Honoring our Cultural History
The UAS Auke Lake Campus is located on lands originally inhabited by the Tlingit Indians. Tlingit, meaning "The People," are divided into Moieties, which means "each of two parts." There is the Eagle moiety and the Raven moiety.
In March 1993, the UAS Auke Lake Campus was given a Raven totem pole. The pole was carved by four Tlingit carvers from Haines during an exhibition at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York, after which it was dedicated and displayed at the Nikiski Standard Oil (later Chevron) refinery on the Kenai Peninsula. When the facility was sold, Chevron wanted the pole returned to Southeast, home of the Raven people, and generously donated the pole to UAS.
After accepting the gift of the Raven pole, UAS became aware that, without an Eagle pole to complement it, the Tlingit sense of balance between the moieties would be missing. One of goals of the UAS Totem Fundraising Campaign is to teach students about our local Native cultures and to honor them by correcting the imbalance of the moieties through the commission of an Eagle pole to match the Raven.
