Gotta Have It

For millennia, Northwest Coast Alaska Native art wasn’t “art” in the Western sense — it was inextricably wound into life in Southeast Alaska. Berry baskets might take a hundred hours to weave and be used for generations. Beautifully carved bentwood boxes held the oil of eulachon, a fatty fish, and were traded up and down the coast and into the interior. Totem poles, raised at community celebrations called potlatches, commemorated important events.

As a visitor, you have a chance to take home some of the beautiful creations of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples of Southeast Alaska. Just make sure you’re getting what you pay for. (Since appropriation and theft are problems that Alaska Native artists still battle today, and though many authentic gifts and souvenirs are affordable and available, some stores still sell cheap knockoffs.) The Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff Building, Trickster Company, Kindred Post, and Tripp’s Mt. Juneau Trading Post, among other local stores, offer great opportunities to support Alaska Native artists’ paintings, carvings, weavings, and more.