With the flurry of activity on Shakes Island, including the redesign and construction of a new Chief Shakes Tribal House, the cleaning and renovation of the totem poles, and planning for a rededication ceremony in May 2013, the Wrangell Cooperative Association is busy focusing on the future of tribal assets in the community.
But a portion of Wrangell’s Tlingit history is also spread to the wind as a part of two separate exhibits at museums in Washington and Colorado.
The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington, and the Denver Art Museum are the current resting places for a number of historic pieces of Wrangell’s past – and include parts of the original clan house built in the early 19th century.
The House Partition with Shakes Family Crest, once one of the most prominent interior and exterior portions of the house, is on display in Denver as a part of their permanent collection of Native American art.
The screen, which dates from the 1840s, was acquired by the museum upon the death of Walter Waters, the owner of the Bear Totem Store curio shop. The store, which was located on Front Street, possessed examples of Tlingit arts and crafts, as well as a number of historic totem poles.
Waters began his career as a mail carrier and fur trader in Southeast. He began to collect Indian artifacts around the region before opening the curio store.
Steve Brown, a master carver and longtime traveler of Southeast Alaska, was in Wrangell last week to meet with the WCA and to discuss the items that are now on display at the pair of museums.
“Between 1950 and 1952, the collection known as the Walter Waters Collection was acquired by purchase from Waters’ widow,” Brown said. “How he assembled the collection over the years, and the techniques he used, we’re not completely sure. He did however, pay some people for some of the artifacts that made it into his grouping.”
According to Brown, the early 1900s was a time when Walters purchased many of the pieces of Tlingit art from Natives and others who were in dire need of financial support.
“In those times, things were changing rapidly,” he added. “A lot of things were disappearing in the Native community and the old art objects were not seen as valuable as they truly were, so people who had these old things would sell them because they needed money.”
Brown became familiar with the current status of the artwork while working at the Burke Museum in Seattle, while he was studying at the university.
“I remember in the 1960s, I called Marge Byrd because I wanted to see a number of the old totem poles and also the inside of the house,” Brown said. “I was familiar with these things because of my own personal study and my work at the Burke Museum in the late 60s and early 70s. During that time I became familiar with their collection and a lot of the pieces from Wrangell.”
Along with fellow master carver Wayne Price, Brown was one of the main participants in the renovation of totems at Kiks.ádi Park. He is now engaged in research of the artifacts of Tlingit culture in the region.
According to a website hosted by the Denver museum, the partition is described in detail for students interested in Native history.
“Screens like this one were used in large wooden houses to separate the clan leader’s sleeping area from the central areas of the house,” the site states. “Clan houses were large and there could be up to six families living in each one. Screens fronting the sleeping quarters of nobility were painted with important family crests, which are symbols used to represent individual families. The clan leader would enter and exit the room through the hole in the center of the crest – a symbol of rebirth from his ancestors. Sometimes the screens were removed to open up the space for ceremonies. In front of these private rooms was a platform where the owner and his family sat.”
The image of the brown bear on the partition represents the crest of the Shakes family, and describes, among other stories, a Tlingit myth where two bears narrowly avoided death in a flood by climbing up a mountain. In the story, the Tlingits killed one of the bears, taking its head and skin to wear for their family symbol.
Jessica Whitaker, a member of the WCA Board of Directors, said that while the tribe appreciates that people from around the world can visit the museums to see the artifacts, the goal of the group is to see repatriation of the lost works of art.
“I’m very appreciative of the museums that have our artwork on display,” she said. “At the same time, we’d like to begin to get some of that back. We have a repatriation staff member that has been working with the Burke Museum and other museums to regain our artifacts and bring them home.”
The WCA has been successful in at least one instance; with the Raven rattle being recovered through a process that involved both the tribal office, repatriation expert Rose Johnson of Ketchikan, and tribal elder Richard Rinehart.
“It took a lot of years to be able to get something like that back,” Whitaker added. “We are also looking into recreating the Bear screen with the museum in Denver for the upcoming Shakes House rededication.”
The University of Washington museum bought the bulk of the Waters store contents in 1953 and pieces in the DAM collection are related to that sale and number several dozen. The items acquired by DAM from UW that were originally from the Waters store are pieces from native tribes across the nation. Many are from Northwest Coast tribes including the Tlingit.
The rededication ceremony is tentatively set for May 2013. For more information, call the tribal office at 874-4304.
Reader Comments(0)