Totem In The River

I've played through two whole profiles and had no problems but on this one I can't get the scientists to work on the totem in the river. I keep playing and everything advances normally. Am I missing something? I have all the collections. Lots of dollars and tech points. 15 villagers. I'm on the yogurt task but that pesky river totem just won't cooperate! Any ideas?

The Walkthru on this site warns you that the scientist "going to" that totem will stand on the bridge to do his or her work.

I had no problem--after noticing that the Action bar in fact said my worker was indeed dealing w/ the totem!