News

KODIAK—The Alutiiq Museum has received three cultural objects for its collections—a mid-19^th-century wooden bowl collected on Kodiak Island and two skin bags created by Alutiiq artist Lalla Williams. The objects are from the collections of the Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts, a non-profit organization in Santa Fe, New Mexico dedicated to exploring Indigenous arts. They were gifted to the Alutiiq Museum as part of a rehoming initiative for the Coe Center’s more than 2500-piece collection.

“We are grateful for the Coe Center’s interest in returning cultural objects to descendant communities,” said Alutiiq Museum Executive Director April Laktonen Counceller. “There is a growing recognition among museums that Indigenous communities are the best caretakers of their own cultural objects, and that these objects are important in helping Native people live their culture. The Coe Center invited organizations to apply to become stewards of items in their collections, and the Alutiiq Museum was awarded the pieces from our region. The Coe Center paid for packing and shipping to Alaska and will even provide a small grant to help with the care of the pieces. We are grateful.”

Carved from a single piece of wood, the bowl is likely a food-serving dish. It features a flat bottom, sloped sides, and a decorative rim with a shallow groove. The bowl is generally oval, although one end is gently pointed, like a boat or a mask.

The two contemporary bags reflect Lalla Williams’s sewing expertise and use of natural materials. One is a purse made of pale grey sea bass skin. It has an ivory clasp and a lining of flowered cotton cloth. The other is a small pouch made of seal gut accented with marten fur, yarn, leather, and cotton. Williams, an Alutiiq Elder from a Karluk family, currently lives in Anchorage. Before this gift, the Alutiiq Museum owned just three examples of her skin sewing—a parka and two hats.

The objects will be integrated into the museum’s collections and shared with the public through gallery and online displays.

“We have already found a place for the bowl in our new exhibits, in a display on household life,” said Counceller, “and photos of all three items are available on our website.”

Photo: Left–sea bass purse by Lalla Williams, Middle–wooden bowl by an ancestral artist, Right–seal gut bag by Lalla Williams.

With a $16,950 grant from Museums Alaska, the Alutiiq Museum will purchase works from five artists for its permanent collection. The pieces are the creations of Rolf Lee Christiansen of Old Harbor, Cheryl Lacy of Wasilla, and Janelle Barton, Arlene Skinner, and Stacy Studebaker of Kodiak. They were offered to the museum through a public call for artwork last September, and then selected for their craftsmanship and connections to the museum’s mission. Alutiiq Museum Executive Director April Counceller explained.

“We are proud of our contemporary art collection,” said Counceller. “Our staff, volunteer collections advisory committee, and our board review every piece. This thoughtful process ensures we collect works that best exemplify Alutiiq traditions and the Alutiiq world. Over the past twenty years, the fund has allowed us to build a sizeable collection of contemporary art representing this era of our history—from the reawakening of traditions, to issues that impact our communities, and the environment that sustains us. It’s particularly meaningful that we can purchase additional works now—during national Native American Heritage Month. The selected pieces will help us tell Alutiiq stories in our exhibits, publications, and educational programs for years.”

From Christiansen, the museum will purchase a set of three hand-carved stone oil lamps. Two of the lamps have petroglyph engravings. The third has a mask sculpted in the bowl—a relief carving designed to emerge as the oil burns. The lamps are made from water-rounded cobbles collected on the beach below Refuge Rock—where a 1784 massacre of Alutiiq people by Russian traders took place. Today Refuge Rock is on Native land near Christiansen’s home. By creating beautiful cultural objects from rocks collected in this infamous location, Christiansen demonstrates the persistence of his people and culture. Two and a half centuries after the massacre, the Alutiiq have reclaimed the Refuge Rock and are reawakening traditions suppressed by colonialism.

From Lacy, the museum will purchase How Big Was Your Fish?, a three-dimensional beaded mask. Nineteenth-century Alutiiq masks inspired this piece. The work includes the traditional mask parts—a face, hoop fitted with decorative attachments, and cross braces – covered in beadwork. There are also subtle beaded petroglyph designs in the mask’s face. Lacy’s piece shares ancestral designs in a modern format. In her proposal, Lacy said, “I’ve always wanted to make an Alutiiq mask, but I don’t know how to carve. I do know how to bead.”

