Located in the Aak’w Village District in the heart of downtown Juneau, SHI welcomes visitors from around the world to the Walter Soboleff Building and hosts cultural events and celebrations in their Shuká. Hít clan house. An underground archive space houses historical and cultural material documenting the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian languages, cultures and histories.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
A sacred Chilkat robe is among the objects in the archives.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
According to Marina La Salle, director of the culture and history department, the robe’s age is difficult to discern, but her staff estimates it’s from the early 1800s, possibly earlier.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
[Book celebrates historic Ravenstail robe exhibit at state museum]<\/ins><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t According to SHI’s website, the “blanket is intricately woven from mountain goat wool and cedar bark. This form of weaving is very complex because designs are created on both sides of the blanket simultaneously.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Emily Pastore, archives and collections manager, said that the robe is in a Raven design. However, SHI does not know the clan ownership of the robe and there is no clan crest is associated with it.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Pastore said the robe appears to be a funerary object because of the frayed edges at the top where it may have been placed above a gravesite.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t In late 2015, SHI acquired the robe from eBay seller George Blucker who purchased it from a flea market near Chicago sometime in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Pastore and La Salle agreed that determining the exact providence of the robe is a difficult task. Like many items in museum collections worldwide, items change hands several times before coming to a museum.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t In the case of the robe, the flea market seller told Blucker he had bought it at an estate sale in the early 1980s. The robe was acquired by a grandfather of the estate’s heirs. The grandfather had traveled to the Yukon gold rush in the late 1800s and came home with the robe.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “It was feeding a market of art,” La Salle said. “Which is how it became divided and separated from its history.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t La Salle said that Blucker took the robe off of eBay and sold it to SHI for its reserve price once he realized the item’s significance.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t When the item arrived, SHI hosted a homecoming ceremony to celebrate its return to Southeast Alaska.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t A sacred Chilkat robe is among the items in the archives of the Sealaska Heritage Institute. (Dana Zigmund\/Juneau Empire)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t Additional highlights <\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Museum visitors can also see a U.S. government ordnance that the Navy dropped on the village of Kake in 1869.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t The U.S. Navy shell was discovered in a tree trunk in the 1940s and stored in a private home until 2011 when it was turned over to the Organized Village of Kake and deactivated.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Kaila Cogdill, exhibits curator, said that the Village for Kake is still waiting on an apology from the U.S. Navy over the incident. Prior to the pandemic, there were indications of progress toward an acknowledgment or apology.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t In addition, the museum features stone tools, including an adze with a dark stone blade and a groove cut into the base for mounting a handle.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t La Salle said that the adze was an essential tool in creating carved boxes, clan houses, and totem poles.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Tlingit carver Wayne Price used an adze to finish the walls of the clan house located inside the museum.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Alaska State Library, Archives and Museum <\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Tucked within the quiet exhibit hall at the Alaska State Library, Archives and Museum visitors can view what’s possibly the oldest Northwest Coast basket ever found in North America—the Thorne River Basket.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Dating back 5,450 years, the basket was found in the early 1990s by an off-duty archaeologist fishing in a stream bed near Prince of Wales Island.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t The basket was encased in mud and found near mussel shells, which curators think were the basket’s original content.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t According to Mary Irvine, museum protection and visitor services manager, the archaeologist had the presence of mind to use his fishing knife to cut a large block of mud around the spruce-root basket so it would remain preserved.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “It was as fragile as it comes,” Irvine said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Irvine said that the basket was kept underwater as volunteers worked with glass picks and baby aspirators to clean and preserve it. Thanks to their efforts, and the addition of polyethylene glycol, the basket is now strong enough for display.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t The Thorne River Basket, which is on display at the Alaska State Library, Archives and Museum is possibly the oldest Northwest Coast basket ever found in North America. It’s more than 5,000 years old. (Dana Zigmund\/Juneau Empire)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t A replica of the basket by renowned Haida weaver Delores Churchill sits next to the original.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
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