果冻传煤

Dena'inaq' Huch'ulyeshi: The Dena'ina Way of Living

Exhibit Overview

About half of Alaska鈥檚 residents live in traditional Dena鈥檌na territory but most have little general knowledge about the indigenous people who have called Southcentral Alaska home for more than 1,000 years.

The 果冻传煤 Museum has set out to change that with the first major exhibition ever presented about the Dena鈥檌na Athabascan people:Dena鈥檌naq鈥� Huch鈥檜lyeshi: The Dena鈥檌na Way of Living.

鈥淲e are still here,鈥� said Aaron Leggett, 果冻传煤 Museum special exhibits curator. 鈥淭his is how we live. This is what we value.鈥�

Since the late 19th century, the Dena鈥檌na homeland has been subject to the greatest settlement, urbanization and population growth of any Alaska region. The exhibition explores the historic depth of the Dena鈥檌na presence on ancestral lands and makes visible the early history and culture of a people who have experienced intense change during the past 150 years, thriving through innovation and adaptation.

Meet the Dena鈥檌na through film, life-size re-creations, archival images and more than 160 artifacts on loan from museums across Europe and North America. Rare objects include a caribou antler war club, waterproof bear gut parka, and dall sheep horn bowl collected by Captain Cook鈥檚 1778 expedition.

The exhibition includes about a dozen hands-on activities for families such as a re-creation of a winter house with audio recordings of traditional tales. Dena鈥檌na language and oral traditions are important components of the exhibition, and visitors can hear Dena鈥檌na spoken and try a few words in an engaging interactive display.

These elements vibrantly bring to life the deepest levels of Dena鈥檌na identity 鈥� ancestry and family, landscape and tradition, stories and language and the reciprocal and respectful relationship between the Dena鈥檌na and the natural world.

The 果冻传煤 Museum worked with Dena鈥檌na advisors for seven years to develop聽Dena鈥檌naq鈥� Huch鈥檜lyeshi. In it, visitors gain an understanding of Dena鈥檌na culture and history and learn what it means to be Dena鈥檌na in the 21st century.