The Juneau-Douglas City Museum (JDCM), in partnership with the Áak’w Ḵwáan Wooshkeetaan and the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF), will be installing the Wooshkeetaan Kootéeyaa (Totem Pole) inside Juneau’s State Office Building atrium in November.

The Wooshkeetaan Kootéeyaa, carved by Master Carver Yéil Yádi Nathan Jackson with assistance from artists Steve Brown and Dorica Jackson, was commissioned in 1980 by the City and Borough of Juneau Centennial Art Committee as part of the Centennial celebration. Both the Wooshkeetaan Kootéeyaa honoring Tléix’ Shangukeidí (Eagle/Wolf) and the Áak’w Kootéeyaa, also carved by Jackson honoring Tléix’ Laayaneidí (Raven/Crow), are part of the permanent collection of the JDCM and were raised in front of Centennial Hall in 1983. The Áak’w Kootéeyaa was taken down and re-installed inside the Juneau-Douglas High School in 2003 and the Wooshkeetaan Kootéeyaa was taken down and placed in storage in 2016.

In preparation for the installation, the Wooshkeetaan Kootéeyaa was moved from storage to the State Office Building Atrium on Friday, October 15, where the kootéeyaa will lay flat and adjust to the new climate until it is installed. The installation is financially supported by The Rotary Club of Juneau, the Friends of the Juneau-Douglas City Museum, and a grant from Museums Alaska’s Collections Management Fund, which is supported by the Rasmuson Foundation. A rededication celebration will be held after installation.

“We are so pleased to return the Wooshkeetaan Kootéeyaa to a public space and to our community. Gunalchéesh to the Áak’w Ḵwáan Wooshkeetaan for their guidance and thank you to DOT&PF Commissioner Ryan Anderson, the Juneau Delegation, and the team at the SOB for their assistance in making this happen. I hope everyone takes the opportunity to visit the kootéeyaa and learn more about the Wooshkeetaan,” said Museum Director Beth Weigel.

Before carving began, George Jim, Sr., a Wooshkeetaan elder, was consulted and determined which figures would be included on the Wooshkeetaan Kootéeyaa and provided the following interpretation:

The Wooshkeetaan Kootéeyaa carries the figures and crests for the Eagle moiety and include from the top: Uncle Sam representing the white man and his culture presented to the Native people resulting in citizenship, the Shark Crest, the Murrelet Crest, the Thunderbird Crest, the Bear Crest, the Wolf figure as a reminder of a legend about a wolf claiming the Wooshkeetaan people as part of his family, the G̱unakadeit or Sea Bear Crest, the Good Luck Woman honoring the Raven moiety as the opposite clan they marry into, the Spirit Man representing the five powerful Spirit Men who belonged to the village at Dax̱anáak (Berner’s Bay), and the Dax̱anáak Mountain symbol representing the ancestral home of the Wooshkeetaan people.

To make a donation in support of the installation, visit the Friends of the Juneau-Douglas City Museum website. For more information, contact the City Museum at 907-586-3572 or [email protected].

(Photo by Michael Penn)

Ernestine Hayes, University of Alaska Southeast Professor of English Emerita and acclaimed author, has been awarded the first annual $5,000 Marie Darlin Prize. The Marie Darlin Prize is administered through the Juneau-Douglas City Museum and is awarded annually to an individual or collaboration whose work, through a combination of vision and shared sense of community, expresses a regional commitment to women’s rights, social history, or community advocacy.

Ernestine Hayes is a member of the Kaagwaataan clan, on the Eagle side of the Tlingit nation. She grew up in Juneau, returned to Alaska at age forty, and in her fifties pursued university studies to earn a Bachelor of Liberal Arts (magna cum laude) at the University of Alaska Southeast and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Literary Arts at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Upon completing academic studies, Ernestine returned to the UAS community working tirelessly from a position as an adjunct instructor to become a tenured professor. She taught multiple courses in composition, creative, literary, memoir, and nature writing, as well as offering various courses in Alaska Native and Native American literature and Alaska Studies. Always mindful of the entire UAS community of students, Ernestine Hayes not only mentored those with great writing and literary promise, but was committed to teaching preparatory writing skills and accelerated college writing courses to promote self-confidence among Alaska students whose backgrounds had not groomed them for academic success. In retirement, Ernestine Hayes has been honored by UAS with the title of Professor of English, Emerita, and continues on occasion to teach accelerated composition and other writing courses.

Ernestine Hayes is the acclaimed author of the creative non-fiction Alaska Native memoirs, Blonde Indian (University of Arizona Press, 2006), for which she received the American Book Award and was a PEN-USA Non-Fiction Award finalist, and The Tao of Raven (University of WashingtonPress, 2017). She also wrote Tlingit and English versions of the delightful children’s picture book, Aanka Xóodzi ka Aasgutu Xóodzi Shkalneegí / The Story of the Town Bear and the Forest Bear (Hazy Island Books, 2010). Ernestine Hayes is also the author of Juneau in the “Images of America” Series (Arcadia Publishing, 2013). This pictorial local history chronicles not only the familiar stories of gold mining and commercial fishing, but in addition emphasizes the Aak’w Kwaan settlement of the land and waters “Since Time Immemorial,” the establishment of Presbyterian, Orthodox, and Methodist missions and schools, and the contributions of the Alaska Native Brotherhood, Masonic Lodges, Filipino and other communities to Juneau’s municipal government and civic life. Ernestine Hayes also wrote the occasional series “Edge of the Village” for The Juneau Empire (2004-2005), which brought local Indigenous history and issues of everyday life into the homes of Juneau residents.

Ernestine Hayes’s passionate commitment to Juneau and Alaska history, and her advocacy for Alaska Native rights, culture, and decolonization, expressed both through her writing and countless public presentations, is unparalleled. The highest acknowledgement of her literary and community achievements was realized in being named Alaska State Writer Laureate for consecutive years, 2017-2018.  Ernestine Hayes embodies, at the highest level, the commitment to community values and regional identity for which this prize was created.