Members of the Dakl’aweidi clan placed the new Sculpin Hat upon Kiks.ádi leader Ray Wilson Sr. at a ceremony held in Juneau during September 2019 to dedicate the hat and celebrate it’s homecoming.
repair historic objects using traditional carv- ing techniques. And even though museums including Smithsonian take extensive mea- sures to protect and record their collections, he says, “digitization of objects can be used as security.” The 2018 fire at the National Muse- um of Brazil, for example, consumed many unique items, including many Tlingit objects now lost forever. Yet, for Wilson, the power of recreating
the hat wasn’t the technology used “but what the hat did,” he says. “This hat is going to be around for future generations to use in their ceremonies. It is important for me to leave behind.” Harold Jacobs says that whereas “it is pref-
erable to have the object returned that is in the museum, in the case of the Sculpin Hat, it was beyond use. Even having the damaged hat in the museum records helped to identify the clan to which it belonged to, helped back- up our stories and return parts of our history to us.” Jacobs says that these objects coming back to the clans is like, as a fellow Tlingit told him, “someone who you gave up hope of ever seeing again suddenly comes around the corner.” X
Anne Bolen is assistant managing editor of American Indian magazine.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 17
The new digitally restored and milled Sculpin Hat that was presented to the
Kiks.adi clan took eight years to com- plete from concept to creation.
PHOTO BY JAMES DILORETO, NMNH PHOTO SERVICES.
PHOTO BY CAROLYN THOME, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION EXHIBITS
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