From Barton, the museum will purchase a pair of baleen bracelets—one of humpback and the other of grey whale baleen. Barton cleaned, carved, bent, and polished the baleen to create pieces that resemble traditional cuffs worn around the wrist of a kanaglluk—gut skin jacket. Although widely used in ancestral technologies, baleen working faded in the nineteenth century as commercial whale harvesting supplanted Alutiiq hunting. Barton’s work represents efforts to reintegrate this valuable material into artistic practice.

From Skinner, the museum will purchase Contemporary Woman’s Spruce Root Hat. Made from locally harvested spruce root, this hat is modeled after ancestral pieces featuring a wide, gently sloped brim encircling a conical cap. Among the Alutiiq, spruce root hats were typically worn by men and decorated with hunting talismans. Skinner’s reinterpretation is designed for a woman. She uses the classic form but signals femininity with decorations. The edge of the hat is trimmed in fluffy, pink cotton fabric, the cap has train of white mohair, and glittery beads and shells provide embellishment. Spruce root hats are difficult to weave. Skinner’s piece will be only the second complete example in the museum’s holdings.

From Studebaker, the museum will purchase Western Sandpiper at Low Tide, a color pencil drawing of a shorebird in Kalsin Bay. The naturalistic drawing shows the animal in its environment. It reveals both an intertidal species Alutiiq people have a history of harvesting and the shoreline habitat in which the bird lives. Alutiiq Elders report hunting such birds at low tide at night and adding them to soups and stews. The drawing helps to reveal the diversity of bird life in the Kodiak region and provides an opportunity to discuss the importance of birds to subsistence and spirituality.

Support for these purchases comes from the Alaska Art Fund. Established by Rasmuson Foundation in 2003, the fund promotes the development of contemporary art collections in Alaska museums. Museums Alaska, the state-wide museum association, administers the fund. Images of the recent purchases can be seen in the contemporary art gallery on the museum’s website.

Photo: Stone oil lamps by Alutiiq artist Rolf Christiansen.

KODIAK, Alaska—A $149,451 grant to Koniag from the Institute of Museum and Library Services will help the Alutiiq Museum make improvements to its library. The funding will support the Liigwik—Learning Place project, an effort to enhance public use of the Koniag Cultural Library by outfitting a new library space in the renovated museum building and hosting a series of library events.

“This project is part of our broader efforts to invite more public use of the museum and its resources,” said Executive Director April Counceller. “Many people don’t realize we have a research library. For many years, the collection was in the museum basement. It was difficult to access and patrons had to make appointments. With the museum’s renovation, we are able to put the library in a larger second-floor space and offer public hours.”

Founded in 2018, the Koniag Cultural Library is the official tribal library of Kodiak’s regional Native corporation, Koniag. The Alutiiq Museum owns and manages the collection for the benefit of the tribal community and the public. At present, the library contains over 3,800 pieces of printed material, 208 audio-visual items, 2.4 linear feet of vertical files, and 11,000 photographs reflecting Kodiak, the Alutiiq world, and the museum’s work. Curator of Collections Amanda Lancaster serves as the librarian.

The Liigwik—Learning Place project will rehouse and share library materials. In the coming months, staff members will move the library into its new home in the Alutiiq Center. Grant funds will provide furnishings—shelving, tables, seating, signage, and two computers. Starting next fall, staff will host library events to connect patrons to library resources, including genealogical resources.

“Our goal is to create a better functioning library,” said Counceller. “We receive hundreds of requests for information about the Alutiiq world each year, requests that demonstrate a deep interest in exploring Alutiiq history, language, and traditions. Liigwik will transform our library into a learning center. It will elevate the library program to the level of other AMAR programs. And when Kodiak learns about Alutiiq people, we address lingering stereotypes, elevate respect for Native people, and build a stronger community.”

Image: New library logo designed by April Counceller

KODIAK, Alaska—An ancestral mask collected on Kodiak Island has been transferred to the Alutiiq Museum. Records suggest that the rare ceremonial carving may have been made around 1820, during the height of the Russian fur trade. However, the mask’s early history is unknown. In the 1980s, the mask was purchased in a Montreal gallery, and in 1991 it was donated to McMaster University’s Museum of Art in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Recognizing the carving’s spiritual significance and the importance of transferring it to an institution aligned with its heritage, McMaster offered the piece to the Alutiiq Museum. In September, the mask returned to Kodiak.

