saxman native village

A must see if you are visiting Ketchikan. Excellent examples of Northwest Totem Poles. The carved panels on the tribal house are excellent. The carving shed is open to the public during the summer tourist season and there are normally several artists working.

Went here during a quick layover from Bellingham to Juneau via the Alaska ferry. A couple of other passengers and I took the bus from the Ferry Terminal down to Saxman. The bus turns around just south of the Village. Great inexpensive way to get around. I enjoyed my quick visit to Saxman, and was lucky to have a beautiful sunny day for it.

Long before cruise passengers began spending money in Ketchikan on plastic totem pole letter openers made in China, the Tlingit spent their summers there fishing for salmon. A line of faceless shops can cater to all your souvenir needs, but if you want to learn about the people who shutter at the thought of die-cast totems, there’s a family-friendly tour of culturally rich Saxman Native Village ($49). Inside a grand cedar tribal house is a performance by a native dance group. The natives barely break a sweat during their auto-pilot performance, but the tourists eat it up.

Went with Classic Tours with Lois Munch and learned quite a bit. Also met Nathan Jackson a famous carver.

Took a cruise excursion here while in Ketchikan. We were first escorted into a large room that resembled a high school auditorium. We were shown a video about the Saxman village and the Tlinglit people. We were then taken to the clan house and saw an Indian dance show and the audience was invited to come up to participate as well. We were then shown the totem poles and the tour guide gave us some explanations and stories related to them. We also saw the totem pole carving house as well. We spent about 2 hours here. It was an interesting morning-- something different to see.

We thoroughly enjoyed our driver/guide, Mel Briola, as we experienced the Saxman Native Village on September 12th. By this point in our 2 1/2 week trip, we were fatigued. He brought history to life with stories and humor.

If you like totems and native culture, this is the place to visit. We were able to see dances in the clan house and the workshop their master carver. It's quiet place to visit away from the circus atmosphere of the dock area.

Enjoyed hearing the history of the totems...Stories, why specific colors were used, etc. There was an also an artist on-site who was repairing a damaged totem. Interesting to watch.

Maybe we went during an off time, but most of our guides seemed very lackluster. The highlight was looking at the totems and hearing the stories that surround them, which were all narrated by our bus driver. The actual guides we had seemed bored, answered most questions with, "I don't know" and didn't seem to contribute much. I would have liked seeing more displays in the room that you empty into after watching the video and some actual exhibitions of art being created.

Our guide Braden P was very knowledgeable and told stories about the many totem poles in the village. We found it very interesting that the intricately carved poles were a way to communicate and record the stories and events of the local people. We visited the carvers and were able to watch them at work. The visit to the clan house was also informative and gave us an insight into the culture and way of life of the people. We were also invited to participate in a dance and to wear the beautiful cloaks that were adorned with colourful motifs of birds and animals.An accessible coach with a lift was also provided for my husband who is in a wheelchair.

We had the most interesting visit to the Saxman Village. We were told we could take photos anywhere in the village. The first thing we did was gather in a community hall where we watched an entertaining film about the Tlingit. The walls were decorated with native paintings.It is here that I will stress that the Tlingit people do Not live on a reservation. The community is not very large so to prevent intermarriage the village is split into 2 halves. Marriage only being possible with people from opposing sides of the village.Because they are native Tlingit they are allowed to fish and hunt at will.The short film is a history of the people and their homes and how they like to welcome visitors. In days gone by they would welcome visitors with a feast of fish, flat fish and salmon, seal meat and bear. They would also always have blueberries picked from the forest above their homes. They live predominantly in a coastal community. Their dress is typical Indian with dresses made from cotton and animal skins. They wore moccasins on their feet with some laced all the way up to their knees. In the foyer of the hall there were 2 Tlingit women beading and making gifts for their families to wear. Some of the pieces they made were available for sale.From this hall we then went to the Clan house where we were treated to traditional dances and a couple were given the treat of learning to dance with the clans. Many clans were represented and had differing symbols on their clothing to distinguish them. The inside of the hall was very plain and was all built by hand with all handmade nails etc, There are 3 doors in the walls which are there for modern fire prevention and safety purposes. In the original clan house there was only one doorway which was about knee high and was shown on a false wall on the stage. The elder giving the speech said that today we have walk in wardrobes to store our personal items In the Clan house they had walk on wardrobes as items were stored underneath the floor. We were told that because the men would be away on hunting expeditions this doorway helped to protect the women children and elderly from attack. When someone tried to get through the door they would be in a somewhat compromised bent over position which would give the able bodied women time to grab a flaming stick from the central fire to poke the intruder with and make him retreat from the Clan house.After this we went outside and were able to view the totem poles. We learned why they made them and were told that if one fell down it was left in the position where it fell. The pole would rot and eventually return to the earth. In the meantime small animals would use the felled poles as shelter.After the history lessons on the poles we went to the work shed where we had the pleasure of seeing inside and watching the craftsmen at work. I had to retreat from this shed because the smell of the red cedar was so powerful it gave me a headache. It was in here that you could purchase very cheaply red cedar shavings in a bag. I can understand why moths stay away.When this part of the tour was over there was time to browse the gift shop. This is the only part of the village I wasn't keen on. Reason being it was very commercial and most of the goods were made in Indonesia. It would have been better if the Tlingit had some home industries happening where visitors could buy authentic native craft work.All in all this was an informative well organised enjoyable tour.

The totam poles are beautiful. It does not take long to walk around and see everything. There are some up and down hill walking. You can watch through the window ant the natives carving the totams.

I was not really that interested in seeing the totem poles. We took the trolley tour because when we booked the tour prior to arriving in Ketchikan we didn't realize that it was such an easy walk to Creek Street. we really were interested in just seeing Creek Street. It was just something I wasn't interested in.

I took a city bus to and from Saxman Native Village and spent time checking out the totem poles, informational signs, and rainforest terrain. It's so wildly different than anything I've seen before that I really enjoyed it and would have enjoyed the "official" tour, had time permitted.

Our experience started with a visit to a center to view a short video about the Tlingit Natives,followed by a short walk through a rainforest to the clan house. The inside visit included a short talk about the clan house and the art work inside. Then we saw a couple of dances. The dancers included two children and the robes all the dancers wore were truly pieces of art work. After we were escorted to a carving demonstration. In our case it was a young native working on a small totem. The room had other works in progress.Next was a short time on the grounds admiring the totem poles. The guide explain their meanings. Then of, course a small gift shop with local artists works. This was not an expensive tour,but it did capture an abundance of local color and I highly recommend doing it as a tour to get the full authentic flavor. Just stopping by to look at the totem poles misses the point.