State museum officials, clan and tribal leaders and experts in Northwest Coast Native art are expected to attend the opening of the Jilkaat Kwaan Cultural Heritage Center and Bald Eagle Preserve Visitor Center in Klukwan Saturday.

Set for 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., the opening will offer a free peek inside the 12,000-square-foot building containing treasures of Chilkat art, including the coveted Whale House pieces.

The pieces – four totemic house posts and a wall screen carved in the early 1800s – are considered among the world’s finest Native American artworks. Called “the crown jewels of Northwest Coast Indian art” and the “objects of everlasting esteem,” they have been out of view and under guard for decades.

“I think there are a lot of young people who have never seen them,” said Lani Hotch, the center’s executive director. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen them all together in one place.”

On loan to the museum from the Ganaxteidi clan, the pieces will share billing with a cultural landscape map and displays on subsistence, Chilkat weaving and land history. The center contains a replica longhouse, and room for demonstrations in weaving, beading, felting and basketry.

Villagers have discussed a museum, off and on, for about 100 years, ever since westerners arriving in the area recognized the significance of Chilkat art – first for its cultural importance and later for its artistic mastery. Many of the prized pieces from the Chilkat Valley made their way into museums and private art collections around the world.

Native resistance to a museum included consideration of Tlingit cultural norms, including that clan crest pieces were not community property and were to be displayed only on certain occasions.

Hotch, who was hired by the village council to lead the center project, is sensitive to those concerns. “There’s been resistance to it all along. Considering the options, I think it’s the best option for the community and Klukwan as a whole. Some people just won’t see it that way, but the council is doing what they think is best.”

The fate of the Whale House pieces and the topic of preserving Chilkat art has spanned lifetimes in Klukwan, including Hotch’s. She was a 20-year-old tribal council secretary in 1976 when the village passed an ordinance prohibiting removal of the Whale House totems.

“I was just a kid… It’s been most of my adult life, but more so in the last 15 years, starting in 2001 when we did the village strategic plan,” Hotch said. Saturday’s ceremonies will include acknowledgment of deceased cultural leaders from the village, including ones who worked toward a cultural center.

In tandem with an existing “culture camp” and hospitality building nearby, the center’s goal is to provide a view of Tlingit life as a living organism, and to inspire the next generation of Native artists, Hotch said. “When people see the quality and the beauty of the old pieces, they’ll be very inspired by them.”

Harriet Brouillette, tribal administrator for Chilkoot Indian Association, said the opening of the Klukwan facility is an important landmark for local Natives because it helps focus cultural identity.

“When you look at those historic photos of Klukwan, what a beautiful community. This feels like it’s bringing that back, but in a different way. The (village) buildings were strong and proud and painted. We need that again,” Brouillette said.

Another goal of the center is to strengthen the village’s case when seeking the return of Chilkat pieces kept in collections elsewhere. “Absolutely,” Hotch said this week. “We’ve got a building to put things in now.”

The $7 million building includes special fire-suppression and air-quality controls, including separate settings for its gallery and archives and collection rooms. “A huge amount of money has gone into that,” Hotch said.

Hotch said a benefit of the building is that she is being approached by some of the village’s other six clans to display or store their artifacts there. “We may have to expand before we get the paint dry on the building,” she said.

On Monday, Hotch said workers in Klukwan were attending to last-minute details. “We’re in the homestretch. We’re still working on exhibits and the construction crew is doing a lot of cleaning, clearing things and doing the final electrical (work).”

The heritage center already has scheduled tours of the building several days per week. Donations will be accepted at Saturday’s event, which will include abbreviated tours. Regular admission at the building will be $15. Admission fees and tours will play an important role in paying the annual cost of building utilities, Hotch said.

Guests expected at Saturday’s event include attorneys who worked on the legal case that established clan ownerership of the Whale House artifacts, and Native leaders and performers from Juneau, Haines, Haines Junction, Y.T. and Skagway.

Chilkat elder Joe Hotch of the Kaagwaantaan Killer Whale House is one of Saturday’s scheduled speakers. Hotch, 86, served for decades as Klukwan’s tribal council president.

He said he remembers discussion of a Klukwan museum when he was growing up. Opposition to the idea of a “museum” filled with old things led to insistence that a building instead be a “cultural center,” he said.

“It’s protecting all the artifacts we fought for in the past (including) all those (villagers) who passed away, and (it’s for) the younger people who are learning their culture. I’m glad I was alive to protect what we have,” he said.

“It’s is important to both Raven people and Eagle people because it’s about respect. Our culture is built on respect,” Hotch said.

Author