6/8/18 - Teslin Tlingit Heritage Centre

Next stop was a couple of miles down the highway, the Teslin Tlingit Heritage Centre.  It’s a museum about the culture of the Inland Tlingit natives.

There is a line of totem poles leading up to the building.  Sometimes I have problems with the … on NW Indian art.  I could figure out the frog and the beaver. There are two birds--one’s an eagle, one’s bound to be a raven.  The last one's just confusing.

                 

There are both contemporary and traditional artwork in the museum.  There are masks, baskets, moccasins and mukluks, garments made of cloth and of skins.  I still really like the things with beads.

 

There’s a boathouse down by the lake, with a couple of painted canoes on the shore.  I don’t know what the images on them are either.  (I should find a book.)

We saw a video about the Haa Kusteeyi Celebration hosted in Teslin last year.  This year’s festival will be held in Juneau by the Coastal Tlingit.  From some of the things that were said in the film, it sounds like there has been an estrangement, but they’re happy to be reuniting.  The elders teach the young ones traditional knowledge, a lot of it by respected storytellers.  “I have a story,” they say.  Then they begin with “Long time ago…"

More pictures on Flickr:  Teslin Tlingit Heritage Centre