FIFTH OPENING – The Sitka seine boats Hukilau and Rose Lee pump herring aboard this afternoon at the end of Deep Inlet during the fifth opening in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery. The opening was being held in two locations beginning at 11 a.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
The future of management and operations at the Perform [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
The Sitka Sound commercial herring sac roe fishery continued today with open [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
After storming into the state 3A boys basketball brac [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
The Queen Bees’ spotless season record ended Tuesday night with a 2-1 loss [ ... ]
By SHIRLEY SNEVE
Indian Country Today
A major renovation at an Alaska museum to attract tourist [ ... ]
By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
A presentation about a jump in the number of inmate deaths in [ ... ]
By NATHANIEL HERZ
Northern Journal
Tribal and environmental advocates calling for a crackdown o [ ... ]
Police Blotter
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
March 26
At 2:10 p.m. a man e [ ... ]
Big Rigs Sought
For April 13
The 3 to 5 Preschool’s spring fundraiser and Big Rig event is happening [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The city’s reassessment of taxable real estate, alo [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
The third opening in this year’s Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery was held Mon [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
Sitka High’s Lady Wolves bounced back from an openi [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel ports Editor
Competing in the state 3A basketball tournament in Anc [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
Playing in a competitive division City League volleyball game Monday evening [ ... ]
By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
A bill that passed the Alaska House of Representatives on Monday [ ... ]
By NATHANIEL HERZ
Northern Journal
Gus Schumacher, the Anchorage Olympic cross-country skier, a [ ... ]
By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
Alaska’s rural schools are on track to access faster interne [ ... ]
By YERETH ROSEN
Alaska Beacon
In the language of the Gwich’in people of northeastern Alaska, [ ... ]
Police Blotter
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
March 25
At 7:48 a.m. a calle [ ... ]
Vietnam-Era Vets
Invited to Lunch,
Commemoration
American Legion Post 13 will host a luncheon 1-3 p.m. [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
The 2024 Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery got under [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Assembly will start the annual process of determi [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
Competing in the 3A state championship title basketball game Saturday, the M [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
Playing through the afternoon Sunday, City League volleyball teams faced off [ ... ]
Daily Sitka Sentinel
January 13, 2017 Community Happenings
Obamarama
Set for Jan. 21
Music and dance by local musicians to honor Obama’s work on social justice issues during his eight years in office will be held 8 p.m.-midnight Saturday, Jan. 21, at the Mean Queen lower level. A $10 suggested donation will go the musicians.
SJ Museum’s Artifact For
January to be Inuit Mask
The Sheldon Jackson Museum’s January Artifact of the Month is an Inupiaq mask (SJ-II-DD-3).
The museum has little information on the mask, but records show it was collected by a Sheldon Jackson Museum curator, the late Esther Billman, and purchased from Willie Hugo of Anaktuvuk Pass for $22. The details on the mask and the time period in which it could have been purchased suggest that it’s probably a later piece made in the 1960s or 1970s.
To make a mask in this style, the artist scrapes membranes from caribou skin to soften it, leaving a short stubble on the other side. Next, wet caribou skin, usually soaked overnight in a dying agent of caribou blood, reddish dye made with alder bark, iron oxide from a river bank, coffee, cocoa or tea. The skin is stretched around a wooden form and nailed on. After one day, the skin is dried, holds its form, and is ready for cutting out of the eye and mouth holes. The fur details are added. Earlier masks had fur ruffs, eyebrows, eyelashes and, if male, often beards, moustaches, or both that were sewn on with sinew while later ones were sewn with thread or glued on. The ruff, usually made of lynx, fox, grizzly bear or wolf, is put on last.
The Artifact of the Month is a contemporary woman’s face mask. Her mouth is open but it’s difficult to make out if her facial expression is that of sadness or joy. Her snow white hair, likely caribou beard fur, is positioned in a middle part and peeks out from below the soft, grey wolf fur ruff framing her face. She has thick, bushy eyebrows, probably caribou fur. Dark brown eyelashes outline the holes that serve as her eyes. The fur embellishments are all sewn to the mask with mercerized thread.
In 1951, the first Anaktuvuk Pass caribou masks were created by Bob Ahgook and Zaccharias (Zak) Hugo. The two men were out on a trap line, talking about upcoming holiday festivities in the village and discussing ways they could participate. They developed a scheme to disguise themselves in masks and surprise everyone with their costume and funny antics. Lacking many materials, the men began to work with pieces of caribou hide and bits of caribou fur, sewing them together with sinew. Lacking proper facilities and any experience making masks, it took them almost two days and involved a great deal of trial and error, but they succeeded, returned to the village, and hid their masks. Once festivities were under way the night of the dance, Hugo and Ahgook appeared wearing their creations, delighting everyone. After the celebration, they hung their masks in the corner of their sod houses and didn’t use them again. It wasn’t until a few years later that anyone took any interest in the masks and another four and a half years before any more were made.
