Tlingit artifacts reviewed at final Chautauqua event

The Nolan Center held its final Chautauqua speaking event of the year last week. Wrangell resident Virginia Oliver gave a presentation on her 2017 trip to Washington D.C. where she got to take an up-close look at about a hundred different Tlingit artifacts held by the Smithsonian. Oliver said she was invited on the trip near the very end of 2016, as a part of the Smithsonian's "Recovering Voices" program. Recovering Voices, according to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's website, is a program that partners with indigenous communities in an attempt to help revitalize and protect their cultures, languages, and knowledge. Oliver, and Native Alaskan elders from several other communities across Southeast, were invited to spend two weeks looking through Tlingit and other Native Alaskan artifacts in the museum archives.

"Alan Zuboff is from Angoon, Florence Marks Sheakley is from Juneau, Ruth Demmert was from Kake, and Linda Winn is from Juneau," Oliver said. "Eric Hollinger is, of course, from Washington D.C."

Oliver said she was asked by the Smithsonian to choose up to a hundred artifacts to review. She picked 70 which were originally found in the Wrangell area, and 30 from Kake, as she is originally from Kake. They spent two weeks in March 2017 going through the resource centers of the Smithsonian's museums, as well as stopping at other points of interest around the city. The resource centers, where Oliver said the Smithsonian keeps its overflow of items not on display in the main museum, were very large.

"These places are as big as a football stadium, and they're four stories high. There were full-length totem poles lining all the down in the bottom of some of these research places," Oliver said.

She put together a slideshow of some of the many different artifacts her group got to look at over the two week trip. Among them were works of art, blankets, hats, and other articles of clothing. There were even items belonging to Chief Shakes present in the archives. Oliver showed a photo of an "octopus bag," which is a satchel with several dangling pouches that resemble legs. She explained that one could tell the difference between a man's bag and a woman's bag was by counting the number of legs the bag had. A woman's bag would have eight pouches, while a man's would only have four.

The group also got to look at old Tlingit weapons and armor. Tlingit armor was largely made of wood, Oliver said, but it was very hard. The wood would be steamed and bent into shape, then soaked in salt water to make it extra tough. The armor was so effective, she said, that it even protected the wearers from bullets when Russian explorers first came to Southeast Alaska.

During their trip, Oliver said she and the other elders present helped the Smithsonian properly identify some items. One item she pointed out was a hat-shaped object the museum had labelled as a "Raven hat." However, it was quickly pointed out by the elders that it depicted the Eagle moiety, not the Raven. It was not even a hat, either. It turns out, she said, that it was actually the lid for a woman's luggage. Unfortunately, Oliver said, many items in the resource center did not have accurate dates or identifications, mainly because the people who originally took them were not very detailed.

"What stuck out to me was they don't know how old some of those artifacts are," she said. "Some of the dates that are on them is the tenure of the people who collected them, and when they were in the Navy. If they were in there from 1888 to 1902, that's what they put on these artifacts. And they don't know where a lot of these artifacts are from because they had holding areas, like in Port Simpson and different places, and all the collectors would go there and they'd exchange them and they'd just say 'Alaska, USA.'"

Other items reviewed on the trip included Tlingit daggers, totem poles, wall panels, tools and other weapons, and rattles. One unique item she pointed out was a Victorian-style dress that was made by a native woman out of moose hide. Oliver added, near the end of the presentation, a special thank you to Frank Churchill for paying for her ticket to Washington. It was an amazing trip, she said, and a great experience for everyone involved.

"It's unbelievable," she said. "We were in there and we were in awe."