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The sounds of Alutiiq songs and drumming rang through the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center on the final Day of the Museum’s Cutman Agnguartukut (We are Dancing Forward) Workshop last July.  Participants worked in teams to put the final touches on new Alutiiq performances – songs and dances written and choreographed during 3-days of intensive training.   Each group readied their creations for a final performance in front of their peers and workshop Instructors Theresa John and Agatha John Shields.

The Dancing Forwards workshop united the expertise of trained Yup’ik dancers and the knowledge of Kodiak Alutiiq Elders to teach traditional dance methods, gestures, drumming, and song development, while creating new dances for performers around Kodiak to add to their repertoires.

“It’s quite an honor to be able to participate in such a workshop,” reflected participant Ada Coyle. “...The interaction with our teachers and our Elders...is just amazing...I am glad that they were able to be here to teach us.”

Elder and learner Susan Malutin kept future dancers in mind as she participated in the training,  hoping that the knowledge would be encouraging to those future generations.  “They are the rhythm to our continuing dance culture," she said.

The museum filmed the workshop and the new dances for a video designed to spread the training to other performers.   Each participant received a copy to share with members of their dance groups to help the learning continue.  The workshop videos are also available on the education page of the museum's website.

Marnie Leist opens a drawer in the Alutiiq Museum’s collections room.  The cool, metal compartment glides gently forward, revealing its precious contents; an assortment of wooden artifacts from the Karluk One village site.  For the past year, Leist has been organizing and inventorying this collection–the museum’s largest.  With grant funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, she is working her way through 20,000 objects, creating the first comprehensive inventory of this remarkable collection.  Karluk One’s wet, muddy environment preserved objects not usually found in archaeological site, and thus a wealth of information on Alutiiq culture.

Over the next two years, the museum will transform this collections project into a publication.  “Marnie’s work is setting the stage for a published catalog,” said project coordinator Amy Steffian.  “This is the museum’s most widely displayed and consulted collection, yet there in no, general account of the site and it contents.  With the collection organized and the inventory complete, we can create a publication to share the collection further.”  A second grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services will make this possible.

Photo: Toy kayaks carved of bark.  Koniag, Inc. collection, Karluk One.

Archaeologists have a way of focusing on the glamorous – temples, tombs, and shipwrecks for example.  Kodiak may not have pyramids, but over the past century archaeologists have been drawn to its most alluring sites; large coastal villages filled with midden.  We have learned a lot from these sites, but they provide just one picture of the past.  You can’t understand a society by studying only its cities or monuments.  You need a broader view.
 
Over the last decade, museum archaeologists have been investigating the history of Womens Bay.  This protected finger of water just beyond the City of Kodiak is a microcosm of local history.  Sites of all eras and types occupy its shores.  Years of research have helped curator Patrick Saltonstall to understand the environment, and to look beyond the noticeable settlements to find the smaller, less obvious places people lived and worked.

“Campsites, fish processing areas, quarries, and even hunting blinds are a part of Kodiak’s archaeological record,” said Saltonstall.  “Scientists often talk about these sites, but few people have ever studied one.”

With characteristic aplomb, Saltonstall and his crews of community volunteers have been investigating a string of small sites at the head of the bay.  Saltonstall, who spent a lot of time in geology classes, recognized that Womens Bay was once much longer.  Today Salonie Creek meanders across a broad meadow at the head of bay, but thousands of years ago this expanse of tangled brush was ocean water, and people settled along its shore.

Photo: Carmen Ceron holds a stone tools from the Amak Site.

It took 14 years and an enormous amount of work, but the Alutiiq Museum achieved a long held dream in July - national accreditation.  Bestowed by the American Association of Museums, accreditation is the highest level of professional certification for museums in the United States.  It indicates that a museum meets the most rigorous standards of practice in everything it does, from caring for collections, to serving the public and even preparing for emergencies.
 
“We set accreditation as a goal 14 years ago when we were developing the museum’s program and policies” said Deputy Director Amy Steffian.  “I remember the meeting where our board and staff decided that accreditation could be a great measure for our work, that we could model the museum’s practices after those standards.  We wanted the world to see that a tribal museum could be both a culturally meaningful institution and a first class, professional museum.  It’s thrilling to know that we accomplished that goal.”
 
The Alutiiq Museum is just the seventh museum in Alaska and the second tribal museum in the United States to be accredited.  The initial certification will last 15 years, then the museum must apply to renew its accreditation.
 
“This is a milestone for the Alutiiq Museum,” said Executive Director Sven Haakanson, Jr.  “Accreditation is the professional seal of approval.  It let’s others know that the Alutiiq nation has a model museum.”
 
Many people helped the museum reach its accreditation goal.  “We are especially grateful, to Scott Carrlee of the Alaska State Museum who made us believe that we were ready to begin the application process, and provided an exceptional summer intern, Elizabeth Manekin, to launch our bid,” said Haakanson.  “Once we were in the program, it took the entire board and staff two years of application writing, documentation, correspondence, and finally a site visit to reach this day.  It was a team effort and we did it.  It feels amazing.”

Photo: April Laktonen Counceller inventories emergency supplies.