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Sealaska Heritage Institute - Southeast Alaska

We promote Sealaska's Values in Action Through SHI Programming

Who are we?

Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI), a private nonprofit founded in 1980, mission is to advance Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. SHI’s goal is to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through public services and events. Sealaska Heritage also conducts scientific and public policy research that promotes Alaska Native arts, cultures, history, and education statewide. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee, and a Southeast Regional Language Committee.

We offer numerous programs promoting Southeast Alaskan Native culture, including language and art – we also maintain a substantial archive of Southeast Alaskan Native ethnographic material. We partner with local schools to promote academics and cultural education. Biennially, we produce Celebration, Alaska’s second-largest Native gathering. We own and operate the Sealaska Heritage Store and curate an ongoing cultural exhibit on the first floor of our headquarters in Juneau’s landmark Walter Soboleff Building.

What do we do?
SHI Mission: Sealaska Heritage Institute’s mission is to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures. Its goal is to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through public services and events.

SHI Vision: Indigenous culture, values, and knowledge will be integrated into public policy, institutions, and programming serving Alaska Natives to sustain the cultural vitality of current and future generations.

Site In Development

kindly note that our new website was launched in advance of our planned date, many future updates are scheduled, and some sections will be offline till then.

SHI depts.

SHI Administration Department

Admin.

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SHI Arts Department - Southeast Alaskan Native Arts

Arts

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SHI's Archives and Collections Department

Archives & Collections

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SHI's Communications and Publications Department

Communications & Publications

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SHI's Culture and History Department

Culture & History

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SHI's Development Department

Development

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SHI Education Department

Education

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SHI Retail Department

Retail

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Sealaska Heritage Institute's Digital Artist Residency

Sealaska Heritage Institute proudly showcases within our site’s designs, as part of our community endeavors, artworks commissioned by SHI artists and/or artists that sell their works via our online and offline shop. We invite you to visit our Shop in Juneau and/or Visit our online shop to purchase their works. In the future we will have a section within our website dedicated, a virtually gallery, to the promotion of Southeast Alaskan Native Artists that we collaborates with.

LIVE SHI EVENT CONCLUDED

Skíl Jáadei Linda Schrack: "Honoring Our Speakers: Past, Present, and Future"

Article Link: Lecture Series

Click the image below to start the playback of the live stream:

what else is new?

Sealaska Heritage Institute is Born from Great Wisdom

Passing of the "Container of Wisdom"

Sealaska Heritage was founded in 1980 by Sealaska after being conceived by clan leaders, traditional scholars, and Elders at the first Sealaska Elders Conference. During that meeting, the Elders likened Native culture to a blanket. They told the new leaders that their hands were growing weary of holding onto the metaphorical blanket, this “container of wisdom.” They said they were transferring this responsibility to Sealaska, the regional Native corporation serving Southeast Alaska. In response, Sealaska founded Sealaska Heritage to operate cultural and educational programs.
NATIVE PEOPLE PRESERVING THE NATIVE STORY
Since 1980, Sealaska Heritage Institute has been a steward of our past and a catalyst for our future.
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NATIVE PEOPLE CRAFTING THE NATIVE STORY
Shop Juneau's best collection of Native- and animal-themed gifts and souvenirs.
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NATIVE PEOPLE TELLING THE NATIVE STORY
Immerse yourself in an epic that is still unfolding.
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LEARN
SHI offers educational opportunities in Native arts, languages, cultures and more.
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HERITAGE FORWARD
We honor our ancestors and pave the way for the future by making heritage a living thing.
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SHI Tradition & Authenticity

four core values of southeast alaskan natives

  1. Haa Aaní: Our Land: Honoring & Utilizing our Land (Haida: Íitl’ Tlagáa; Tsimshian: Na Laxyuubm)
Alaskan Natives Four Core Values
Alaskan Natives Four Core Values

2. Haa Shuká: Past, Present, and Future Generations: Honoring our Ancestors and Future Generations (Haida: Íitl’ Kuníisii; Tsimshian: Na Łagigyetgm)

3. Haa Latseení: Our Strength: Strength of Body, Mind, and Spirit (Haida: Íitl’ Dagwiigáay; Tsimshian: Na Gatlleedm)

Alaskan Natives Four Core Values
Alaskan Natives Four Core Values

4. Wooch Yáx: Balance: Social and Spiritual Balance (Haida: Gu dlúu; Tsimshian: Ama Mackshm)

Heritage Forward

SHI is all about “the fresh, the modern, the unexpected – that fosters originality

Heritage isn’t something old and static… It’s a continuum, stretching back thousands of years—since time immemorial—and stretching forward into the distant future. Heritage encompasses all that has been bestowed from our ancestors: land, art, stories, language, values, community, tradition, culture, and more.