“We were so happy to receive this mask,” said Executive Director April Laktonen Counceller. “We were not aware of its existence. McMaster University took the time to find our institution, explain the situation, complete transfer paperwork, pack the piece in a custom-made box, and ship it to Alaska. They were not required to return it, but we are glad they did.”

The mask is unique. It is small, about 28 x 17 cm, and in two pieces. The lower half of the face is lashed to the upper half, creating a space representing a mouth. Although it features the heavy brow found in other Alutiiq masks, the piece has an unusual asymmetrical face. Its creator carved a tilted brow, bent nose, and one partially closed eye. The design is similar to an ancestral mask from Karluk and to asymmetrical masks made by neighboring peoples. Some people believe such carvings are shamanic and show a spiritual transformation in progress. Others suggest that asymmetrical faces represent a particular spirit in the cosmology of arctic peoples.

Pictures of the mask are available on the Amutat database, a collection of photographs of Alutiiq ethnographic objects on the museum’s website. The public is invited to see the mask on Friday, November 1 at the Alutiiq Museum Store at the Downtown Marketplace. The museum will share the piece in honor of Kodiak’s First Friday Art Walk between 5 pm and 7 pm. This is a free event. Everyone is welcome.

Mask photos courtesy of the McMaster University Museum of Art.

KODIAK, Alaska—two major grants to Alutiiq organizations will support the Alutiiq Museum’s efforts to create an entirely new set of displays for its renovated exhibit hall. In June, Koniag received a $231,889 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to develop displays on Alutiiq subsistence, community life, and spirituality at the museum. In July, the Native Village of Afognak received $98,968 in grant funding from the US Bureau of Indian Affairs for museum displays exploring the impacts of Russian and American colonization. The funds will help the Alutiiq Museum tell the Alutiiq story from a new perspective. Executive Director April Counceller explained.

“Two years ago, we began planning the displays for our new galleries with audience assistance,” she said. “Through this process, we developed a beautiful design. The galleries will be organized around four Alutiiq values and explore areas like ties to the land, social life, and spirituality. Visitors will also find a gallery devoted to recent history and updated versions of old favorites like our kayak display and children’s corner. The grants will help us take the designs from the computer to the gallery!” 

To assist with this process, the museum is hiring an exhibit apprentice. “Exhibit projects are complex and the best way to learn is through hands-on experience,” said Counceller. “The grant funds will allow us to use this once-in-a-generation project for training. We are hiring a full-time exhibit apprentice to work beside Exhibit Manager Alexandra Painter.” Those interested in the position can find application materials on the opportunity page of the museum’s website.

Starting this month, staff will build mounts for hundreds of objects planned for display—from tiny artifacts to parkas and paddles. Then, with professional support from welders, carpenters, and painters, the museum’s team will build the displays and install objects for a grand reopening in May 2025.

“We are planning a week of celebration to debut the new exhibits, share our enhanced facilities, honor our many generous contributors, and share our culture,” said Counceller. Updates on the renovation can be found on the renovation page of the Alutiiq Museum website.

Other generous contributors to the museum’s upcoming exhibits and their supporting educational materials include the Alaska Office of History and Archaeology, Alaska State Council on the Arts through the Munartet project, American Indian Native American Tourism Association, EVOS Trustee Council through the CORaL Partnership, GCI Gives, The CIRI Foundation, Trident Seafoods, and US Coast Guard Spouses Association of Kodiak.

Photo: Beaded headdress by Emily Jean Capjohn planned for display in the museum’s new exhibits.

KODIAK, Alaska—The Alutiiq Museum has added 11 watercolor portraits of 19^th-century Alutiiq/Sugpiaq people to its collections. Created by Sugpiaq artist Cheryl Lacy, the set reinterprets watercolor paintings made by Mikhail Tikhanov, a  Russian artist from Saint Petersburg who visited Kodiak in 1818. It is titled Our Ancestors. Lacy’s paintings capture the faces and clothing of Kodiak’s Native people and add scenic backgrounds. Her work transforms scientific illustrations painted on blue backgrounds into images that bring Alutiiq ancestors to life. A $15,500 grant from the Alaska Art Fund, administered by Museums Alaska with support from Rasmuson Foundation, paid for the commission.

