Juneau Capitol and State Museum

While in Juneau, Howard, Marty, Marsha and I took a tour of the State capitol and it was quite interesting.  The state capitol building is the only such building in the 50 states without a dome.

  That is because it originally was the district and then the territorial building.  Alaska was officially incorporated as an organized territory in 1912. Alaska's capital, which had been in Sitka until the 1900 legislation mandated its transfer to Juneau (the actual move took place in 1906).

The entry/lobby of the capitol building had some very interesting art, including two these two floor-to-ceiling clay fired sculptures by Joan Bugbee Jackson.  The scenese "Harvest of the Sea" and Harvest of the Land" depict hunting and fishing in the 1930s.

fishermen

hunters

  John  Kinkead was American businessman and politician who served as the third governor of Nevada and after choosing not to run again, was appointed the first governor of the District of Alaska and served for a year from 1884 to 1885.

Alaska was purchased from Russia on March 30, 1867, for $7.2 million.   Russia needed the money and had gotten all they thought they could get out of it after having killed off most of the sea otters. 

After gold was discovered, the money flowed in and the gold in the picture above was retrieved in a short period of time and was worth a lot more than what the US paid Russia for Alaska.

There were a number of old photos in the hallways.  Here are a few:

Camp Fire Girls 1919

Interior Chief's House, Chilcat

Traditional Clothing

Shipment of Chevys 1928 (arrived by boat)

Map of Alaska & Pipeline, made form piece of pipeline

The doors to the Governor's office were ornately carved to represent culture and industry in the state.  The door handles below came form a traditional site:

The senate has 20 members and one member of the senate is elected to be the speaker.

Half of the Senate chamber

Currently, there are ten Democrats and ten Republicans in the Senate.  If there is a tie, there is no re-vote and the issue is set aside.  On major issues, usually one Democrat at least changes sides.  The House has more Republicans than Democrats.
The house chamber was named for Elizabeth Peratrovitch, who championed the cause of civil rights in the territory.

 She spoke before the territorial legislature in 1945 when a bill on civil rights was debated.  She was a native married to a Russian.  At that time, any children of native blood could not go to regular schools in the territory.  Her voice was so powerful, that the representatives voted for the civil rights law.

 I had detailed notes on this but cannot find them, unfortunately.  If I do, I'll revise this blog.

Alaska became a state in 1959, a few months before Hawaii became the 50th state.  There was bitter debate in the Senate, and when the vote was counted, twenty senators voted against Alaska becoming a state.

 For one year, the US had a 49-state flag.

Native-Alaskan born William Egan was the first governor of Alaska from 1959 to 1966, serving as a Democrat.  He later served from 1970 to 1974.  In 1964 he supervised the disaster response to the Good Friday/Passover Eve 9.2  earthquake.  Oil was discovered in Prudoe Bay in 1968 and Egan was very involved in the response to the world oil crisis in 1973.

A famous territorial governor and later US Senator from Alaska was Ernest Gruening, who was born in NY.  He too as a Democrat and Jewish.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Gruening

We went into a room that was used as a meeting room for elected officials.  It smelled of smoke, esp. pipe or cigar smoke.  It had been used when people smoked and the ceiling absorbed all the smells--which still remain today!

Our guide, Hailee, was great.  We definitely found the tour worthwhile!



In the afternoon after returning form Mendenhall glacier and having lunch, Marty and I went to the State Museum.

 Alaska Native material dominates the collection and includes objects from Alaskan Eskimo, Athabascan, Aleut, and Northwest Coast groups. Items from daily life as well as ceremonial and sacred objects are well represented. The collection of Northwest Coast and Eskimo baskets is among the most comprehensive in existence, and includes fragments of three recently discovered baskets which have been dated to 5,000 years b.p., the oldest ever recovered in Alaska or the Northwest Coast. The collection of Eskimo carved ivory is comprehensive, ranging from prehistoric to twentieth century. The Alaska State Museum also maintains an outstanding collection of work by contemporary Native artists.

  Just outside the building we saw Sitka roses.

 These fragrant five-petal roses grow on medium-sized shrubs throughout areas of Alaska. 

