Photo Gallery

Tsimshian Raven Rattle – State of Alaska Museum - Juneau

USA-Alaska - Evening in the Sitka Sound - Tlingit Region

USA-Alaska - Tlingit Indian Nathan P. Jackson

This figure on a mortuary pole from the Kaigani village of Old Kasaan, Prince of Wales Island, represents the legendary shaman Stone Eagle, who could change himself into other beings. This totem pole now stands in the Totem Heritage Center, Ketchikan.

Viewed from an airplane, this is the eastern section of the glaciers at Glacier Bay National Park in southeast Alaska

In the Indian River near Sitka, a fisheries expert fishes for marked humpback salmon as part of the research into the mysterious life cycle of the salmon.

« ... one/you can cross the river on their backs . . . » - Pink Salmon - Sitka - Alaska - USA

Two bears in double profile holding a bowl shaped like an eagle's beak. Alder wood, nacre, carved approximately 1895. (38 cm: SJM)
SJM = Sheldon Jackson Museum, Sitka

Watertight hat made of spruce roots, woven by Isabella Edenshaw (1858-1926) and painted by her husband, Charles Edenshaw (1839-1920), a famous Haida artist from Masset. The painting shows Raven in double profile. (about 40 cm, ASM)
ASM = Alaska State Museum, Juneau

An old chiefs hat, woven of fine spruce roots and decorated at the top with an ermine skin (about 1850). Each of the cylindrical rings is said to symbolize a potlatch hosted by the wearer of the hat, although the generally held theory that such rings are "potlatch rings" is controversial. The painted design could represent an eagle or the wealth-bringing sea monster Gonakadet. (61 cm, ASM)
ASM = Alaska State Museum, Juneau

Especially impressive as examples of the art of mask making are the crown-like frontlets of the northern coastal people. A chief would wear one of these decorative headpieces during the dance to welcome his guests. The mask shown depicts what is presumably an eagle, below which is a human face. The mask is made of hardwood, haliotis, sea lion whiskers and eagle down; "fringe" is of ermine skins. (Mask 19 cm, extender 85 ern, SJM)
SJM = Sheldon Jackson Museum, Sitka

Harold Jacobs, a young crafts apprentice at the Southeast Alaska Indian Cultural Center in Sitka, poses in ceremonial clothing. He is wearing a wooden wolf hat, a thunderbird Chilkat blanket, and a silver nose ring. The wolf rattle he is holding, carved by Reggie B. Peterson, tells us that Harold Jacobs is a member of the wolf moiety.

This replica of an eagle clan hat was specifically made for the museum by a Tlingit artist. It is made of haliotis and human hair. (27 cm diagonal; ASM)
ASM = Alaska State Museum, Juneau

This small bear figurine with its four «potlatch rings» was probably part of a larger headdress at one time. (Figure 18 cm, SJM)
SJM = Sheldon Jackson Museum, Sitka

The upper end of a talking stick, which was held by a chief on ceremonial occasions; with wolfs head and haliotis inlays. (166 cm, SJM)
SJM = Sheldon Jackson Museum, Sitka

This basket, collected around the turn of the century (1900), is a stunning example. It is woven of spruce roots and multicolored grasses. The blue color is created with huckleberries. (38 cm, ASM)
ASM = Alaska State Museum, Juneau

This photograph of a section of one of the four house posts that supported the roof beams of the eagle's nest house in Sitka shows the legendary young eagle who helped a girl to survive after an epidemic had killed her clan. The girl later became the ancestor of the Kaagwaantaan clan, which made the four 200-year-old house posts available to the Sitka National Historical Park on a long-term loan.

These two brothers, Harrry and Peter Johnson, supplement their income as Chilkat dancers, performing with the famous dance group in Haines, Alaska. Their costumes and masks are replicas of the originals.

The Yaxté kootéeyaa (Big Dipper Totem Pole) was carved in 1941 by Frank St Clair, a Tlingit and master carver from Hoonah. The Yaxté pole was damaged by an arson attack in 1993 and was restored by Arnold Dalton and reinstalled shortly afterwards. In 2010, the pole was taken down again for safety reasons after it had been badly damaged by the weather. Restoration work began in 2014 by Tlingit master carver Wayne Price from Haines. In 2015, the Yaxté kootéeyaa was reinstalled in Aanchgaltsóow, the old village of the Áak'w Kwáan. - Auke Bay, Juneau, Alaska

In the 1930s, the Stikine Tlingit moved to Wrangell, where they built a ceremonial house on the small island in the harbor. The house was ceremoniously opened in 1940. The painting on the front indicates it is a bear clan house.

The back wall inside the house is painted in a design based on a Chilkat blanket. The two house posts carved with killer whales and, on the right, with cuttlefish, are copies of old, decayed posts. They were added in 1985 and dedicated by means of a potlatch

On another house post in the bear clan house in Wrangell, a large anthropomorphic bear appears to be protecting the figure of a human being, while a frog peers out of its mouth.

Aerial photograph of the McBride Glacier in Glacier National Park, Alaska.

The artist Nathan P. Jackson models the frontlet of his own raven moiety and a ceremonial button blanket. He carved the mask himself. Button blankets are considered the cheaper version of the Chilkat blanket. They are made of recut Hudson's Bay blankets and decorated with haliotis buttons. Visible in the background are the Tongass Narrows near Ketchikan.

