Standing in front of the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. last month are members of the Recovering Voices group from Southeast Alaska: Virginia Oliver, Ruth Demmert, Allen Zuboff, Garfield George, Gabby George, Linda Wynn, Florence Sheakley and Shgen George. The girl at front in Violet George.
This pair of shoes was one of nearly 6,000 Alaska Native items Southeast elders and educators invited to Washington D.C. had to inspect, currently in the care of the Smithsonian Institution.
A Tlingit educator and Wrangell resident returned home late last month after taking part in a community research program at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.
Virginia Oliver was selected for the trip by Recovering Voices, a research initiative that supports indigenous communities in their efforts to save, document, and revitalize their languages, cultures and knowledge systems. Groups of scholars and elders are brought from around the country to the Smithsonian to examine specimens in its collection related to their heritage, and then discuss their significance with museum staff.
Virginia Oliver accompanied a group of elders and teachers from Southeast Alaska, leaving in mid-March for the nation's capital. A teacher of Tlingit language and culture with Wrangell Public Schools and the local Johnson-O'Malley Program, Oliver explained that learning has been her longstanding passion. She began learning the Tlingit language through college courses, building on her understanding of the culture at the same time.
"My mother was a fluent elder, and my Aunt Martha was fluent," she explained, and her grandmother and grandfather spoke some occasionally. "They never taught us, though we used to hear it when we were younger. As soon as I started to hear it again I became interested."
Referred to the museum initiative by a friend, Oliver was surprised to be called up by Recovering Voices in January with an offer to participate.
There were 11 elders in all in her group, and Oliver recalled they at first had a hard time navigating the D.C. public transportation system. At one point they had traveled by bus to the wrong airport and were nearly run down by speedwalkers in the metro tunnels.
"Holy macaroni," she exclaimed. But they learned quickly. "We were old hands by the second week. We got pretty good at that. It was like self-preservation."
Brought to a resource center supporting the Smithsonian's Museum of the American Indian, Oliver recounted that the group was instructed to examine 5,592 Tlingit artifacts, prioritizing 100 of them for further study.
"You've got to do it one by one," she said. "They have so many objects there at the Smithsonian. You just wanted to pick the first 100 that you saw."
Oliver tried to express the variety of the items there, from drums and weapons, ceremonial regalia, blankets and other woven items, bentwood boxes, tools and furniture. She got to see Chief Shakes' canoe, as well as the carved Bear screen from his house, which had at one point been cut in half.
Most of the items came from the private collections amassed by collectors, doctors and clerics during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Many were difficult if not impossible to assign a correct date to as a result, but that was not all that was lost.
Anything with a face on it was important, Oliver explained, because it was alive. "If it had a face, it meant it was a living thing." These all had names and stories attached to them, though for a number of them she feared those may have been now lost to posterity.
While the elders tried to shed new light on the collection of items for the Smithsonian curators, Oliver also captured footage for posterity back in Wrangell. Wrangell High School equipped her with a virtual reality camera, with which she was able to record her trip through the archives and museums for students back home to experience. For many of the items, it was their first time being filmed.
"It took 32 GB for just two hours of filming," she commented. It wasn't long before she maxed out her computer's memory, and had to take a quick trip to find an external hard drive.
At the various Smithsonian museums, Oliver was also able to see all sorts of exhibits from around the world, from Egyptian mummies to the ill-fated Hope Diamond, jewelry of the Bonapartes to the largest Salish hat she had ever seen. The capital itself was like a sort of extended museum, and she was able to tour the old ice house and eat at George Washington's favorite tavern. She also got to meet with Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan at his office, and see Capitol Hill up close.
Oliver had the opportunity to exchange her Tlingit culture too, with the visiting elders and with the museum staff. Returning home with newfound knowledge, she also made new friends and associates.
"It was just wonderful," she said. "I learned a lot, I'm glad that I went."
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