Web posted October 7, 2005

Bringing history home
Historic Klukwan tunic repatriated to clan

By ERIC MORRISON
JUNEAU EMPIRE

The spirit of Kudeinahaa has come home to Alaska. The Kaagwaantaan Clan and Sealaska Heritage Institute celebrated the repatriation of a Chilkat Brown Bear tunic and its return to Alaska Thursday morning at the Sealaska Building in Juneau. In accordance with the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act of 1990, the ceremonial property, or at.óow, was returned by the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology in Berkeley, Calif.

"It's a really joyous occasion for us whenever we can bring any of our at.óow home, and usually it is followed with great celebration," SHI President Rosita Worl said.

Ernestine Hayes, a Kaagwaantaan of the Wolf House, said in the Tlingit world view, everything has a spirit. She said the ancestors' spirits survive through the stories, songs and objects that are passed on from generation to generation.

The Kaagwaantaan believe the spirit of Kudeinahaa, a clan leader from Klukwan in the early 20th century, lives on with the tunic.

"Its importance probably lies most profoundly in allowing our loved one to come home," Hayes said. "The legality of course is well appreciated, but I just feel it is here and it hears more Tlingit being spoken, and it feels fresher and more at rest, and more at home."

"It's like bringing back your grandparents to be with you. It's a strong feeling among our people," said Edwina White, a Kaagwaantaan of the Box House. "The regalia is not just for show off, it's who we are."

The tunic's location came to the attention of the Kaagwaantaan after SHI ethnologist Kathy Miller encountered it at the museum while photographing cultural objects from Southeast Alaska. She showed a photograph to the Council of Traditional Scholars, which then began the arduous process of repatriating the tunic.

The Hearst museum acquired the tunic in 1977 from the daughter of Louis Levey, a fur trader who bought it from an unknown seller in 1936.

Worl said this was one of the quickest acts of repatriation SHI has dealt with because a photograph taken in 1923 of Kudeinahaa wearing the tunic verified the ownership as being that of the Kaagwaantaan. The tunic was officially transferred Tuesday to SHI because NAGPRA only allows federally recognized tribes to legally retrieve cultural belongings. Since cultural property ownership belongs to clans in the Tlingit culture, SHI immediately transferred the tunic to the Kaagwaantaan Clan.

Klukwan Kaagwaantaan Clan Leader and caretaker of the Brown Bear Clan House Joe Hotch, who accepted the tunic on behalf of his clan, said Tlingit protocol is important during repatriation ceremonies. He said the balance between Eagle and Raven clans is a vital part of the Tlingit culture.

"That's very important that we balance our respect and we don't respect my own clan more than the other," said Hotch. "We need to balance ourselves on all levels of our culture and our way of life and our future. That doesn't only include Tlingit respect; we have to respect all other races of this world."

Hoonah Kaagwaantaan Clan Leader Frank C. White Sr. was one of several elders who addressed the crowd in Tlingit, which included a story of a warrior's trail. He said Kudeinahaa is on a warrior's trail back to Klukwan.

"The reason we have a lot of respect for things like that is because of the respect that we show to family, and that's why we talk about (the tunic) like it's a human being. Now he's going back home," he said after the ceremony.

Hotch said he will take the tunic back to Klukwan today and bring it to each clan house. It will then be temporarily stored at the Sheldon Museum and Cultural Center in Haines.

"We have about 30, 40 pieces in our clan house that it's going to be sitting amongst," said Hotch "It's not going to be by itself. It came back to its family."

Edwina White said the repatriation of cultural property is a powerful symbol to the younger Native generations.

"I think bringing back all this (regalia) is starting to mean more to our younger generation because they didn't have anything to identify with other than our words," she said. "I think they're starting to see more and more of our old ways and (it's) making them understand our culture is so important and it brings back a lot of pride and respect in who they are."

Worl said the return of these symbolic items exemplifies the changes in American society.

"At this time here we are recognizing that Native cultures have value. And I think that says to our children that they have an identity," said Worl. "I think (the tunic) is kind of symbolic of all the things that are happening in the recognition of our culture."

• Eric Morrison can be reached at eric.morrison@juneauempire.com.