Friday, June 18

On Friday, June 18, we toured the Alaska Native Heritage Center. The center is a place where all people can come to expand their understanding of Alaska's first people. We witnessed the rich heritage of Alaska's eleven cultural groups. We saw the  life ways of long ago, the wisdom passed on by elders, and the traditions that have  endured. The encounter is designed to enhance self-esteem among Native people and to encourage cross-cultural exchanges among all people. We saw native dances by high school students and saw structures of housing of long ago.

Natives were demonstrating crafts, anywhere from basket making to jewelry design and construction.

The following pictures were taken at the center.

Story Telling	Dancers	Basket Making	Laura	Home away from Home

Lunch was at the Sourdough Mining Company. Some pictures are included here.

Laura and Lora	Restaurant View	Outside	Not our bus	Inside View

Meet Toby Our bus driver/owner was Paul Smith who started his career planning on becoming a priest, but later decided to get into charter tours. When Paul decided to start a charter tour company, he looked around for an appropriate name.  Alaska, of course, because of the great state.  But how to make it special?  And then his eyes fell on Toby, his beloved dachshund companion, alas, Alaska Toby Charter.

After lunch it was the famous Alaska Ulu Factory and next door, we saw some fishermen fishing on Ship Creek for salmon.

The ULU knife (pronounced ooloo) is the most renowned knife in Alaska. Native people of northern Alaska invented this knife centuries ago. It is used for hunting, fishing, skinning, filleting and every other imaginable domestic cutting need by the Inuit (Eskimo) people.

The traditional ULU was an Eskimo cutting tool made of slate and bone, with a sharp edge for cutting or carving. The Eskimos made them in all sizes, from a small blade for cutting skins to a cleaver for carving meat. But, today's version is manufactured from stainless steel and provided with a hardwood handle for ease of use.

The ULU has a rounded blade topped with a handle and is usually grasped between the middle and ring finger of the hand. The Eskimos still use them, but non-Natives haven't had much access to them. The instrument is, however, now available in contemporary, functional form through Alaska's largest ulu knife manufacturer
"The Ulu Factory Inc.".

Some pictures of the afternoon:

Factory	Cutting Boards	Manufacturing	Ship Creek Fishing	Salmon

We then toured the Museum of History in Anchorage and later, Laura and I took a taxi to the University of Alaska-Anchorage where we picked up some sweat shirts for Bryan and Logan.