Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums:
Preserving Our Language, Memory and Lifeways
National Conference II
May 24-27, 2005

Dealing in the Past

By Sven Haakanson Jr., Ph.D.
Executive Director
Alutiiq Museum & Archaeological Repository

How do you raise money to save a rare cultural piece? This is a question that many Native groups ask when artifacts reflecting their heritage appear at auction houses, on eBay, and on the shelves of antique dealers. As respect for Native American heritage grows, so do interest in Native artifacts and the prices of these objects. One of the frustrating side effects of celebrating our heritages and opening museums that infuse the public with knowledge of Native traditions, is that these activities fuel the market for Native American artifacts. As the heritage movement reawakens pride in Native ancestry, it is also pricing Native artifacts beyond the reach of many Native people whose heritage the objects reflect.

In the fall of 2004 the Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository, a Native Alaskan cultural center, faced such a problem. An extremely rare spruce root hat, an elaborately decorated, woven garment worn by Alutiiq men for hunting and traveling, was offered for sale as the center piece at a Bonhamns and Butterfields auction in San Francisco. The appraised value was between $135,000 and $175,000. Although the hat’s exact provenience was unknown, its style and comparisons with the few surviving Alutiiq hats indicated that it was a nineteenth century Kodiak piece. For Alutiiqs, this was an amazing find, and a once in a life time opportunity to bring a piece of our ancestry home. But the price seemed an overwhelming obstacle.

We learned of the hat in 1999, when it was discovered in the basement of a Sitka home by Alaska State Museum Curator Steven Henrikson. The hat had been passed through the family of Father Andrew P. Kashevaroff, a well-known collector of Native artifacts. Henrikson convinced the family to let the Alaska State Museum conserve the piece and show it in their gallery as they tried to arrange its purchase. Henrikson worked hard to find funds, to build a coalition of buyers, and to research issues of repatriation, but he was unsuccessful. In 2004 the owners decided to put the hat up for auction at an estimated sale price of $175,000. All I could was shake my head. I thought there was no way the Alutiiq Museum could raise so much money.

As news of the situation spread through our community, many people grew upset. The thought of loosing the hat to a private collector, someone outside the Native community, far from Kodiak, was more than frustrating. It was another example of the cultural hegemony. We had the means to care for the hat and to share it with the public, just not the money to get it out of the art world and back to Native Alaska. Again, our heritage was beyond our control. At first, we were not going to pursue the hat’s purchase. We simply thought it was beyond our ability. We are a small museum. It is hard enough to raise funds for our programs and operations, yet alone devote such a sum to a single purchase. Moreover, although the Spruce Root hat is Alutiiq in origin and preserving such pieces falls under our mission, we had never tried to purchase an item of this caliber, and the thought of attending the auction in California and competing for the purchase was daunting.

When the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, one Alaska’s most respected museums, contacted us in October, however, new possibilities began to surface. Over the past ten years, the Alutiiq Museum has worked very hard to establish itself as a professional organization and build trust both in our community and with other organizations in our state. I believe that this gradual process of proving ourselves, of developing and operating a successful museum, and working collaboratively with many different organizations, led to the call I received from the Anchorage Museum’s Director, Patricia Wolf. She asked if we could work together to raise the money to bid for the hat and promised $62,250 of their funds toward the price. Like the Alutiiq community, the Anchorage Museum was saddened to see this rare and beautiful piece of Native Alaskan heritage sold to a private collector. They wanted to work with us to bring it home and to share the object with Alaskans. Her idea was simple. We would raise the money together, and then share ownership of the hat – shipping it between the museums annually. This arrangement not only met the Alutiiq Museum’s goal of preserving the hat and sharing it with our people, but with our aim to educate a broader audience about Alutiiq traditions.