 

Sitka rose bud

Above is a sculpture of the Bear Wife of Kaats, made in the middle of the 19th century in a Tinglit village.  The carving represents Kaats, a man of the Teikweidi  clan, who married a female bear.    The sculpture was moved to the museum when there was no one left in the clan who could protect it for future generations. 

Below is a Haida house post built in the mid 1800s..

 The Raven's screen above was built in the early 1800s.

Many of the art work in the museum is decorated with a complex style by peoples of the northwest coast of Alaska.  The style was developed more than 650 years ago.   This formline art style is similar to art from the Far East, suggesting a connection between the people in the two places.  The Raven's screen uses this formline style.

Birch bark Canoe

The above canoe is typical of those use by natives of the interior of Alaska and Western Canada.   These light, durable and easily portable canoes were quite adaptable for traveling across lakes, streams, and rivers.    If damaged, it was easy to repair them with local materials.   To construct the canoe, the builder used split roots to lace together sheets of bark from the paper birch tree.  The edges of the bark were raised to form the hull and sewn to the gunwales.  Next, the bottom frames was inserted and boiling water was poured into the canoe to make the bark go into the final form.  Finally the ribs were pressed into place.  The seams were sealed with pitch from the spruce tree.

Eagle Hat

Athabascan children dancing

The above photo shows Athabascan children dancing to a fiddler in a log building in the 1930s.

Symbolism  of Yupik Eskimo Spiritual Masks:

Crow Mask, More traditional

Eltaa Mask made in 2005

The above mask was done by Kathleen Carlo, an Athabascan, and one of the few women carving masks.  The Eltaa mask shows the shaman's spiritual powers.

Masks were usually created for a special event and then thrown away.  Some of the masks at this museum were bought when a movie crew saw masks on a dump pile.  The masks have been created to welcome the movie crew in the area.  I think the masks below are from that colleciton.

The Milotte-Hooper Bay Collection

I was impressed to learn that much of the wood used for carving was driftwood.

Note animal in mask's mouth

Angoqwazhuk "Happy Jack" was the most famous of the Inupiat ivory carvers at Nome around the turn of the century.  He lived from 1870 to 1918.  He was known for his detailed engravings.  He was one of the first to carve Billiken in Ivory, a Buddha-like creature.

Much of the ivory came from Mammoth tusks.

Baleen baskets with ivory carvings on top.  Sorry the carvings are a bit out of focus.

Practical Art:  A Caribou Mandible Belt

"It was said that in the old days a male child of an Eskimo family at tikiqag was immersed in cold water of a little lagoon a mile east of the present village.  this was a ritual a mother performed to initiate her son into the rigors of the artic climate.  It was supposed to toughen him against the cold for when he hunted during his manhood."

Native Diaper

Waterproof Parka made of animal gut

There is a large section on the Russians in Alaska also.  I was impressed that they included all children in their schooling.  From my reading of Mitchner's Alaska, that is the only thing that could have "impressed" me about the Russians in that area.

Real Samovar

 

The above picture was done by Ilya Bolotowsky, a famous American abstract artist.

There was a good-sized section on Alaska and World War II.  I had forgotten that a small Japanese force occupied the islands of Attu  and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands, but the remoteness of the islands and the difficulties of weather and terrain meant that it took nearly a year for a far larger U.S. force to eject them. 

There was also a mining section.  This scrabble board caught my eye.

As did the samples of rocks/minerals found in Alaska.

The museum also had a few totem poles and a display and explanation of animals in nature.

And one final piece of native art:  Thunderbird screen:

This screen was made for the Thunderbird house at Yakutat in the early 1900s.

We were too tired to go to the city museum, so headed back to the main, touristy part of town.

After returning, I stopped at the Alaska Shirt Company and got T-shirts for Timna's boys and some cute sox.  I think they had a better selection there than in the same shop in other towns.   The library also was supposed to have free Wi-Fi but Marty couldn't get it to work, so he went to a bar that advertised free wi-fi with any purchase, got a beer, and the receipt showed him how to log on.  After he left, he gave me the receipt and I logged on too!