Sir: I am a retired elementary teacher who taught Grade 8 at Tecumseh Public School. When I first walked in the school after being hired there, I was very surprised to see the totem pole. Totem poles have nothing to do with the Shawnee, the nation to which Tecumseh was both a member and their greatest leader. They are part of the culture of First Nations of the Pacific Northwest – the Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian communities of British Columbia and southeast Alaska. These groups have very different ways of life, customs, and cultural symbols.
I believe the creators of the totem pole were well intentioned at the time. They looked for inspiration to the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest and meant it as a tribute to Native culture as a whole. In the 1970s, this was regarded as acceptable.
However, that was then. We know more now, and need to be more sensitive and accurate when creating a memorial. We should not appropriate a cultural symbol of one group and use it for another.
Today, I believe it is impossible to enter Tecumseh Public School and not make a direct connection between the totem pole and Chief Tecumseh. To have this totem pole in a school named in honour of the great leader, Tecumseh, is wrong.
The students do not yet have the knowledge to make the distinction between the Shawnee and the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest; they see a totem pole and an image of Tecumseh beside it, and think they belong together.
Schools must be truthful and clear in their instruction of children, whether that takes place in the classroom or the entrance foyer of the building.
As a history teacher, I made sure that my students were aware these issues, and that the totem was not representative of any eastern North American Indigenous peoples. Students were surprised when they discovered this. It served to me as proof that the totem should be removed because, as a symbol, it was doing more harm than good.
If the creators of this totem wish to install it on private property somewhere else, then it could be preserved for their own enjoyment. It should not be permitted to remain in Tecumseh Public School.
Jim Prosser
Chatham
