE
SYMBOLS
JOHN DAY — The
years have not been kind to
the John Day totem pole.
A quarter-century of
wind and rain, sun and
snow have taken a toll on
the local landmark, leaving
its once-bright wood dark-
ened, weathered and
cracked.
That doesn’t sit well with
Margot Heiniger-White, the
widow of Ralph White, the
Canyon City chainsaw artist
who carved the pole.
“I would like that totem
pole cleaned up,” she said.
And she’s not crazy
about the location, either,
tucked between a tele-
phone pole and a two-story
building just off the city’s
main drag.
“It’s not a very good
place for it because nobody
can see it,” she said. “It’s in
a bad spot.”
The John Day totem pole is
adorned with four stylized
animal carvings, each with its
own symbolic meaning.
Eagle: The Great Spirit
Salmon: The food of life
Turtle: Eternal life
Beaver: The Great Builder
Location, location
Bennett Hall/Blue Mountain Eagle
her out, then he went to
see for himself — and
found that he agreed with
her.
“It needs something
done,” he said. “I stopped
by and looked at it, and
it definitely has seen its
better days.”
Lundbom brought the
matter up at a city council
meeting, and the con-
sensus was that the city
should pay to have the
pole cleaned up and sealed
with oil or varnish. The
mayor estimates the work
could be done for about
$500 or so, and the plan is
to do it this spring.
He also thinks Hein-
iger-White has a point
when she says the totem
pole needs a new home.
“I all but forgot about it
— I walk by it every day,
but I didn’t really notice it
anymore,” Lundbom said.
“We talked about
moving it to a more prom-
inent location, but the
problem is where?”
Heiniger-White, as you
might expect, has some
thoughts on that subject.
“I think it needs to
be somewhere it can be
seen,” she said. “And the
place I would like to see
it put is at the entrance to
John Day.”
Specifically, she thinks
it should be relocated to
the small patch of city-
owned land by the bridge
over Canyon Creek at the
corner of Main and Third
streets.
Labhart says he’s not
sure that’s the best spot.
He points out that while
the totem pole might catch
the eye of passing motor-
ists at that location, there’s
no place for them to park
if they want to get out of
their cars and admire it.
A better place, he sug-
gests, might be the Pit
Stop, another city-owned
property on the site of the
former Wright Chevrolet
dealership at Main and
Canton.
Or maybe one block
north on Canton, where
the Oregon Department
of Parks and Recreation
is planning a multimil-
lion-dollar expansion of
the Kam Wah Chung State
Heritage Site?
“To me, it would make
more sense to put it in that
new state park,” Labhart
said. “It’s not Chinese, but
it’s part of the culture …
(and) a lot of people would
see it.”
Ultimately, Heiniger-
White wants to do right
by the totem pole. She
thinks that’s what the
man who carved it —
her late husband, Ralph
White — would want if
he were here to speak for
himself.
“I feel strongly that
I am the messenger for
him,” she said, “because
he’s passed on.”
Truth be told, it really
The John Day totem pole is showing its age, but the city has plans to clean it up and refi nish it in the spring of 2022. There are also discussions
about possibly moving it to a more prominent location.
is an odd place for a totem
pole.
Standing 50 feet tall
the Strawberry Wilderness
and weighing in at 18,000
Fine Art Gallery, a business
pounds, the tow-
that no longer exists.
ering tamarack spar
The only other record
is topped by an eagle
of it in the newspa-
with a 20-foot wing-
per’s fi les from that
span. Below the
time is a photo of the
eagle are three more
fi nished pole lying
carved fi gures: a
on the side of Dayton
salmon, a turtle and a
Street, about to be
Heiniger-
White
beaver.
hoisted into place by
It’s perched atop
a crane.
a concrete footing at the
Heiniger-White’s mem-
intersection of Main and
ories of the pole’s carving
Dayton streets, at the east
have faded a bit with the
end of downtown John Day. years.
Yet despite its imposing
In an interview with the
size and central location,
newspaper, she remembered
the totem pole is surpris-
that there had been some
ingly easy to overlook.
sort of an arrangement with
Driving down Main
a man who owned a store
Street from the east, the
to place the totem pole near
totem pole is hidden behind his business because “the
the imposing bulk of the
land was free.” She couldn’t
Grant County Ranch and
remember the man’s last
Rodeo Museum. Coming
name but thought his fi rst
from the west, the view is
name might have been Ray.
partially obscured by a tele- And she couldn’t remember
phone pole.
the name of the business.
And why is there a totem
Blue Mountain Eagle, File
But some of her recollec-
pole in John Day at all?
tions are crystal-clear, even Ralph White, a.k.a. the Mountain Man, pilots a horseless carriage in Grant County’s ‘62 Days Celebration
Parade in this fi le photo from August 2013.