The Tsimshian may have been the first to make raven dance rattles. This example represents a widely disseminated model: On the back of a raven sits a man whose tongue is being pulled out by a frog, which is, in turn, being seized by a kingfisher. The underside of the rattle shows a hawk. "Underside" is incorrect insofar as this was the side which was on top when a chief held the rattle in his hand. (28 cm, ASM)
ASM = Alaska State Museum, Juneau

In defending Sitka in 1804 against the attacking Russians, the Tlingit war chief Katlean wore this raven helmet. It is made out of a piece of wood covered with bear skin. The eyes are copper. (28 cm, SJM)
SJM = Sheldon Jackson Museum, Sitka

Tlingit war dagger. The blade was ground out of a file, the handle is carved cedar with haliotis inlays. (51 cm; NMM)
NMM = National Museum of Man, Ottawa

The wooden armor of a Tlingit warrior with the symbol of his clan. (53 cm, SJM)
SJM = Sheldon Jackson Museum, Sitka

Replica of the Yaadaas totem pole, the original of which stood in the Haida village of Old Kasaan. This copy was carved in 1978 by the Tlingit artist Tommy Jimmie. At the top is the village watchman, followed by Raven Yel in both his human and animal forms. At the bottom is a crouching bear eating an unidentified animal. - Sitka National Historical Park, Sitka

A wooden shaman figure with human hair, earrings made of animal teeth and a leather apron. The figure, which represents a shaman singing and shaking rattles, is assumed to have been carved by a Tlingit shaman more than 100 years ago. (30 cm, SJM)
SJM = Sheldon Jackson Museum, Sitka

Charm of a Chilkat Tlingit shaman. Made of bone, it is carved in the shape of a sea monster with its offspring underneath its belly and a cuttlefish behind it. (13 cm, SJM)
SJM = Sheldon Jackson Museum, Sitka

Chilkat dancers in the large theater in Haines, Alaska. Tlingits were not the only participants; young white people were allowed to join the group. Could this be genuine cultural exchange?

Physical education teacher and artist David Boxley of Metlakatla teaches an elective course on traditional Tsimshian culture. Far too often, knowledge of the old ways can be found only in books. People such as David Boxley are, therefore, more important than ever before to the student's identity development.

In 1976, on the occasion of the Bicentennial celebration in the United States, the artist Duane Pasco of Seattle won a competition in Sitka that resulted in a commission to create a "Bicentennial totem pole." This totem pole now stands in front of the Visitors' Center in Sitka National Historical Park. The base figure holding the halibut hook and the rattle represents the Northwest Coast Indian, who had a rich material culture and a magnificent ceremonial life before the arrival of white men.

Next to his house in Metlakatla, David Boxley has turned a shed into a workshop, where he spends his spare time working on his art. At the time we visited him in 1985 he was carving a crest board with the heraldic animal of his family, an eagle represented in double profile.

In his large studio next to Saxman Totem Park in Ketchikan, Nathan P. Jackson works on a new totem pole for a ceremonial house planned for the communitv. As with all Northwest Coast artists, his most important tool is the adze.

Reggie B. Peterson was employed in wood carver and silversmith at the Southeast Alaska Cultural Center in Sitka. Here the Tlingit artist puts the finishing touches on an alder wood mask.

In her home in Ketchikan, Holly Churchill-Burns demonstrates the art of weaving a Haida hat from spruce roots. When she was a child, she says that she often had to help her mother, Delores Churchill-Peratrovich, gather roots and cedar bark, and that she made early attempts at basket-weaving. At that time she was a less enthusiastic weaver than her sister, April Churchill-Varnell. Now, however, she has begun to feel that she, too, wants to continue this tradition of her Haida family. She was inspired, in part, by an exhibition of contemporary basket-weaving in Alaska dedicated to her grandmother, Selina Peratrovich, a Haida woman from Masset.

In the summer of 1985 the Indian Cultural Center in Sitak hired Margaret Gross as sewing instructor. The art includes the creation of so-called octopus bags and button blankets (see 29), two Tlingit specialties.

«Four Clans United»: wolf, raven, eagle and killer whale. Silk-screen in the style of a painting in a drum. (31 cm)

The White Man in the Land of the Wuckitan Tlingit. Detail of a totem pole from Nathan P. Jackson in front of Centennial Hall, created in 1981 for Juneau's Centennial celebration.

Shark mask made of alder, with hair and haliotis inserts. The artist Reggie B. Peterson carved it to .qualify as a master carver in 1980. It represents the crest of his clan.

Bicentennial Pole
In 1976, the Sitka National Historical Park sponsored a totem design contest marking the nation’s US bicentennial. The ‘Tlingit Bicentennial Pole’ was carved by Duane Pasco. From bottom to top; before the arrival of Europeans, Raven and Eagle, arrival of Europeans with firearms, Native Americans today and future. Sitka, Alaska.

Totem Park, one of the outstanding attractions in Sitka National Historical Park, is home to a collection of Tlingit and Haida totem poles. Each tells a story and reflects the rich cultural heritage of these tribes. - Tlingit pole in front of the Park Visitor Centre

The Noow Hit tribal house in Haines, Alaska. It was begun in 1959 and dedicated in 1962. Noow is the Tlingit word for the safety of your home, Hit is the Tlingit word for house.
The picture shows the back with the 35 foot long friendship pole by Leo Jacobs and other Alaska Indian Arts carvers. The two back corner posts are the same, they have a chief with talking stick on top, a raven in the middle and a frog on the bottom. The back panel is a raven with a whale underneath. It was designed and painted by Nathan Jackson with the help of Tresham Gregg.