Nicholas Galanin in his studio on July 8, 2026. (KCAW/McKenney)
Nicholas Galanin carved away at a 25-foot totem pole in his Sitka studio, his dog sunning himself in the open warehouse doorway.
“It’s a Kiks.ádi totem that’ll be raised in Juneau, I believe next year,” Galanin said, the sound of his chisel hitting wood resonating through the room. “I’ve had two apprentices, and we’ve been working on it for about a year. So [we’re here] trying to finish it.”
Galanin is a Lingít/Unangax̂ artist and musician whose work has been featured all over the country. In 2025, ArtReview listed him in the top 100 most influential people in the contemporary art world. His work is part of an exhibit referenced in a new 162-page White House report that alleges “anti-white” bias at the Smithsonian Institution. The report, titled “Saving America’s Story,” was released on the Fourth of July.
“I come from a history of artists,” he said. “My great-grandfather designed the kootéeyaa totem right in front of the radio station. My father was a mentor, an artist. My uncle is a mentor, an artist. My children are artists.”
The White House referenced the Smithsonian exhibit “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,” which wrapped up in Washington, D.C. last September. Galanin’s included piece is titled “The Imaginary Indian.” He describes it as a curio totem that you could find in a tourist shop that’s covered in a floral wallpaper design.
The Imaginary Indian (Totem Pole), 2016, wood, acrylic paint, and floral wallpaper
“The work speaks towards [the] erasure of our people,” he said. “And it speaks towards the quote unquote consumption of our culture, without wanting the communities that create that work or that culture, which is a very typical colonial form of consuming and targeting and taking from Indigenous communities.”
In addition to Galanin’s piece, the exhibit included 81 other artworks created between 1792 and 2023, and examined the role of sculpture in understanding and constructing the concept of race in the United States.
Last year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” targeting the exhibition and calling it “divisive” and “race-centered.” The order was followed by the new report from the White House Domestic Policy Council, which was released as Americans marked the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It accuses the Smithsonian of promoting what it calls a politically biased interpretation of the nation’s past.
Specifically, the White House takes issue with how the exhibit frames race as a social construct and highlights how societal systems have historically maintained privilege and disenfranchisement.
Galanin said he’s received varying reactions from people after being targeted by the Trump Administration. He said one artist told him, “Congratulations!”
“If anything, it is a testament to the fact that our voices have power and our work is important, and it’s making an impact one way or another,” Galanin said.
Galanin’s Instagram post from Sept. 12, 2025.
This isn’t the first time Galanin said he’s felt pushback around this specific exhibit. In September, he announced on social media that he would no longer participate in a Smithsonian symposium because of government censorship.
“I feel like they were pressured to not promote our work and conversation publicly with the program and surrounding the exhibition,” he said.
At the time, Galanin said he understood that the organizers were put in a challenging position due to the government review of the Smithsonian and its programming.
“I come from a lineage that has endured attempted erasure through cultural, linguistic and spiritual silencing,” his post read. “My people, and all Indigenous peoples of this hemisphere, have endured attempted erasure through legislative and physical violence. My work is only possible because of the ancestors who persisted and refused to be silenced; who continued to carry our culture and pass on that responsibility to me, to speak to a larger audience than was able to see or hear them.”
Galanin said the administration’s targeting of cultural institutions is part of a greater push to erase perspectives, experiences, and history. For example, a display at Sitka’s Russian Bishop’s House that references mistreatment of Alaska Natives by missionaries was flagged last year as part of Trump’s demand that national park facilities remove “improper ideology.”
“The signage in that instance was targeted [and] deemed ‘anti-American,’” Galanin said. “But the sign spoke to the systematic violence that the government perpetuated and targeting Indigenous people — so the genocide of our people and our experience.”
But Galanin said this isn’t surprising. He said voices like his have been purposefully ignored and erased from institutions, from government, and from history for centuries.
“To see this active push, obviously, it’s nothing new to our communities, where we’ve had to fight for a voice and a place to tell our stories,” he said. “But it’s like right there, front and center.”
Galanin said the White House report could impact funding in the future, and further the censorship of Native and other marginalized voices. He said, “everyone should be concerned by that.”
KCAW reached out to the Smithsonian for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
