Anchorage Museum

We had time in the morning to take in a couple hours at the Anchorage Museum. They had beautiful things in the gift shop, but I know how much more expensive museum gifts are and avoided them. The books were much more tempting to me!  I found more books that I will need to put on my library list,   Seth Kantner's "Shopping for Porcupine" and Heather Lende's "If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name." I particularly like that last name because it could easily be said about my hometown of Gordon, Wisconsin.

I looked at a Haida tunic of red wool applique on black wool cloth with a bear crest design outlined in shell buttons.  Haida artists invented the applique dance blankets and tunics around 1850, after missionaries forbade them from raising totem poles.  They became an elaborate way to show the clan crest.

I wandered around the museum and made notes about things I found interesting.  Did you know that the Russians took Aleuts as slaves and made them hunt for fur?  Their entire culture was almost lost when the village was burned.  The Aluet made gut parkas; strong, waterproof parkas made from the intestines of sea lions, whales and bears.  They worked yarn, and sometimes fur and beads into the seams for color. I wonder how difficult it is to stitch intestine?

They had a Smithsonian exhibit of displays of the various Native groups of Alaska that was phenomenal!It's called: Living Our Cultures, Sharing Our Heritage: The First Peoples of Alaska. There was just not enough time to spend there.  Clothing, tools for hunting, jewelry and baskets. I could have stayed in that exhibit all day.  The displays were aided by a wonderfully interactive touch screen.  It displayed the same items as were in the display case.  By touching one, it would tell you all about that item and you could select Overview, Archival Images, or Elder's Discussions.  Each item was photographed and you could zoom in or move it around by the touch of your hand.   

There was also a juried art exhibit that was stunning. There were wonderful visions of fiber and color, in the form of quilts, woodwork and paintings, with many expressing traditional art in non-traditional methods.

A statement that was part of the video presentation in the Smithsonian exhibit said it all:
Everything has Awareness,
         All Things have Gratitude."