| Kwanusila | |
|---|---|
 Kwanusila in 2025 | |
  Kwanusila  Kwanusila | |
| Artist | Tony Hunt |
| Completion date | 1986 (1986) |
| Medium | Wood |
| Dimensions | 12.2 meters (40 feet) |
| Location | Chicago |
| Coordinates | 41°56′56.3″N87°38′32.8″W / 41.948972°N 87.642444°W /41.948972; -87.642444 |
| Owner | Tony Hunt |
Kwanusila is a 12.2 meter (40 foot) talltotem pole carved fromred cedar. It stands inLincoln Park at Addison Street just east ofLake Shore Drive in theLake View neighborhood ofChicago, Illinois. The colorfully painted totems include a grimacingsea monster at the bottom, a man riding awhale above it, andKwanusila theThunderbird on top.
Its sculptor wasTony Hunt, the chief of theKwagu'ł tribe inBritish Columbia, as a 1986 replacement for the totem pole that stood at the site since 1929. That pole was carved in 1893 for theWorld's Columbian Exposition in Chicago byGeorge Hunt (Tlingit), an ethnologist from Alaska who assisted Franz Boas at the fair and served also as a linguist and interpreter.[1] He was Tony Hunt's direct ancestor.
The first Hunt totem pole was purchased after the fair bycheesebaronJames L. Kraft, the founder ofKraft Foods and later donated to the city of Chicago. It was placed in the park in 1929. It suffered from poor maintenance, weathering and vandalism over the years, and was sent to theMuseum of Anthropology at theUniversity of British Columbia in 1985 for study and conservation.[2]