This is local.
The original story said the hand was stolen. But a later story detailed video footage that suggested someone was hanging from the hand, and it came off. That suggests it wasn’t destruction (they could have done much more damage) or scoring (bringing home something to boast about) but stupidity.
Since the hand has been returned, all is well. And I think the museum is right to not pursue charges. The hand is back, and maybe in the future if something like this happens again any idiot involved will return the item. But not pressing charges means the perpetrators may actually think about the totem pole’s meaning. And lots of People suffer from alcohol abuse, so this is acknowledging that it’s a problem, not crime.
It was Orange Shirt Day on Monday (and Cindy Blackstock’s birthday), and that’s when the news of the returned hand got out. The day is to remember the native children taken away to residential schools, something that was still happening a few decades ago. It was abusive to begin with, but thwre was physical and sexual abuse, and some of the children never went home.
The totem pole was carved to remember those children pulled away from their families. It was supposed to be on loan to the.museum for about half a year, but two years later it’s still there. I’ve left canned sc’win there a few times, totem poles aren’t ancestral, but half a continent away they are close. It’s a wonderful thing to have here. I just go and sit near it to keep it company.
Of course, the museum’s big theft has never been solved, and if they were caught there shouldn’t be forgiveness. Over Labor Day weekend in 1972, some paintings were stolen, the thieves getting in through the skylight. They were interrupted so they didn’t get as much as they could, but the missing paintings have never been seen or heard of since.