Grant County doesn’t
26 years after the fact.
have much of a Native
She remembers the
American presence these
including a tribal historian
bright glow of the tamarack Oregonian newspaper, the
tury as a place for tribes
days — according to the
article says the pole had its from throughout the region who talked about his peo-
after Ralph White fi nished
2020 census, only 1.7% of
ple’s traditional connection
genesis as a promotional
carving it.
to gather for trade.
the county’s residents iden-
to John Day.
gimmick.
“It was the most beau-
“Burke honored White
tify as Native American or
After that, a dozen or
As Command tells the
tiful wood you have ever
and Potter with Indian
Alaska Native.
more people got up and
seen,” she said, eyes shining tale, Ray Potter, owner
names, and the carving of
Perhaps more to the
stood in a circle, including
with the memory. “It should of the Strawberry Wil-
the pole and its blessing
point, Oregon tribes didn’t
derness Fine Art Gallery,
have been spar-varnished
ceremony drew many sup- Labhart, White, Burke
carve totem poles. That
and a number of tribal
was looking for some-
at the time to preserve the
porters,” the article states.
was something the coastal
members.
thing to attract customers
color, but it wasn’t.”
“To further sanction the
tribes of what is now Wash-
“We passed a peace
to the gallery’s new loca-
And she remembers
event, the three friends and
ington, British Columbia
pipe around,” Labhart said.
tion just off Main Street in the town fathers smoked
exactly why her husband
and Southeast Alaska were
“Each of us took a toke
John Day, and he asked his a pipe beside the ancient
carved it.
known for.
off the pipe and passed it
“He carved it as a tribute artist friend Ralph White
tamarack’s new home.”
So what’s it doing here?
around.”
for advice.
to Chief Raymond Burke.”
Making history
The answer to that ques-
He agrees with Heini-
White’s suggestion: “A
tion comes back to Ralph
Personal connection
A plaque at the base of
ger-White that the totem
totem pole; it stops ‘em
Raymond “Popcorn”
White.
the pole commemorates the pole is in need of some
every time.”
Burke died on June 27,
event.
serious TLC.
Once the idea was
Mountain Man
2006.
“Erected August 21,
“It’s in pretty bad
hatched, several things
Ralph White died on Jan.
In 1995 he was the chief came together neatly to
1995,” it reads. “This totem shape,” Labhart said. “It
28, 2018, at the age of 79.
of the Confederated Tribes make it a reality: A local
pole is a symbol of friend-
probably needs to be pres-
In life, by all accounts,
of the Umatilla Indian
ship and peace from all of
sure-washed, maybe
logger provided the mas-
he was a colorful character. Reservation, which lies
Grant County to Raymond
patched up a little.”
sive tamarack trunk, the
He wore a bushy beard
between Pendleton and La
Burke and all of the
And he also thinks she’s
local Ford dealership pro-
and a bearclaw necklace,
Grande and is home to the
Umatilla-Walla Walla-
right when she says it ought
vided the land and the
and he called himself the
Umatilla, Walla Walla and local electric utility agreed Cayuse Tribe who lived
to be moved.
Mountain Man.
Cayuse nations.
here before us.”
“A lot of people don’t
to set the nine-ton pole in
According to an article
And he was Ralph
Chris Labhart remem-
even know it’s there
place — all at no cost.
by C.J. Gish in the July 20,
White’s friend.
bers that day. He was mayor because of its location.”
The story goes on to
1995, edition of the Blue
As Heiniger-White
at the time, and he was one
talk about the historical
Next chapter
Mountain Eagle, he made
remembers it, her husband connection between the
of the honored guests in
In December, Heiniger-
his living for many years
had a genuine affi nity for
attendance at the blessing
people of the Confeder-
White took her concerns
as a chainsaw artist. White
Native American culture
ated Tribes of the Umatilla ceremony.
about the totem pole to
had a love for the Old West
and traditions that was
The intersection was
Indian Reservation and
John Day’s current mayor,
and Native American art
refl ected in his art. And he the John Day area — as
closed to traffi c for the
Ron Lundbom. He heard
forms — and a knack for
wanted to do something to remembered by Chief Ray- occasion, he said, and the
turning tree trunks into
honor his friend.
weather was perfect. He
mond Burke. As a boy in
animal fi gures.
“He had such a deep
remembers tribal members
the 1930s, Burke recalled
“My saw is like an
respect for the Native
in ceremonial regalia, and
bringing his grandmother
instrument, like a banjo
American people and
Native American drummers
and other female elders to
or guitar, and it’s music to
respect for Chief Raymond the area, which he said had playing their instruments.
my ears,” he told the news-
Burke.”
served for more than a cen- Several people spoke,
paper. “When I look at a
An article that appeared
log, I know it’s going to be
in the Dec. 3, 1995, Seattle
an eagle or a fi sh. They’re
Times fi lls in some more
An Independent
there and I just have to
blank spots in the totem
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