About Tell the Raven

The totem pole comes from a red cedar tree harvested in Thorn Bay by the Ketchikan Pulp Company. The Ketchikan Pulp Company donated the 24 foot red cedar log to Denali Elementary. The log was shipped by barge to Seattle, and then to Anchorage. From Anchorage it was trucked to Fairbanks. The log spent several years on the ground outside of the gym before Bert Ryan, a Tsimpshian carver from Metlakatla, began working with students at Denali in the spring of 1997 to carve and paint the totem pole. The totem pole tells a story about love, kindness, and respect that was given to us by the carver.

Tell the Raven is a community writing project for my Grade 6 (grade 4 material is in the archives) students in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Raven totem pole stands in the middle of our playground. Our stories go out to the world.

LOVE, KINDNESS, AND RESPECT

As told by Bert Ryan

Written by John Tegoseak and Michelle Est-Blevins

This is the story about Denali's Totem Pole. On the top of the pole there's a raven and on the bottom there's a panther. The raven was chosen for the totem pole because it is well known in Alaska, and the panther because it is our school mascot. The pole represents LOVE, KINDNESS, AND RESPECT.

The panther tells the raven to spread the word about love, kindness, and respect in our school. Then the raven tells all the other schools in Fairbanks about love, kindness, and respect. And then the raven spreads love, kindness, and respect to all the cities and towns in Alaska. The raven spreads love, kindness, and respect to all the states in the lower forty-eight. It tells the rest of the world about love, kindness, and respect. Then it goes to the universe; from the universe it goes to God; from God it goes back to the babies and over and over.