“Tikhanov’s portraits are some of the oldest images of our ancestors,” said Alutiiq Museum Executive Director April Laktonen Counceller. “He painted individuals in great detail, capturing their facial features, clothing, hairstyles, tattoos, jewelry, and tools. He even recorded some of the people’s names and the places they were from. Unfortunately, many of his paintings show the same person from two perspectives—a front view and a side view—as if they were scientific specimens. They are an artifact of the colonial era.”

To remove the colonial perspective but preserve the faces of Alutiiq ancestors, the museum commissioned Lacy to create new paintings. Staff members provided her with photographs of landscapes tied to the homes of Tikhanov’s subjects. It took Lacy just five months to create the set. She restyled each portrait, combining front and side views of the same person into a three-quarter view.

Tikhanov’s paintings show the growing influence of Russian customs on Alutiiq people as expressed in their clothing and names. However, they also demonstrate the persistence of an Alutiiq way of life in traditions like tattooing, nose piercing, and personal adornment. They are a trove of information. The Alutiiq Museum plans to show the paintings in its new living culture gallery next May. A selection of the portraits will also be included in a book on contemporary Alutiiq art currently in development.

“These paintings will help us share the faces of actual ancestors in many ways,” said Counceller. “Cheryl is talented at capturing people and she used bright colors, living landscapes, and large canvases to bring our relatives to life. Her portraits are stunning.”

KODIAK, Alaska—The history of the Kodiak Alutiiq/Sugpiaq people is the subject of a new book released today by the Alutiiq Museum. The 188-page paperback, titled Imaken Ima’ut—From the Past to the Future, traces the history of Kodiak’s Native people over more than seven millennia. Written for a public audience, it provides an accessible account of Alutiiq history told by local scholars and with Alutiiq perspectives. It was funded by a grant to Koniag by the Institute for Museum and Library Services.

“A few years ago, the museum held a tribal summit where we shared Alutiiq history,” said April Laktonen Counceller, the Alutiiq Museum’s executive director and one of the book’s authors. “We gave presentations to delegates from ten tribes and then asked what the museum should be sharing. Up to that point, we’d focused on teaching about Alutiiq traditions and had not delved into recent history.  Many people were surprised by what they learned and everyone urged us to tell a fuller Alutiiq story. That discussion was part of the impetus for this book.”

Four museum staff members wrote, edited, and designed the five-chapter publication. It begins with a discussion of the importance of tribal histories and the sources of information used to build the book. Then, the authors explore the Alutiiq past. Two chapters written by museum archaeologists Patrick Saltonstall and Amy Steffian look at Kodiak’s deep human history, synthesizing information on the peopling of the archipelago and the evolution of ancestral cultures. Then Alutiiq scholar Dehrich Chya shares the Russian conquest of Kodiak. He considers the economic, educational, and spiritual forces that dramatically altered Alutiiq life over a tumultuous century. Counceller continues this investigation with a review of the American era. She considers how Western industries, educational systems, and policies impacted the Alutiiq after the Alaska purchase, and then traces the development of the Alutiiq cultural renaissance from its roots in the land claims era to the present. Both Chya and Counceller provide Native perspectives on events that have often been told through Western accounts.

The presentation is heavily illustrated with over two hundred images from the museum’s collections and numerous sidebars. The sidebars share short summaries of related information. For example, in a discussion of the fur trade, readers will find a sidebar about Alutiiq hunters taken to California. Each chapter ends with a glossary of Alutiiq words and a list of references. The book ends with an introduction to its authors and a detailed index.

“We designed the book to be engaging and accessible,” said Counceller. “It is carefully researched by our team and then presented in a way that makes the information understandable. We believe it will be a valuable resource for Alaska history classes. Imaken Ima’ut brings Alutiiq history to life, and we know that’s important for Native youth. Our children do better in school when they see their heritage reflected in their lessons.”