We had nothing to loose and everything to gain. However, it was early October and the auction was in early December. We immediately sent out letters and called donors who we thought might contribute. Using the Anchorage Museums donation as leverage, we asked for matching funds. This didn’t work. We received no responses, and we were getting skeptical that anyone would donate. In mid-October, at the Alaska Federation of Natives annual meeting, we were able to approach specific Alutiiq organizations to request support in person. The first organization we spoke to offered a matching contribution of up to $25,000 if other Alutiiq donors would also give. In two days, we were able to raise $150,000. Two Alutiiq organizations said they would simply donate $25,000 and one offered $100,000 with stipulations. We now had $210,000 to use for bidding, with the assurance that any unused money would be returned immediately in proportion to the original donations.

The next step was to develop a mutually agreeable contract between three entities - the Alutiiq Museum, the Anchorage Museum, and the major donor. We looked for other institutions that had completed joint ownership agreements, but found just one

in the process of developing such a contract. They sent us a copy of their draft agreement, and the Alutiiq Museum and Anchorage Museum crafted one for our situation. Then it was the Alutiiq Museum's role to work with the major donor. Unfortunately, the donor had little experience with museum contracts and did not understand the responsibilities that museums have to maintain collections for the public good. The donor wanted full control of the hat, making all decisions on how it was handled, displayed and shared between the three organizations. We spent an entire month sending draft contracts back and forth, until we had to make a very hard decision. We could not come to an ethical agreement with the donor, one that preserved the museums’ integrity, and we had to turn their $100,000 donation down. It was a terrible moment, but we had to put the principals of our organizations first.

This happened on December 1st, just five days before the auction. We went from having $210,000 to just $110,00, and the starting bid was $135,000. I made some calls, looked at the Alutiiq Museum’s financial situation and decided to put $10,000 of our reserves into the purchase fund. Then, I spoke with Alaskan philanthropist and arts advocate Ed Rasmuson, telling him of our situation and the deadline. He asked how much I needed, and I told him we were asking $25,000 from each donor. He generously gave $50,000, putting us back in the bidding. We now had $170,000 dollars. Then, one of our donors decided to add to their donation, a local tribal council sent a check to assist, and the original $100,000 donor gave a gift of $25,000 unencumbered. By auction day we had $207,750 for bidding, and a contract between the Alutiiq Museum and the Anchorage Museum to share the purchase equally, rotating the hat between our facilities each year. The rest was just nail biting. The Anchorage Museum enlisted the help of an experienced buyer to represent us at auction, and our collaboration prevailed. We purchased the hat for $160,250. It is now on display in the Alutiiq Museum’s gallery.

What have I learned from this experience? Ancestral objects in the market place are not always beyond reach. Even in the few months since the auction, we’ve become more adept at purchasing Alutiiq artifacts and working with donors to bring pieces home. I think there are some important steps to take in these situations.

• First, sit down with the owners of a potential piece and see if you can work an agreement before the item goes to a dealer or an auction house. Auction houses and dealers add fees, making the purchase more expensive, and they may drive up the price by creating competition with private collectors. They also create deadlines that can be difficult to meet. We recently used acquisition moneys to fly a donor to Kodiak with a valuable collection that he ended up donating. The cost of the plane ticket and our hospitality was far less than the market value of the objects, and the donor brought us more items than we anticipated.
• Second, find others with similar interests and values, and work together to raise funds. This may not always be appropriate. Some Native materials are sacred and cannot be shared, or are the property of specific families. However, collaboration can be a powerful way to reach farther into a community and access more funds. It is also a way to build understanding and respect. In our case, having a large donation from the Anchorage Museum and their expertise helped our cause. People believed that it was possible to raise the money and compete at the auction.
• Third, get multiple donors involved. We found that more people got involved when they saw their peers contributing. We asked multiple Alutiiq groups to contribute, and after the first group gave, others did not want to be left out. Even those with very limited resources and differences of opinion came to the table to contribute as they believed in the cause and wanted to be part of the team that brought the hat home.
• Finally, work out a contract that is mutually agreeable with all the parties involved well before your purchase date. You want to know what the other parties’ intent before you purchase an item.

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