Juneau Hot Spots and the Last Chance Basin

On our last full day in Juneau, we visited major landmarks and museums, did a quick auto tour of the residential area up top, and took a walk at a trailhead in the mountains above downtown.

Our first stop was a visit  to Takhu, the  Whale Sculpture, on the northern end of Juneau’s waterfront. Takhu is a life size humpback whale, 25 feet long, captured in the act of breaching and rolling back into the sea. Sculpted over more than 10 years – first as a two foot model, than an 8 foot prototype – the sculpture is joyous, lively and breathtakingly beautiful.  Standing next to Takhu really brought home the size and muscularity of these gentle creatures.

Two totems from the Totem Pole Trail are also located here.

Leaving Takhu, we found a long term parking place (not an easy task – most parking lots and structures in downtown Juneau are reserved for local permit holders) and walked over to the Sealaska Heritage Center. These are the folks responsible for the Celebration we visited on Monday, and for Native art present throughout the area. Formed in 1972, Sealaska is the Native Corporation governing tribal activities in southeast Alaska.

Native tribes in mainland USA are considered conquered nations, with independent sovereignty – which is problematic in practice, because most tribes are still effectively managed by the US Bureau of Indian Affairs.  Alaska’s Natives were granted a different status through the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which created12 for-profit tribal corporations to hold title to Native lands and conduct economic and cultural activities on behalf of tribal members, who are treated as shareholders in the corporations. These companies are not publicly traded and shares cannot be sold, only passed on through descent.

Sealaska has more than 25,000 Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian shareholders.  Sealaska maintains a large investment fund (stocks, bonds, real estate, and private equity fund) which has kept money coming in as revenues from its biggest traditional source of income – logging – has sharply declined.  The corporation reinvests a significant portion of its earnings into community and youth programs, like scholarships, wellness and culture camps, and summer internships.

The Raven and Eagle (represented on totems below) are the two major matrilineal descent groups of the Tlingit people.  People are born into one “moiety,” and must marry into the other descent groups.

The plaza beneath the Sealaska building features intriguing masks and more totems.

Across the street is the much more architecturally interesting Walter Soboleff/Sealaska Heritage Center which houses administrative offices, climate-controlled archives, classrooms, retail space, space for exhibits and art demonstrations, meeting rooms, and a traditional Native Alaskan cedar clan house.  Soboleff was a much revered Tlingit scholar, activist, elder and religious leader. (Nice to see a major building named for someone important to the community rather than someone with money to donate in order to memorialize their name.)

Inside, we found visited the clan house and learned more about Tlingit culture from a lovely lady (Eagle moiety/Thunderbird clan) who accompanied us from the gift shop.  The art gallery included both heritage pieces and new works by young Native artists bringing their own spin to ancient traditions.

From Sealaska, we walked over to the Alaska State Museum, about 4 blocks away, passing Pucker Wilson’s Food Truck along the way.

The museum’s entry features a 20+ foot bald eagle nesting tree, complete with taxidermied birds  and typical neighbors. 

A conservation lab on the first floor was open to viewers, with interesting work underway inside.

The Alaska Gallery is this museum’s main feature, with artifacts preserved from Native history,  Russian occupancy, territorial history, early statehood and some contemporary works.  Smaller than the museum in Anchorage, this one still holds an impressive array of Stuff – some highlights below.

The kids area was a favorite.

These panels present a traditional Raven creation/trickster story (Raven is always a Trickster!)  It’s a fun read.

A looping video told the story of traditional Tlingit/Sitka tribe herring roe fishing, celebrated in a ritual captured on film. In the traditional method, the Tlingit take a hemlock sapling, wrap it with rope, then lower it into the shallows where herring spawn. The fish lay their eggs and leave to go about their lives, and the tree is hoisted out of the water, covered with roe.

Commercial fishing uses seine nets to capture a school of herring, then the females are removed an manually stripped of eggs – which kills the fish and depletes the breeding pool.  Herring populations are declining, with many fish no longer returning to their traditional spawning grounds, because of this practice.  The Sitka Tribe sued the Alaska Department of Fisheries to try to reduce the “sustained yield” targets set by the department, but the lawsuit failed.  

These ornately embroidered cloaks were created as part of the ritual surrounding the herring roe fishery, captured in the video, and now on loan to the museum.

These images area part of a series on Native facial tattoos, which Native women are reclaiming.

After all that culture, we were ready for lunch, and Tracy’s King Crab Shack was just the ticket.

After lunch, we collected the car and drove uphill to tour through the steep neighborhoods around Chicken Yard Park.

We then drove up Basin Drive to the Last Chance Basin to do a bit of walking along the Perseverance and Gold Creek Flume trails.