Copies of Imaken Ima’ut are being distributed for free to Kodiak schools, Native organizations, libraries, and the museum’s educational partners. On April 18^th, free copies will be offered to the public at a presentation and book signing hosted by the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center. The event will start at noon and provide books while supplies last. Additionally, a free downloadable eBook of Imaken Ima’ut is available on the publications page of the museum’s website. Paper copies can be purchased from the Alutiiq Museum Store for $25.

Every Valentine’s Day the Alutiiq Museum shows little love for its volunteers. We are fortunate to have many friends who contribute their time and talents to our work. To highlight the importance of our volunteers, we honor one outstanding contribution with our Volunteer of the Year award. For 2023, we picked Jim and Bonnie Dillard. The Dillards worked together to make a pair of Alutiiq drums for use by students.

Long-time Kodiak educators and artists, Jim and Bonnie Dillard have supported cultural education and the Alutiiq Museum for decades. Jim was an instructor in the museum’s first carving classes and traveled to villages with Sven Hakaanson to teach mask-making. He has lectured on woodworking and made objects for our teaching collection. Bonnie has partnered with the museum to bring Alutiiq traditions to art classes with lesson plans and special projects.

In 2023, the Dillards helped again when elementary school music students asked for Alutiiq drums to use in class. Jim and Bonnie volunteered their expertise. Thanks to their kindness, two drums now spend the school year in the music department and return to the museum each summer for care.

The drums took weeks to make and were crafted in an Alutiiq way. Jim carved the handles, braces, and rim pieces. Then he soaked the rims for five weeks, steamed them, and bent them to shape. Next, he assembled each drum and used airplane fabric to cover the heads. The final step was painting. Bonnie decorated each drum in Alutiiq colors and added a painted feather to the head.

“Thanks to the Dillards, students exploring Alutiiq music now have appropriate instruments,” said the museum’s Executive Director April Laktonen Counceller. “We are very grateful for the knowledge Jim and Bonnie are helping to keep alive in the community and pass on to the next generation.”

To learn more about volunteering at the museum, please contact Djuna Davidson, 844-425-8844. We welcome all volunteers, and no experience is necessary.

KODIAK, Alaska—The Alutiiq Museum has released a booklet and a set of videos with directions for making a basic Alutiiq/Sugpiaq atkuk—parka. Produced in partnership with Elder Susan Malutin, the resources provided step-by-step instructions for creating a long, hoodless coat from fabric. The garment is styled like the iconic Kodiak Alutiiq snow falling parka worn by both men and women. The resources are intended to help Alutiiq people create cultural garments to share and celebrate their heritage. Alutiiq Museum Executive Director April Laktonen Counceller explained.

“There is a huge demand for information on how to make Alutiiq clothing. People in our community are hungry to express themselves by both creating and wearing parkas, headdresses, and other items. But you can’t buy an atkuk at the store and few people know how to make them. This project is part of an ongoing effort to help people create regalia.”

The instructions include information on ancestral snow falling parkas, which were once made from cormorant throat skins. The modern version calls for heavy black fabric, red grosgrain ribbon, tufts of white fur, and beads. A full list of supplies and equipment appears in the resources with detailed, illustrated sewing instructions. Importantly, the instructions leave room for each sewer to add decorative touches, to make their garment unique.

“This is not a simple project,” said Counceller, “It requires the use of a sewing machine and some patience. Yet, with materials available at a fabric store and our instructions, you can create an Alutiiq atkuk and decorate it in your own way.”

The video tutorials and instruction booklet are available for free on the sewing page of the museum’s website. Paper copies of the booklet are being distributed to tribal organizations, libraries, schools, and the museum’s educational partners. While supplies last, the public can pick up a free copy at the Alutiiq Museum Store at the Downtown Marketplace. The booklet contains instructions for sizing without a pattern, but for those who prefer to work with a template, the museum created a paper pattern that is available for purchase from the Museum Store.

“Clothing in canvas for cultural expression. Our ancestors shared messages about their worldviews, families, and achievements in their parkas. I’m excited to see how people express themselves today. Ultimately, I envision a community where Alutiiq clothing is commonly—worn widely to symbolize and celebrate Native heritage by people of all ages, abilities, and means.”