Graduation Year

2025

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Art Conservation

Second Department

Art History

Reader 1

Victoria Sancho Lobis

Reader 2

Julia Lum

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Abstract

This thesis investigates the cultural appropriation and conservation of the Chief-of-All-Women totem pole, originally stolen by Seattle businessmen from the Tlingit village of Tongass in 1899 and later reinstalled in Pioneer Square as a symbol of the city. By framing the totem pole as a site of both physical and cultural displacement, I trace its journey from sacred object to public monument, and ultimately to federally funded replica. Drawing on conservation theory, oral history, archival research, and an interview with Haida artist Sondra Segundo, I argue that the pole’s removal, replication, and continued display reflect broader patterns of settler colonialism that commodify Indigenous heritage while erasing its origins. Rather than treating conservation as a neutral or technical act, I position it as an ethical and political practice that must grapple with questions of provenance, Indigenous sovereignty, and institutional accountability. Through analysis of the pole’s carving, painting, and recontextualization, I explore the tensions between preserving its physical form and honoring its cultural meaning. Ultimately, I suggest that true stewardship begins not with the act of conservation itself, but with listening: to Native communities, to the stories that have been silenced, and to the responsibilities we inherit when we choose to preserve the stolen.

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