Mark Haldane dancing. Photo by Hannah Dillon.
UAA hosted a celebration on Nov. 20, where local communities participated in dancing and a regalia fashion show in the Gorsuch Commons.
The celebration started with the rhythmic beating of drums as elders and members of a Tlingit and Haida dance group performed.
Loud voices sung along with handmade leather drums that filled the Gorsuch Commons rooms as singers and dancers began to walk to the front of the audience. One drummer had the skin of a brown ermine dangling from the back of his hat.
The first song of the night honored Tsimshian society’s four matrilineal clans. Long, colorful earrings glistened on the shoulders of singers and dancers as they then performed “Welcome Song” and “Box of Wisdom.” Dancers raised their hands and moved side-to-side as the song went on.
Red, black and yellow regalia reflecting each performer's tribe, heritage and moiety striped the room as they danced. Long capes worn by many of the performers represented the Raven, Wolf, Killer Whale and Eagle clans.
The sound of jingling beads filled the room as the performers walked down the aisle, shaking every person’s hand in the audience as the last song was performed.
Once the first portion of singing and dancing ended, the regalia show allowed performers, UAA students and audience members to show off their colorful regalia and ancestral items.
A man in the audience went to the front and presented a hat made by his grandmother. The short hat was topped with polar bear fur, outlined by sea otter fur.
Mark Haldane of the Tsimshian clan, Wolf moiety, participated in much of the performance, singing and dancing. He wore a large, wood-like headdress resembling a wolf. Haldane hunkered low and danced with his forearm in front of his eyes, often howling to the audience. A thick cedarwood rope hung from his neck.
Haldane met with The Northern Light after the performance. He said that he assisted in creating UAA’s current Seawolf logo. He was the only student and Alaska Native on the design committee. He also said that, while the seawolf may be derived more from Tlingit culture, he wanted to help create a totemic logo that represented everyone at UAA.
The Northern Light also spoke to professor of Alaska Native Studies Zachary Milliman. Milliman teaches Alaska Native Perspectives, Alaska Native music, Circumpolar Northern Peoples, and a World Indigenous music course.
New courses including Yupik cultural orientation, an activism class, oral traditions and other classes will be offered for the first time at UAA in the spring semester.
Milliman said that while UAA has only offered a minor in Alaska Native studies for the past 30 years, the university is slowly working its way toward offering Alaska Native studies as a major.
The celebration served fry-bread tacos. Other rooms throughout the Commons had handmade jewelry and clothing. Sea otter fur mittens and beaded earrings lined three rooms throughout the building.
Dietetics and Nutrition assistant professor Melissa Chlupach began teaching Alaska traditional kitchen at UAA after adopting the material from the National Resource Center for Alaska Native Elders earlier this year.
Chlupach said Alaska Traditional Kitchen aimed to educate people about the importance of traditional indigenous foods. “Not only are they nutrient dense, but they are part of Alaska Natives’ way of life, you know. They’re comforting, they are healing.”
November marked Native Heritage Month and UAA’s celebration proudly echoed through the Gorsuch Common’s halls.
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