A caribou totem representing one of the four traditional clans of the Burns Lake Band (Ts’il Kaz Koh First Nation) recently installed in downtown Burns Lake has had both of its antlers vandalized.
On two separate occasions about two weeks apart, the intricately carved antlers were broken off one at a time. Another carving by the same artist, Ben Gerow, at the Rainbow Gas Station on the west end of Burns Lake was vandalized last winter.
The chance of vandalism was discussed by Village of Burns Lake before the installation of the sculptures, and the decision was that the village would do repairs but only to the point of not replacing broken pieces. “The next time the carver is in town he will have a look and see if there is a way that he can repair to the original state,” said Village of Burns Lake Chief Administrative Officer Sheryl Worthing. “If not we will leave as is. The crew will repair to the point of re-staining as time permits.” Each carving represents a month of work to create the totems out of a single piece of red cedar.
Burns Lake RCMP report no leads on who may have damaged the totems.