Juneau’s Alaska State Museum



State Museum and Library, Juneau

 

A new facility for the Alaska State Museum and State Library & Archives in Juneau opened in May of 2016.  

Museum/Library Foyer, Juneau

The building with its modern architecture has a large foyer with the map of Alaska and the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia etched in the flooring – viewed in its entirety from the second floor Library.  

Foyer Floor Map of Alaska

As boaters we enjoyed studying the various waterways and major towns, the Aleutian Chain, and the close proximity of Alaska and Russia.  The excellent Museum downstairs includes artifacts from early Native cultures and covers the mining, fishing, and shipping industries of Alaska.  

Tribal May of Alaska

Another map of interest in the Museum illustrates the Native tribes of Alaska by area, a nice reference when viewing the clothing, baskets, tools, and other objects of skilled crafts from the various Native cultures.  The Tlingit controlled the river routes into the interior via the Chilkat, Chilkoot, and Stikine Rivers and grew wealthy as trading middlemen.  

Tlingit Clothing influenced by Trade

Trading facilitated the exchange of cultures and dress styles, both Native and non-Native.  

 Baskets of the Aleut

For thousands of years, the Aleut wove baskets from carefully selected and cured beach grass, some of the finest basketry in North America; the Aleut used different techniques to make a variety of useful objects. 
The Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian made bentwood boxes and bowls by using heat and steam to bend the wood into desired shapes.  

Bentwood Boxes and Bowls

The hulls of ocean-going canoes were heated in order to spread the sides, increasing the canoe’s capacity.  The Unangax, Alutiiq, and Yup’ik hunters made visors and bowls by bending driftwood planks; visors were obviously used long before our own current dress trends.  The Athabascans discovered that many plants have specific medicinal properties and scientists today consider this traditional knowledge a valuable resource.  

Yup'ik Under-Jacket made from animal gut

The largest Native population in Alaska today is the Yup’ik with a population of more than 23,000 distributed among 56 villages, Bethel being the regional center.  The Yup’ik and the northern Inupiat survive in the harsh climate of the Arctic Ocean with traditional hunting.  

Yup'ik Kayaks

Much of their diet still comes from the traditional wild harvest of whale, fish, and land animals such as caribou.  The northern Yup’ik kayak was long and narrow; these kayaks were used to herd Beluga whales during a falling tide and drive them into shallows or up sloughs for capture.  

Model of The USMS North Star

Also of interest was a model of the USMS (United States Motor Ship) North Star which wintered in Seattle and brought supplies, fuel, and teachers to the isolated Native villages along Alaska’s coast during the summer months from 1932-1940.  These supply runs continued after WWII from 1945-1949.  The North Star was replaced by the North Star II and III which carried out the same annual voyages until 1984.  We found the State Museum in Juneau to be well organized and informative, approaching the excellence of the museum in Anchorage, both Museums are worth a visit.