To celebrate the Fourth of July we went to the Alaska Native Heritage Center with the Palmers, a senior missionary office couple.  Here we learned about Native Alaskan history and peoples, viewed crafts and arts demonstrations, watched traditional dancing, and toured six native dwellings representing the major cultural groups. Here we are standing by a beautiful totem pole carved by the Tlingit tribe of southeast Alaska.

 

 This dancer wears a "kuspuk," a traditional dress from western Alaska modeled after a parka.  She holds "dance fans" made of woven grass and caribou ruff which enhance her grace and beauty as she dances.  Her boots are made of seal, wolverine, and sea lion. Her symbolic headdress is made of wolf, beaver, seal and wolverine furs.  She is accompanied by a girl singing and beating on a caribou skin drum. These young people are dedicated to preserving their heritage and are excited to share it.  They do not want their traditions to die with them.

This dancer wears a traditional Tlingit robe.  The design on the back incorporates the symbols for the eagle and raven clans.  It is decorated with white buttons.  When the Christian missionaries first contacted these people, they taught them to be modest and had them sew button closures on their clothes.  The buttons were quickly adopted, soon multiplied, and eventually became part of the design and decoration of their clothing.

We are standing by two giant jaw bones from a whale which have been erected to mark the entrance to a Yup'ik village.  Their dwellings, constructed of dirt and driftwood, are dug deep in the permafrost and are so covered with sod and snow, they might otherwise be difficult to locate. 

These boys are demonstrating one of several Alaskan Native games which involve a suspended ball.  In this one they run, jump off of one foot, and leap towards the ball, attempting to kick it with the same foot and land back on the floor squarely and in control with that same foot.  We were so impressed with their strength and skill.  They practiced such games during the long, dark winters when they had to be confined to the indoors.