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Last year, some 2,000 people gathered in Klawock—a 700-person village in Southeast Alaska—to help raise a new totem pole. The community carried the pole from its carving shed to its permanent home, just under a mile away. Then, dozens of people grabbed ropes to hoist the pole up as the rest of the crowd cheered.
But the occasion was also somber.
The totem, commissioned by the city of Klawock and carved by Jonathan Rowan, aims to raise awareness for missing and murdered Indigenous women. In the crowd, people carried photos of their own missing loved ones.
“It was very emotional to see all these families in the community with pictures of their daughters, mothers, cousins, march along with the totem pole,” said Salvation Army Klawock Corps Officer Major Luke Betti, who attended the event. “There were people I talk to daily who are still struggling and still seeking justice for their loved one.”
In the U.S., Indigenous women and girls face disproportionate rates of violence—more than 80 percent have experienced violence in their lifetime. And according to researchers, missing and murdered Indigenous women are less likely to receive justice than other groups due to poor record-keeping and historical biases.
Rowan’s completed totem incorporates symbols reflecting the community’s grief and honoring these victims of violence. He carved an eagle and raven with tears in their eyes to represent the clans in Southeast Alaska. He carved a faceless woman with angel wings. And he carved faces to represent the children who were left behind and who will not be born because of tragedy.
“The message is we can’t let this go unnoticed and this is what we can do to bring awareness,” Rowan said.
Personally, Rowan knows several people who have not found justice for their loved ones. Jeff Nickerson, Corps Sergeant Major at The Salvation Army Klawock Corps, where Rowan attends church, doesn’t know what happened to his mother, Evangeline. She disappeared from Petersburg in 1968 when Nickerson was just a teenager. The new totem offered Nickerson and his family an opportunity to remember her.
“The message is we can’t let this go unnoticed and this is what we can do to bring awareness.”
Jonathan Rowan, totem carver
“When they put up the pole, my daughter had white shirts with ‘Evangeline Nickerson’ on the front for everyone in the family,” Nickerson said.
Now, Nickerson looks at the totem pole every day—it stands about 100 yards from his porch.
“I look at the pole and when I see people over there, they’re looking at an art piece. But it’s a little more than that to me,” he said.
For Rowan, both his artistic process and the finished totems carry personal significance. He said he believes God has given him both the gifts and the strength to carve.
He started carving at age six. And even though his early work was “pretty rough stuff,” he said, “God’s the one that put it in me, the ability to create.”
Rowan began honing his craft as a teenager, learning from a master carver who taught at Klawock City School. After graduation, Rowan joined the Marines, but when he returned to Klawock, he went right back to the carving shed.
“My whole life has basically been geared toward this,” he said.
Over more than 40 years of carving, Rowan has honored veterans and doctors through his art, mentored a new generation of carvers as a high school teacher and helped celebrate Indigenous cultures in Southeast Alaska—a career he said is only possible through God.
“Carving totem poles can be a grueling process,” he said, “but God gives me the strength to do that.”
Today, people refer to Rowan as a master carver, but that’s not a title he would give himself. He said he lives by the wisdom he once received from fellow carver Nathan Jackson: “There is one Master, we’re just carvers.”
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