SHI TO SPONSOR LECTURE ON THE AMERICAN FLAG IN ANB HALLS BEFORE 1960
Community event is free, open to the public
June 20, 2019
(Flyer)
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will sponsor a free lecture next week on the significance of the American flag at Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) Halls prior to 1960 and the pairing of the pennant with Tlingit and Haida images.
The lecture, The Gathered Flag: The American Flag in ANB Halls before 1960, will be given by Emily L. Moore, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Art and Art History at Colorado State University, where she teaches Native American and American art history courses.
In her talk, Moore will delve into an enigma; the American flag features prominently in the background of numerous group portraits of the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood in the first half of the twentieth century. But it often appears with a twist: on the back wall of the ANB Hall, the flag has been gathered up in the middle, almost like bunting, and a small image or sign appears between the folds, she wrote.
“In many cases it is no longer possible to read these small images or signs displayed beneath the flag, but the few that are legible reference important Tlingit and Haida leaders, clans and ANB resolutions that countered the U.S. government's claims to managing fisheries and lands in the Tongass National Forest,” Moore wrote.
The lecture is scheduled from noon-1 pm, Friday, June 28, at Sealaska Heritage, 105 S. Seward Street in Juneau. The lecture will be videotaped and put online. Her research is still in its early stages, and audience feedback is welcome.
Moore was a visiting scholar in 2012 at Sealaska Heritage, where she studied Tlingit and Haida leadership in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) totem parks. She gave a lecture, which can be viewed here.
Moore was raised in Ketchikan, and she earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in the history of art from the University of California, Berkeley. She also has an M.F.A. in creative writing from West Virginia University.
Her research focuses on contemporary and historic North American Native arts, as well as the inclusion (and exclusion) of Native arts in American and world art histories. She is the author of “Proud Raven, Panting Wolf: Carving Alaska’s New Deal Totem Parks,” recently published by the University of Washington Press.
Sealaska Heritage Institute is a private nonprofit founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. Its goal is to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through public services and events. SHI also conducts social 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.
CONTACT: Amy Fletcher, SHI Media and Publications Director, 907.586.9116, amy.fletcher@sealaska.com.
For a high resolution image, contact kathy.dye@sealaska.com.
