Tlingit & Haida leaders ask tourists to stop using totem poles as social media props

Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian leaders are asking tourists to stop using totem poles as social media props, delivering that message in a video appeal.

Executive Council members Rob Sanderson Jr. and Paulette Moreno deliver the message in the video. One tells visitors the poles are "not a prop for your Instagram or your TikTok platforms to use," adding, "These are held sacred by the people here that live in Southeast Alaska, the Tlingit, the Haida, the Tsimshian tribes." The other extends a conditional welcome: "We welcome people to walk our land in an authentic way with respect."

The leaders urged visitors to approach Southeast Alaska cultures with curiosity, humility, and respect. They asked tourists to learn the stories behind the places they visit and to listen to those who call these homelands home. The video asks tourists to "learn a little bit about the areas that they're visiting," and frames protecting and respecting these cultures as supporting thriving communities today and for generations to come.

Tourists arriving in Southeast Alaska are stepping onto traditional homelands where the poles carry clan stories, ancestors, and teachings that connect generations.

Tlingit artist Renee Culp, artist-in-residence at the Walter Soboleff Building, explained that the Tlingit word for what outsiders call totem poles carries layered meaning. They "tell stories, show and depict lineage, honor events and people, identifies whose land you're on, and so much more," she said.