In May 1952, Laurence Irving of University of Alaska’s Institute of Arctic Biology, and Terris Moore, then president of the university, stopped at Anaktuvuk on return to Fairbanks from a research expedition farther north. The men talked to Simon Paniaq, who was chief umialik or elder or leader of Anaktuvuk Pass and during their conversation, the subject of masks came up. Paniaq sent two boys to the homes of Ahgook and Hugo to get the masks that had been made the year before and the visitors to the village purchased them. One of these two original hide and fur masks is now in the collection of the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
In the summer of 1956, a school teacher from Anchorage, Mrs. Ethel Oliver, visited Antaktuvuk Pass. During her visit, she suggested to Paniaq that the villagers make and sell something other than the toys that were being made in order to bring in more income. Nearly six months later, she received a package of twelve masks including two made of wood that had details, including fur ruffs, beards, and moustaches, similar to the caribou skin masks originally made by Aghook and Hugo. Oliver showed the masks to her friends, who desired ones of their own, and then spoke with a local tourist gift shop which agreed to take thirty masks on consignment. One of the first masks to arrive to Anchorage was a caribou-skin mask made by the elder Paniaq’s wife. It was made of skin, and similar to the Hugo and Ahgook masks.
Soon after the first masks were sent to be sold, Justice Mekiana, a talented craftsman of the village, revolutionized the method of making them by incorporating a handmade wooden form into the process. Before long, he made multiple wooden forms and began drying several masks at a time, speeding up his production process. He sent more to Anchorage to sell on consignment and later made more wooden forms and sold them to other villagers who could not carve their own. Mekiana’s method became the new way of making the signature Anuktuvuk Pass mask.
The January Artifact of the Month mask will be exhibited until Jan. 31. The museum is home to five Anaktuvuk Pass masks including men’s faces, a child’s face, and faces with wolf ears.
The January Artifact of the Month can be seen Tuesday through Saturday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. The museum is closed for lunch from noon to 1 p.m. General admission is $3 and free for those 18 and under or members of either the Friends of the Sheldon Jackson Museum or Friends of the Alaska State Museum.
Author-Artist at
Library Feb. 3
Local independent author and artist S.K. Randolph will read and discuss her work, 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3, at Sitka Public Library.
Randolph is the author of The Unfolding Trilogy. Everyone is invited. For more information, call the library at 747-8708.
Calvary Chapel
Meets Sunday
“S.A.D. or Milk and Honey?” from 2 Corinthians 6 and 7 will be this Sunday’s special message at 3 p.m. at Calvary Chapel Sitka. The group meets at the Methodist Church at the corner of Edgecumbe Drive and Kimsam Street. www.calvarysitka.com
Unitarians List
Sunday Program
At Sunday’s Unitarian Fellowship meeting, Angela Turcott will present a program on “A Course in Miracles: a self-study spiritual path teaching that the path to peace is by undoing guilt through forgiveness.”
Fellowship begins at 10:30 a.m., with the program beginning at 10:45. Soup and bread follows at noon. The Fellowship Hall is at 408 Marine Street, with parking off Spruce Street.
City Gets Grant
For Art Gallery
Display Cases
The Rasmuson Foundation has announced that the City and Borough of Sitka has been awarded a $15,000 grant for the William Stortz Gallery.
The Tier 1 grant is for installation of lighted display cases on the second floor foyer of City Hall. The project is expected to be completed by Dec. 31.
The second floor foyer was dedicated on Dec. 2, 2015, as the “William Stortz Gallery,” to feature local artists’ work to the public. Willam Stortz was the city’s building official who was killed in an Aug. 18, 2015, landslide.
Norm Campbell and The Greater Sitka Arts Council manage the gallery’s exhibitions and were instrumental in securing the grant.
The Rasmuson Foundation was created in May 1955 by Jenny Rasmuson to honor her late husband E.A. Rasmuson.
Pistol Shooting
Leagues Offered
Sitka Sportsman’s Association now offers competitive pistol shooting leagues at the Indoor Range, 5211 Halibut Point Road.
It will be held for 12 weeks, 7-9 p.m. Tuesdays starting January 24 for .22 pistols, and Thursdays starting Jan. 26 for center-fire pistols. The indoor range will be open for practice on Wednesday nights 7-9 p.m.
Advance registration is preferred on Jan. 16 at the annual Sportsman’s Association membership annual meeting, or on Jan. 18.
Fees include an SSA membership current or $30 annual, SSA Shooter’s Card current or $40, and Pistol League $35 (includes targets and shooting time).
For more information, contact Foy Nevers, 747-3469.
Storytime Set
For Tots at Park
Tots Parents and tots are invited to join park rangers for a story about the moon during January’s Preschool Storytime at Sitka National Historical Park.
The park’s monthly storytime will be 10 a.m. Monday, Jan. 16 at the park’s visitor center. The group will read a story, sing songs and create a moon-themed craft. The children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian for the duration of the 30-minute program.
For more information about the park’s monthly Preschool Storytime contact Ryan Carpenter at 747-0121 or ryan_p_carpenter@nps.gov.
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20 YEARS AGO
March 2004
Matthew C. Hunter of Sitka recently returned from Cuba as part of a St. Olaf College International and Off-Campus Studies program. Hunter, a junior physics major at St. Olaf College, is the son of Robert and Kim Hunter of Sitka.
50 YEARS AGO
March 1974
Eighth graders have returned from a visit to Juneau to see the Legislature. They had worked for it since Christmas vacation ... Clarice Johnson’s idea of a “White Elephant” sales was chosen as the best money-maker; Joe Roth won the political cartoon assignment; highest government test scorers were Ken Armstrong, Joanna Hearn, Linda Montgomery, Lisa Henry, Calvin Taylor and David Licari .....