Under the guidance of teacher June Pardue, a group of Native artists came together to make a traditional Sugpiaq bear gut raincoat. Chugachmiut Heritage Preservation funded the project, which is now displayed at their office in Anchorage.
Chugachmiut wanted to purchase a gut parka for small museum in their office, but there was no one in our region who knew how to make them. They decided to take the money they were going to spend on buying a gut parka to hold a class to not only make one, but to teach regional artists how to make one so the skill can be revived again in the different regional villages.
"Sugpiaq elder leads Cordova artists to make bear gut parka" by Jane Spencer, June 27, 2022. Cordova Times.
Historian Zachary Jones brings to light the life of important weaver Clara Benson
It’s called Between Worlds. And it features a diving whale.
“Peering through the bones of this diving whale pattern is this ancestor with her face and hands pressed against the veil between worlds,” Alaskan Chilkat and Ravenstail Weaver Lily Wooshkindein Da.Áat Hope said. “Because we talk about the Chilkat dancing blanket as the veil that separates our physical realm to the spirit realm on the other side.”
“A Life Painted in Yarn: A Biography of Tlingit Chilkat Weaver Clara Newman Benson” is the first-ever biography of the Klukwan artist who lived from 1856 to 1935 and was a significant Chilkat weaver of her day. Of the G̱aanax̱teidí clan, Yéil Hít (Raven House) of Klukwan, Benson was known for weaving Chilkat tunics and Chilkat robes.
"Tracing a lineage of Chilkat weavers in ‘A Life Painted in Yarn’" by Lisa Phu, July 7, 2022. Alaska Beacon.
UMD Faculty Members Work to Reunite Native People With Archival Materials
[North of] Palmer, Alaska, a 45-minute drive north from Anchorage, the Chickaloon people have all but lost their original language, Ahtna. The last known fluent speaker of the tribe’s native Western dialect died in 2010, and the remaining tribal citizens–who traditionally don’t count their members but are estimated to number about 350–speak an amalgam of Ahtna’s Western and Central dialects. Audio recordings of Western Ahtna exist, but many are kept in mainstream archives that don’t belong to the Chickaloon tribe.
Now, two University of Maryland faculty members are part of a new effort to bring those recordings, and other pieces of history, back to the Native people who lived the stories within them. Diana E. Marsh, assistant professor of archives and digital curation, and Eric Hung, an adjunct lecturer in the College of Information Studies, are part of the Society of American Archivists’ recently created Archival Repatriation Committee...
Selena Ortega-Chiolero, the museum specialist for the Chickaloon Village Traditional Council in Palmer, feels an urgency to reunite the Chickaloon people with their ancestry. “Every day that we bring home a new audio recording of Western dialect, we’re getting a piece of that language back and helping to restore cultural traditions,” she said.
Native people have a visceral, emotional link to these materials, said Ortega-Chiolero. “I’ve worked in museums for many years–it’s very easy to become detached from the collections you manage,” she said. But she has seen how personal these items are to many.
"Who Owns the Sounds and Images of Native People’s Pasts?" By Sala Levin,
For more than 60 years, sailboats dominated Bristol Bay’s commercial fishery. Motorized vessels were illegal. Then, in 1951, the federal government finally allowed motorized fishing vessels in Bristol Bay...
This year, local historians are bringing the sailing tradition back to the bay with a vessel named the Libby, McNeil & Libby No. 76. Tim Troll is the executive director of the Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust and one of the sailing crew. They launched from Homer on July 5...
“Those sails, sailing out on the horizon of our bay, are really visual icons, and they’re one of those grounding visual markers for both our canning industry, for the labor issues, independence of our fishermen, and also for our Indigenous story in our community,” [LaRece Egli, the director of the Bristol Bay Historical Society Museum in Naknek] said...
The Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust and the Bristol Bay Historical Society Museum have also partnered to purchase the boat.
"Voyage from Homer to Bristol Bay commemorates fishery’s sailing tradition" by Brian Venua, KDLG - Dillingham, July 11, 2022. Alaska Public Media.
As part of their summer reading program, Homer Public Library is offering prizes, Take and Make kits, and events for all ages.
Activities include: StoryWalks, outdoor adventures and stories with the Center for Alaska Coastal Studies, Legos, coding, chess, s'mores at the beach, read to Ruger the dog, teen and kids book clubs, and several different storytime groups - toddler, preschool, Spanish language, and on the radio.
Our future depends on all of us working together with empathy, respect, and understanding to adapt to the many challenges facing society. In this webinar, Rebekkah Smith Aldrich will explore the importance of infusing the new core value of sustainability into everything we do and demonstrate how libraries that lead into the future using ‘sustainable thinking’ fulfill our mission as libraries in new and innovative ways.
If you're interested but not able to attend the live webinar, go ahead and register. We'll send a recording to all registrants after the fact.
Two Alaska Native girls who died more than 100 years ago at a boarding school in Pennsylvania – including one from Kodiak Island – will return home. Earlier this summer, the U.S. Army began the process of returning the remains of eight Indigenous children from the school to their families across the country.
According to records, after her mother died, in 1901, 13-year-old Anastasia Ashouwak was taken from an orphanage on Woody Island – in the Kodiak archipelago – and sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
Alutiiq Museum executive director April Laktonen Counceller says Ashouwak was part of a group of Alaska Native children sent to the school...
When Ashouwak returns to Kodiak, Counceller said she’ll receive services at the local Russian Orthodox church in the city of Kodiak and an Alutiiq ceremony at the museum.
"Remains of Alutiiq girl taken from Kodiak more than 100 years ago return to Old Harbor" by Kirsten Dobroth,July 7, 2022. KMXT.org.
High prices at the gas pump and the grocery store are putting pressure on Alaskans just as federal COVID relief programs are coming to an end. In rural communities, reduced subsistence opportunities make it harder and more expensive to harvest local food. How are community, tribal and state advocates trying to fill the gaps?
"Food security for urban and rural Alaskans amid rising prices and fewer fish" by Adelyn Baxter, Alaska Public Media.
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