The Haines Sheldon Museum will open its new exhibit “Everything from afar drifts ashore,” Friday, Oct. 20 at 5 p.m.
The exhibit is based on Dan Henry’s upcoming book “Across the Shaman’s River,” that details an encounter between a Tlingit shaman, a preacher and John Muir, which opened up one of Alaska’s last Native strongholds.
The exhibit will explore the Chilkat Valley from 1850, through the United States’ purchase of Alaska in 1867 to the present. Exhibits will tell stories that highlight the juxtaposition of two complex cultures, museum director Helen Alten said.
“When you walk in you’re going to be in the Chilkat Country, the original land of the Chilkats,” Alten said. “It was an alliance of the Chilkoots and the Chilkats. There were at least 2,000 people here, maybe more in this region.”
The museum’s two upstairs rooms will be devoted to the exhibit, with different sections representing different time periods.
Chilkat blankets, pattern board, bentwood boxes and shamanic artifacts are a few of the items that will be on display in the first section.
The second section will depict the transfer of Alaska from Russia to United States of America.
“For our region it was a really fascinating time because 1867 was the first time, basically, that that the region opened up. And what it was and why it was that it opened up is what we’re trying to go through and understand in this exhibit,” Alten said.
A final section explores the influx of canneries, tourism and gold miners and the building of the Dalton Trail.
Several interactive exhibits will be included such as memory foam pads illustrating glacial rebound.
It will include artifacts borrowed from other state museums.
Alten has been planning the exhibit since last November. It will be up for at least two years.