Alaska: Anchorage – Alaska Native Heritage Center

Luckily we got our hands on some complimentary passes so we were able to enter the Center relatively cheaply – but even if we had to pay the full price it was well worth the expense. There is an indoor exhibit area, theatre and cinema but we decided to join a quick stop tour of the outdoor exhibits – which celebrates the native Alaskan cultures; the Athabascan of interior and south-central Alaska, the Yup’ik and Cup’ik Eskimo of southwest Alaska, the Inupiaq and St. Lawrence Island Yupik of northwest to northern Alaska, the Aleut and Alutiiq from Prince William Sound to the end of the Aleutian Island chain, and the Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian of Southeast Alaska. For each culture, there is a reproduction of a typical dwelling house and inside a guide to tell stories of the particular native people and introduce their way of living using everyday objects.

The first house we visited was that of the Eyak who live in the southeast area of Alaska, which has a milder and wetter climate. These people lived in large buildings constructed from cedar trees. Another distinctive feature of these people was their large totem poles (similar to those we had seen in the museum in Ottawa, Canada manufactured by the native people on the West Coast of Canada).

As we moved to the other areas the house designs were radically different. The other native Alaskans built their houses to survive the cold winter months of Alaska. The houses were generally subterranean with small entrances to protect the inhabitants from the cold and snow, but also unwanted visitors such as raiding tribes and polar bears in the far north. The tour was really good but a little too much of the whistle-stop variety – we planned to go back around at our own speed later to talk to the interpretive guides in each dwelling (for one reason or another we never got around to this).

After the tour, we headed back inside (to warm up as much as anything else). On the stage in the Visitor Center were a group of teenage Native Alaskans demonstrating some of the typical games played by the Native people. The derivation of these games had originally been to hone the skills and strengths of the people throughout the long dark winters but had nowadays turned into competitive sports. There is even a world championship in these Alaskan sports. Between you and I, these sports are quite unusual – the ones demonstrated involved hitting a suspended ball with various parts of the anatomy (mainly the feet and hands) by balance and leaping. Other sports included carrying weights by your ears or carrying four men hanging from your neck as far as possible. Most strange – but when you understand the explanation of each you can see where they come from in terms of testing the skills and refining the strength of the native folk.

Following the sports activities, we were entertained by a native dance troupe, made up of a single-family from the Yup’ik region. The dances were somewhat reminiscent of the Hawaiian Hula, without the allure or sexuality. The performance of these dances is done from a static standing position; there is no leaping around the stage. These rituals have evolved this way due to the lack of room in the traditional buildings. The accompaniment is provided by simple handheld drums and voice, which somewhat limits the tonal qualities of the music. Like Hula and many oriental dances, the movements are used to depict stories of bravery, love and other great deeds. The dancers looked like they were having a fabulous time, especially the oldest lady of the group who was really into her music. After the main show, there was a chance to get up and dance, Emily was up for this so while she volunteered. I chose this moment to slip away to watch a film on life in the wilderness (which involved lots of killing and slaughtering of animals and fish). When I returned the audience participation had moved onto playing of the drums.

I can highly recommend visiting the Center. It provides a wonderful opportunity to learn about the first people of Alaska. This is such a vast country that to visit each region to experience the culture of each of these nations would be a real challenge – so this was a fabulous way to get a little snippet of insight.