Homer High School’s history teacher Lucas Parsely’s students in his Alaska History course have just completed the final steps in cataloguing a collection of items from northern Alaska they hope to display in the school’s commons after permission is received from the appropriate tribes in the Arctic.
Students received the submission from Camille Rosenau, a relative of Dave Rosenau, who passed away on Nov. 30, 2020, in Homer.
An online obituary for Rosenau describes his experience as a consulting biologist in many regions of Alaska. He worked with many large mammal projects in both Alaska and Canada for both government agencies and private sector clients. Some of his work included studies of nesting seabirds in the Bering and Chukchi seas and Porcupine caribou herds in both Alaska and Canada. He also had experience studying with the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge after the Exxon-Valdez oil spill.
The items in the collection were not labeled and Parsley and the students created a spreadsheet with the help of staff from the Museum of the North in Fairbanks and Homer’s Pratt Museum to identify the items and their location of origin.
To hypothesize where the items originated, Parsley said he asked the students to look into Rosenau’s obituary and use research from University of Alaska Anchorage anthropology professor Dr. Steve Langdon’s 2002 book “The Native People of Alaska: Traditional Living in a Northern Land.”
Students referenced the book and looked into details such as common materials used in clothing, tools and art. Parsley said after creating a hypothesis students were asked to develop a final conclusion; though admittedly there may some inaccurate.
The class also reached out to Teisha Simmons “Naggakk’o,” interim dean of Indigenous Studies from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The class also got in touch with the current director of the Museum of the North, Sean Asikłuk Topkok.
Pairs of students were assigned particular materials within the collection, which included art items, carvings, mukluks or slippers, mittens and masks. They were asked to provide a description of the item and likely materials used for construction of the piece.
For example, the Anaktuvuk masks in exhibits three and four were assigned to Isadora Torres and Juniper Johnson. According to their description, “these masks depict one male with a beard and perhaps female with softer features. They are made of caribou-skin, with what seems to be dog fur for hair. The male mask is in excellent condition while the other seems to be tampered with, ripped seams, and missing hair. They both have eyelashes and eye brows.” The speculated materials identified include caribou fur, wolf or dog hair and caribou skin.
On the final day of the project, Parsley asked the students to share their experience creating the archive, what led them to hypothesize on where the items originated, explain what the next steps are for displaying the items for high school and public to view and request consent from the tribal representatives for display.
They also included an email to a representative from the Alaska Heritage Center. According to their website, the Alaska Heritage Center is “the premiere cultural center representing all Alaska Native cultures, peoples, and ways of life. More than a museum, we are a place to learn, discover, and share.”
Kaitlyn Anderson, a student with the Homer High School yearbook class is an aide for the class. She shared her experience coordinating the collection, noting she had to clean many of the items due to dust and long-term storage. The masks, for example, need to be dried, and as of last week were wrapped in paper towels to help remove moisture.
Anderson when she started her task of helping sort, many of the items were already assigned to the other students in the class and she sorted items into regional collections based on what she thought looked the most similar.
Once the class hears back from their requests to display objects, they’re considering putting them in what were previously fish tanks in the Mariner Commons.
