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There are no items associated with Charlie Joe Tagcook available without first logging in. This person appears in records from MOA.

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Born in Haines, Alaska; passed away and buried in Portland, Oregon. Tagcook was a prolific maker of model and monumental totem poles who was originally from the Chilkoot/Chilkat regions of Tlingit territory (near present day Haines, and the village of Klukwan, both in Alaska). He was also known to live in Skagway and Wrangell. Wrangell is where Tagcook rose to prominence as a maker of poles and other Tlingit arts, working as an in-house carver at Walter Waters’ Bear Totem Store. While there, Tagcook carved several full-sized poles for Waters, including a massive totem depicting the origin of Mosquito and the Tlingit Cannibal Giant story. Tagcook may have been the first professional Tlingit carver to be commissioned by non-Indigenous people to make monumental poles. Other notable works by Tagcook include the Alaska Governor’s Mansion totem pole and a monumental pole that resided in California for years. Tagcook is the great-uncle of noted Tlingit artist Nathan Jackson (b. 1938), who Jackson credits with inspiring him to be a carver.

Born: 1866
Died: 1950