Alaska Beat

Happy birthday, Alutiiq Museum!

According to the Kodiak Daily Mirror, the Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak celebrated its 15th birthday last Saturday with hat and mask making, dancing, and the grand opening of a new children's play area. The museum became possible when the Kodiak Area Native Association partnered with the organization Natives of Kodiak after receiving a $1.5 million seed grant from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council. And since then, the museum has become a living part of the local community, not just a place for old things to sit on a shelf and gather dust. "It was a dream for a very long time to have a place where people could celebrate and feel comfortable about their heritage," said Amy Steffian, the museum's deputy director. Even though the museum's goal to become a cultural node seems achieved, there is still work left. The facility is about a year away from the end of a long, national accreditation process, which will end in the museum becoming only the second accredited tribal museum in the U.S., and is already planning to expand. Read much more, here.

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