Chief Kno-Tah
| Chief Kno-Tah | |
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The sculpture in 2010
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 Chief Kno-Tah
Location in Washington County, Oregon
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| Artist | Peter Wolf Toth |
| Year | 1987 |
| Type | Sculpture |
| Medium | Wood |
| Dimensions | 7.6 m (25 ft) |
| Location | Hillsboro, Oregon, United States |
| 45°30′47″N 122°58′27″W / 45.51306°N 122.97417°WCoordinates: 45°30′47″N 122°58′27″W / 45.51306°N 122.97417°W | |
Chief Kno-Tah is a wooden statue located in Shute Park in Hillsboro in the U.S. state of Oregon. Carved by Peter Wolf Toth, it was the 56th Native American head in his Trail of the Whispering Giants series. The 25-foot (7.6 m) tall, 250,000-pound (110,000 kg) statue was the first of two carved by Toth in Oregon. Completed in 1987, the statue was named in honor of a chief of the local Tualatin Indians.
Toth selected Shute Park in Hillsboro for his first sculpture of a Native American head in Oregon in July 1987. Toth wanted a location in the Portland metropolitan area to allow easy access for a large population to see the statue that would include features drawn from Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce in northeastern Oregon. Part of his Trail of the Whispering Giants series, he carved a statue in each U.S. state with Oregon as the second to last state. Sculpting began that month on a log of Douglas fir, Oregon’s state tree. The 250,000-pound (110,000 kg) log was donated by Stimson Lumber Company and delivered free of charge by local companies.
On August 13, the partly carved log was lifted onto its base at the park along Tualatin Valley Highway by J. L. Craigg Construction. Toth carved it by hand, except for the use of an electric sander. The statue was later treated with wood preservatives and fiberglass was applied to the top to protect against the elements.
On September 25, 1987, the sculpture was dedicated as Chief Kno-Tah in a ceremony featuring Native American singing and dancing. About 400 attended the ceremony on a day proclaimed as United American Indian Day by Hillsboro mayor Shirley Huffman. City and county civic leaders as well as local Native American leaders spoke at the ceremony. Kno-Tah was the leader of the Tualatin band of the Kalapuya group of Native Americans when that band signed a treaty with the government to cede their ancestral home on the Tualatin Plains to pioneer settlers. Students at the Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon, selected the name from submissions from local residents.
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Wikipedia