10 Years in the Making

Reflections on the anniversary of the Alaska Native Heritage Center

by Matt Nevala

On what appeared like any other school day afternoon, a collection of high-school age students milled around the Alaska Native Heritage Center's gathering place area. Some fiddled around with cell phones and MP3 players while others chatted up friends after putting outerwear away.

The teenagers concluded the pleasantries and were ready to get to work, forming a circle and looking intently at the instructor. In a drum beat's instant, they transformed from seemingly ordinary kids to a dedicated Alaska Native dance troupe eager to learn and improve.

"It's a celebration, a chance for the kids to know who they are," says Bob Harty, the Heritage Center's high school program director. "It's a chance for them to know what all the cultures are about and to feel good about themselves."

For a decade, the Alaska Native Heritage Center has acted as celebration central for Alaska's first people. Tucked away in northeast Anchorage not far from the Glenn Highway, the center first opened its doors May 1999 — some 12 years after the Alaska Federation of Natives passed a resolution calling for its establishment.

"It's a real tribute to tenacity and perseverance," says Al Parrish, an original member of the center's board of directors, now Providence Health and Services Alaska's chief executive. "There were studies and review, lots of meetings, some disappointments and successes.

"The center didn't come about without some trials and tribulations."

The Heritage Center is celebrating its 10th anniversary from now through April 2010. The center hosts both an art market/bazaar and other events this month and the Native Theater Festival is scheduled for Jan. 23.

Cultures united

History shows it took some time for the powers representing different indigenous groups, government and other officials to agree on location and design.

Cindy Pennington was as close to the center's inception as anyone. She recalls the day in 1987 when Roy Huhndorf, then president and CEO of Cook Inlet Regional Inc., came into the office of Lydia Hayes, executive director of the CIRI Foundation. Pennington was Hayes' assistant, and she says the anticipation and excitement was high from the AFN resolution to start the center.

The biggest problem early on had to do with real estate. The desired location near Tudor Boulevard and Muldoon Road in Anchorage was the first choice. It's the site where the Benny Benson School is now situated. Neighbors in the Stuckagain Heights area didn't want the Alaska Native center to come despite the municipality's support.

"A lot of the comments were just racist," Pennington says. "You could listen to the (Anchorage) Assembly minutes about it if they're available."

The outcry led organizers to settle on land owned by CIRI near Bartlett High School. It wasn't ideal. Access to water was poor, so a lake had to be built.

"All Native communities in Alaska are close to water, so this was important," Pennington says.

The terrain added to the costs of construction, she says.

At the time of construction, chief operating officer Rick Feller predicted 125,000 visitors would enter the center during the first summer of operation. Fast forward 10 years, and the center boasts serving an annual audience of more than 110,000, including Alaska Natives from each of 11 cultural groups, Anchorage-area school children and families and tourists from all over the world.

"It's a wonderful achievement, I'm certainly proud and happy to have been a part of it and there will always be a soft spot in my heart for the center," says Feller, now employed by the state's Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. "It was a real landmark to bring that many diverse cultures to agree on a single concept.

"Some said it had never been done before and maybe never would again. A real core of dedicated folks were involved, and it was totally new but certainly steeped in tradition and culture."

Like much in Native culture, the knowledge and wisdom of those that came before played a key role in the center's creation.

"We started by asking elders and tradition-bearers to sit down at the table and see what this could be," says Pennington, who started at the center asa village site worker providing cultural interpretations. She later became program supervisor and developed ideas through cultural committees.

Heritage Center officials call Inupiaq elder Paul Tiulana one the center's main sources of inspiration. The lake at the center bears the King Island man's name. Tiulana said younger generations were losing cultural knowledge and noted "the society gap" between young Alaskans and elders.

Tiulana believed passing on Native values and traditions to younger generations would help them find meaning in their lives, give them a code of principles and a sense of honor to rely on.

Pennington has seen that transformation occur in many young lives over the years. Children who have started out in the center's after-school education programs have grown into confident young adults who are able to stand before audiences of hundreds and explain what their heritage means, she says.

It's important that the correct message is passed on to visitors.

"The cultural committee has helped ensure that the information that visitors get is from a Native perspective, not an academic one," Pennington says.

Interactive opportunities are abundant at the center. If you never get the chance to visit a Yup'ik or Cup'ik village in Western Alaska, a model of a traditional village site is in the center's own backyard. Native-influenced films and other media events are often screened in the theater, and the Hall of Cultures houses exhibits from five Native groups.

Lonnie Jackson came to the center as vice president of operations in January 2000. He says eight months after opening, the venue was in fairly good shape. The main issues he first faced were common for any nascent business: funding, expenses, donations.

"The goal for me was to try to get everyone going in the same direction," he says.

This included an emphasis on non-Natives.

"We tried our best to open the door to other people besides Native people," says Jackson, a Tlingit originally from Juneau.

A push was made to increase tourism traffic from cruise ships and do independent marketing to draw from other sources, he says.

Among the efforts that stand out most in Jackson's memory are a summer program with canoes and kayaks and a totem carved by family friend Nathan Jackson. The watercraft were part of a summer program and represented several Native groups from around the state. At the end of the season, they were launched at Seward.

The totem, erected in 2003, became a feature that's still standing at the Southeast village site. Nathan Jackson's carving of the totem in his village of Saxman was turned into a marketing opportunity of sorts.

"We had a webcam on him the whole time he was carving," Lonnie Jackson says. "We got donated wood for him to work on, and the transportation was provided for free by Lynden (Transport)."

Education emphasis

Another lasting legacy is a training program set up for summer workers, he says. The center's board of directors has stated the most critical aspect of the cultural education mission is to focus on developing Native leaders of the future.

"We've kind of gone through this whole transition," says Heritage Center public relations specialist David Favre. "We've gone from more of a cultural center, tourist destination to being more of a year-around educational facility."

Case in point, the center's high school program, touted as one of its greatest achievements.

In the award-winning program, high school students are immersed in Native cultures while earning elective school credits. It's a free program funded by federal grants and in-kind donations. After-school classes focus on Native dance, games and art, leadership and communication through technology.

The program touts Native tradition and values while helping urban Alaska Native students bolster academic achievement, community activity and leadership. Born out of a perceived need from Native leaders, parents, researchers and school officials, the center also developed the program to keep students in school. The program also strives to reincorporate youths back into their cultural community by providing a connection to elders who wish to pass on their traditions.

Harty worked in public education for almost 40 years before taking over the center's program four years ago. He sees the educational aspects of the center growing to include younger students. The Heritage Center already has a presence in Anchorage's Begich Middle School and is working to connect more with elementary-aged children.

"We want to get them young and get them involved in what goes on culturally, cross-culturally and in the entirety of human kind," Harty says. "These kids get the opportunity to see and hear about Native programs and culture, and maybe by the time they're my age the things they may have thought poorly of will be altered."

Moving forward, those long associated with the center are eager to see it keep growing up.

"I hope it continues to assist in the education of all people, both Natives and others," Parrish says. "There is a pride and sense of belonging, and I hope we all continue on that journey."

First Alaskans editor Tony Hall contributed to this story.

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