It would take a couple of hours to tell the legend depicted on the totem pole, according to Tlingit master carver Tommy Joseph. Here is the short version:

There was famine in the village. A son-in-law who could never appease his mother-in-law decided to capture Waas’go, a supernatural monster dwelling in a lake. He captured the creature, donned its skin, and swam into the ocean to catch food. Returning to the village, he left his catch on the beach in front of his mother-in-law's house. But she deceived the villagers, claiming she was a shaman who made food magically appear. She began to predict what would appear the next day, and the son-in-law, listening nearby, would fulfill her prediction. She began small: first salmon, then halibut, then seal, then sea lion. On and on, she became grander with each prediction, until one day, she predicted a killer whale would appear the next morning on the beach.

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Son-in-law captured a killer whale in his Waas’go skin, barely escaping death himself. Unsatisfied, the next day mother-in-law predicted not one, but two killer whales on the beach. The son-in-law tried, but the whales were too much for him. The following morning, the villagers found his body on the beach next to the Waas’go skin and realized that it was he who had been providing them food all along.

Like the old stories of the fisherman's wife and Rumpelstiltskin, it's a cautionary tale about not-good-enough, about letting happiness collapse under the weight of desire.

This is the third carving of this Waas'go Legend pole since 1904. Learn more about the pole's long and interesting history here.

Images courtesy the Sitka National Historic Park, Sitka, Alaska

This post is part of The American 250, a series featuring 250 objects made by Americans, located in America, in honor of the country's 250th anniversary. 250 words on 250 works, from January 1 to December 31, 2026.

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