By Tom Morphet
A determination that federal trail-building funds could be used for a visitor’s center helped trigger funding that in mid-May will open to the public an unfinished Jilkaat Kwaan Cultural Heritage Center and Bald Eagle Preserve Visitor’s Center.
“We’ve got a couple million dollars to get started, so we’re starting,” project manager Lani Hotch said this week. “We’re building the exhibit hall right now. We can open with what we’ve got in hand. We can finish the areas that will be open to the public. If more money comes in, we’ll add to their scope of work.”
An opening set for May 14 will include the building’s main exhibit hall, lobby and restrooms. Not yet funded is a classroom, office space and work space organizers are hoping to complete with a $600,000 grant from the Murdoch Charitable Foundation.
Hotch, who leads the non-profit that’s building the structure said this week she was “at wit’s end” for bridging about a $2 million gap in middle funding for the building.
Construction to date has been paid for with a $3.5 million grant from the Alaska Legislature. About $2 million in additional funds was available from charitable foundations including the Alaska-based Rasmuson Foundation, but only as “end-project money,” Hotch explained this week.
When economic development officials in Juneau told her there would be no more money from the state to fill the gap, villagers turned to prayer, Hotch said. “The Bible says God owns the cattle on a 1,000 hills. His resources are unlimited.”
Two days later, organizers learned that $1.1 million in tribal transportation funds identified for a trail connecting the heritage center to the eagle preserve could instead be used in the visitor’s center. The Chilkat Indian Village council, the tribe representing Klukwan, voted to shift that money instead to the center.
The trail will join exterior landscaping and raised boardwalks as projects awaiting funding. “Those are nice, but they’re not necessary for us to function or get our doors open” Hotch said.
The project also received a number of exhibit grants in the range of $50,000 and recently received $750,000 from the Rasmuson Foundation. The project also is expecting to receive a federal rural development loan of $350,000.
Hotch said a critical element was advice from the First People’s Fund to seek money from the Serdna Foundation, an East Coast group that gives to social justice causes. The foundation gave $107,000 for art in the building.
“That helped us get to the tipping point. To get that kind of support from an organization from the East Coast, I think that helped bring the Rasmuson Foundation in and they helped land the Murdoch Charitable Trust too, because they’re contacting those folks. Once you get to the tipping point, the other funders fall into place, it seems like,” Hotch said.
The timing of the building’s opening in the spring is to capitalize on tours through the building, she said.
Hotch gave a report on the project at the Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center fundraising dinner and auction Saturday where $10,000 was raised. It was the 10th year for the dinner, Hotch said.
A museum in Klukwan has been discussed for about 100 years, ever since collectors started acquiring village artifacts for museums and private collections outside the area.
Among the pieces that will go on display at the heritage center are the famed Whale House pieces, four totems and a wall screen described by some scholars as among the finest indigenous artworks in North America.
The building’s “cultural center” aspect will provide space for modern Tlingit artists aiming to link with an adjoining culture camp – featuring a replica traditional longhouse and other structures – built along the river in Klukwan about five years ago.