Tlingit Indian Art

The extraordinary story of the Nahuhulk, a Tlingit/Tsimshian copper artifact of great power, prestige, and value.  This tale narrates the story of the Copper from its forging in a Tlngit village in the 1700s, its acquisition by the chief Wisaiks, and its subsequent dramatic history.

The tlakwa or Copper is a symbol of surplus wealth, cultural nourishment, conspicuous consumption and spiritual power among the Kwakiutl, the Tsimshian, the Tlingit, the Haida, and other indigenous peoples of coastal British Columbia. Names of high ranking people often contained references to copper, such as “Born to be Copper Maker Woman” and “Copper Maker.” Copper was also used as a decorative motif on garments, staffs, and crest carvings, where it represented wealth. The Copper was made of a large flat sheet of beaten metal cut in the shape of a flared shield, with a T shaped ridge beaten onto the lower portion. The shape perhaps reflects the trunk proportions of the human body, or possibly a filleted salmon. The Tsimshian thought it represented the backbone of an ancestor. The size varied in height from six inches to three feet.

"In the Land of the Totem Poles: Native Cultures of the Pacific Northwest.
Native Cultures of Western Alaska and the Pacific Northwest Coast: An Overview of Recent Scholarship,"
An overview essay with reference to scholarship on the cultural history of the Pacific Northwest Coast, co-authored with Laraine Fletcher, in connection with an NEH Institute we co-directed in Alaska and British Columbia in 2010..

In addition to such distinctive icons as the totem pole, the Chilkat blanket, and the dance
mask, one of the most characteristic artifacts of Northwest Coast cultures is the Copper, the large
decorated shield-shaped copper plate displayed or given away at potlatches. These artifacts are
perhaps the pinnacle of a long history of metal working in the region, a history this paper shall
explore, covering where the copper came from, how it was worked, and what products it was
turned into; it shall also explore other metals utilized by natives in the region, such as iron, in
both the pre- and post-contact eras. Finally, at the end of the paper, we shall discuss some of the
social and spiritual dimensions of metalworking on the Northwest Coast.

Native American material culture rests uneasily within art museums. Removed from their original contexts of use, these culturally significant objects have been historically resignified as "primitive,” “exotic,” or representative of the mythic Other. Unfortunately exhibited as material evidence of progress, advancement, and civilization, they are largely silent about their makers’ desires and intentions. Today, Native American objects are reclaiming new voice. Many art museums are adopting more inclusive approaches to representational practice and are engaging with Native American peoples and objects in new ways. These approaches are fostering exciting conversations about the intersections of European and Native American ontologies and aesthetics.
In the spring of 2016, we were invited by the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum to survey their small but distinguished Native American collection. We identified the objects and made exhibition (as well as digital and archival) recommendations. Many of the items were donations from alumni and often did not include detailed provenience. A group of 87 objects, however, were acquired in 1944 as part of an exchange with the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. The Heye Foundation was founded in 1916 as a prominent research institution focusing on Native American artifacts and cultures, and its collections now comprise the core of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington, D.C. We contacted Ann McMullen, curator at the NMAI and head of collections research, who provided us with a complete set of documentation for the RISD Museum's Heye Foundation objects. Perhaps most spectacularly, these items included a Tlingit headdress frontlet, whose provenance, impressive craftsmanship, and cultural meanings are the focus of this article.

The brothers Aurel Krause (1848-1908) and Arthur Krause (1851-1920) were born in the Schwetz region of West Prussia and both studied natural sciences in Berlin, where they also obtained permanent teaching posts. Well-trained by their travels throughout Europe and experienced in scientific study, they appeared to the se¬lection committee of the “Geographical Society of Bremen” (the former “Association for North Polar Travel”) to be ideal candidates to undertake a scientific and ethnological research and collecting journey to the coastal regions of the Bering Strait and the Bering Sea, in particular the Chukchi Peninsula and those parts of Alaska which had then been very little explored scientifically or ethnographically. The Krause brothers were given leave and their expedition lasted from 1880-1881, but it was not the Chukchi Peninsula, originally considered to be the primary goal of the expedition, which aroused later interest, but rather their six-month stay with the Tlingit people in South-Eastern Alaska. This was no doubt in part because the expedition’s findings were pub¬lished only in essay form in scholarly journals, while Aurel Krause devoted a separate monograph to the Tlingit in which he published both brothers’ findings. This was often quoted, although never reprinted in the original German. An English translation appeared in 1956, justified by the translator and editor Erna Krause as follows: “It is the most complete description that exists of the life of the Tlingit. Other good books about them have appeared, but they examine only parts of the picture.”
In keeping with the contemporary perception of a need to document pre-European cultures as thoroughly as possible in the face of their predicted destruction, the Krause brothers were meticulous and methodical in their collecting and described what they found in detail, helped by their gift for observation and their scientific training. The significance of Aurel’s monograph is in its documentation and evaluation of the brothers’ find¬ings. It is interesting to compare this work with diary entries and letters from the field. Aurel clearly revised initial perceptions and evaluations after his return having examined relevant literature and engaged with the latest scholarship.

The Übersee-Museum houses collections from the Pacific Northwest Coast , namely attributed to the Tlingit of Alaska. A cooperation with members of the Tlingit communities started in 1993 and culminated in the creation of a totem pole by famous Master carver Nathan Jackson and his son Stephen. The pole was erased in front of the museum's main building in 1996. The artists worked with the collections leaving some valuable new information. The article documents the project.  .