Sacred Indigenous Objects Returned to Southeast

• News Home
• More from News of the North

Friday, August 13th, 2021 7:45am

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Messenger
• Share on Messenger
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Whatsapp

The collection from Wells Fargo. (Photo Courtesy of the Sealaska Heritage Institute Livestream.)

Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - Ancestral belongings were returned to Southeast Alaska in an emotional ceremony Thursday at Sealaska Heritage Institute's clan house in Juneau. The sacred objects, known as at.óow in Tlingit, included a mask and hat.

Repatriation is a new ceremony but embodies the traditional values, protocols, and sense of reciprocity of the Tlingit people.

Sealaska Heritage Institute President Rosita Kaahani Worl, talked about the origin and history of the ceremony.

"In 2017 Sealaska held a ceremony to welcome a Chilkat robe donated to SHI by Bruce and Gretchen Jacobson, at the behest of their daughter Sarah. It was a new ceremonial activity for us since we never alienated cultural objects, except in the rare case for liability payments," Worl said. "It was only during the colonial period that we begin to witness an outflow of our cultural objects."

The mask and hat were donated to Sealaska Heritage Institute by the family of I.S. “Lefty” Weissbrodt, an attorney who prosecuted Tlingit and Haida land claims beginning in the 1900s. The hat, made by master Tlingit artist Nathan Jackson, was given to Weissbrodt by Native people in appreciation of his work on their behalf.

The mask and hat are known as at.nané, which refers to an iconic event or the visualization of an iconic event. When at.nané are presented at a ceremony, and the history of the event is given in the presence of the opposite side, it is transformed into at.óow, or sacred objects.

The at.óow also includes rattles, an octopus bag, two painted spruce-root hats, a shaman’s apron, a ceremonial collar, a dagger, two button blankets, two maskettes, a tunic, a Chilkat robe, a helmet, and an amulet. The collection was donated to Sealaska Heritage Institute by Wells Fargo, which cared for the items in its Wells Fargo Museum in Anchorage.

The pieces were collected by the National Bank of Alaska from 1968-1986, under the direction of Elmer Rasmuson. Wells Fargo maintained the collection in its museum as part of its acquisition of National Bank of Alaska in 2000.

To the indigenous peoples of Southeast Alaska these belongings are more than just art, but instead are seen as family members, with lives and spirits of their own. During the ceremony, some of the belongings were danced by members of both Raven and Eagle moieties.

Joey Yeilnaawu Zuboff, compared the return of the belongings to bringing relatives home off life support.

"We have a saying in Angoon, that when we go to see our ancestor's artifacts, we look at them as if they are on, how you say, life support. We have to have gloves on and masks to touch them," Zuboff paused. "So these now are going to be able to breathe, will not be on life support, because we're going to bring them back to life as much as we can."

Numerous speakers represented houses and clans of Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian people across Southeast.

In accordance with tradition, every representative was given time to speak, and both clans and moieties were carefully balanced with respect.

The hat and the mask will be available at Sealaska Heritage Institute for study by students.

More from News of the North

• Murder charges against Caleb Irwin dismissed after his death

  Anchorage, Alaska (KINY) - The Anchorage District Attorney’s Office dismissed charges of murder in the second degree and manslaughter against Caleb Irwin. Irwin passed away from medical complications while awaiting trial. Irwin was charged with stabbing 27-year-old Briar Dickson to death in downtown Anchorage on June 3, 2022.

• No relief for beleaguered Southeast Alaska trollers as judge rejects request to keep fishery open

  Sitka, Alaska (Alaska Beacon) - Alaska Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said the state would appeal the denial immediately, but the clock is ticking before the scheduled July 1 start to the king salmon fishery

• Polynesian Voyaging Society to launch Moananuiākea voyage from Juneau, Alaska

  Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - Hōkūleʻa, the legendary voyaging canoe that revived the lost art of Polynesian voyaging and navigation and sparked a cultural renaissance in Hawaiʻi, is preparing to embark on a four-year circumnavigation of the Pacific.

• Daytime closure to Basin Road Trestle beginning May 31

  Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - The Basin Road Trestle Bridge will be closed to all traffic including pedestrians between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., seven days a week, from June 1 to June 11 due to structural repair work.

• Alaska Supreme Court finds former North Pole refinery owner liable for pollution

  Anchorage, Alaska (Alaska Beacon) - The former owner of a North Pole petroleum refinery is financially liable for groundwater pollution that has contaminated drinking-water wells around the refinery, the Alaska Supreme Court said in a ruling published Friday.

• Murkowski announces the Department of Defense Overdose Data Act

  Washington, D.C. (KINY) -  Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), alongside Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Mike Braun (R-Ind.) and Representatives Seth Moulton (MA-06) and Nancy Mace (SC-01), led their colleagues in announcing the introduction of the Department of Defense Overdose Data (DOD) Act,  to address the impacts of the opioid epidemic among members of the U.S. military and their family.

• 42-year-old arrested in Ketchikan, charged with two counts of robbery, one count of assault and one count of violation of condtions of release

  Ketchikan, Alaska (KINY) - On May 28th, at approximately 3:47 PM, the Ketchikan Police Department responded to 800n Venetia Avenue to take a report of a male pointing a gun at people on Creek Street about 10 minutes earlier.

• “Iditarod on a boat” Race to Alaska returns June 5

  Port Townsend, WA (KINY)— Race to Alaska is back for year seven with 39 teams registered to depart from the Northwest Maritime Center on June 5. No motors or support allowed—the Race to Alaska (R2AK) is about the physical endurance, saltwater know-how, and the bulldog tenacity that it takes to navigate the 750 cold water miles from Port Townsend, Washington, to Ketchikan, Alaska.

• State Supreme Court offers new insight into 2021 dispute that brought Alaska to shutdown’s brink

  Juneau, Alaska (Alaska Beacon) - No, the Alaska Attorney General may not sue the Legislature’s administrative wing to bypass a clause of the Alaska Constitution.

• Coast Guard suspended its search at sunset Monday for four missing individuals in the water near Sitka, Alaska.

  Juneau, Alaska (KINY) — The Coast Guard suspended its search at sunset Monday for four missing individuals in the water near Sitka, Alaska.

• Coast Guard searching for missing people near Sitka, Alaska

  Sitka, Alaska (KINY) - The Coast Guard is searching for four missing people who were last seen near Sitka, Sunday night.

• Alaska justices rule against Dunleavy administration in long-running union-dues lawsuit

  Juneau, Alaska (Alaska Beacon) - The state claimed the case was about the First Amendment; justices said the facts showed the state was hostile toward unions