Sealaska Heritage Institute

ABOUT SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE (SHI)

About Southeast Alaska's Sealaska Heritage Institute

Perpetuating and Enhancing Southeast Alaskan Native cultures

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a Native nonprofit founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. Its goals are to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through public services and events. Sealaska Heritage also conducts scientific and public policy research that promotes Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee and a Southeast Regional Language Committee.

We offer numerous programs promoting Southeast Alaskan Native culture, including language and art. We maintain a substantial archive of Southeast Alaskan Native ethnographic material. We partner with local schools to promote academics and cultural education. Biennially, we produce Celebration, one of Alaska’s largest Native gatherings. We own and operate the Sealaska Heritage Store and curate cultural exhibits on the first floor of our headquarters in Juneau’s landmark Walter Soboleff Building.

In 1996, scientists in Southeast Alaska discovered ancient human remains in a cave on Prince of Wales Island. DNA analysis and other testing proved he was a Native male and that the remains were at least 10,000 years old. We named him Shuká Kaa (Man Before Us). For more than 10,000 years, we have been guided by ancient values that allowed our people to adapt to rapid cultural changes and to survive as a distinct cultural group. Today, we are seeking to integrate our cultural values into the institutions that directly serve our people

Values

Today, Sealaska Heritage seeks to integrate our Alaskan Native cultural values into the institutions that directly serve our people.

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SEALASKA HERITAGE INSTITUTE'S FOUNDING

Sealaska Heritage was founded in 1980 by Sealaska after being conceived by clan leaders, traditional scholars and elders at the first Sealaska Elders Conference. During that meeting, the Elders likened Native culture to a blanket. They told the new leaders that their hands were growing weary of holding onto the metaphorical blanket, this “container of wisdom.” They said they were transferring this responsibility to Sealaska, the regional Native corporation serving Southeast Alaska. In response, Sealaska founded Sealaska Heritage to operate cultural and educational programs. The late George Davis (Kichnáalx—Lk’aanaaw) of Angoon spoke these memorable words:

“We don’t want what you did here to only echo in the air, how our grandfathers used to do things… Yes. You have unwrapped it for us. That is why we will open again this container of wisdom left in our care.”

Sealaska continues to provide an annual donation that has provided stability for SHI and has allowed the institute to leverage those funds in seeking additional support from both the private and public sectors. Although SHI is a separate entity as a 501 ©(3), it maintains a strong relationship with Sealaska and two Sealaska directors sit on the institute’s board of trustees. Sealaska also supports SHI’s biennial Celebration and made major contributions for the construction of the institute’s Walter Soboleff Building and Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee and a Southeast Regional Language Committee.

About Walter Soboleff

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