Yup'ik masks reunited in Alaska for the first time in a century
Four pieces of Alaska Native history have been reunited in Alaska for the first time in more than 100 years.
On Friday, the Anchorage Museum received four rare Yup'ik masks. These masks were used in annual dances by the Yup'ik people, who have inhabited sub-Arctic Alaska for thousands of years, held in their ceremonial houses.
The masks were traditionally created by the village shaman, in accordance with dreams or visions. Many of them, however, were destroyed or taken far from Alaska.
The masks, which are currently part of museum collections at the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles, the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., and the Menil Collection in Houston, are on view at the Anchorage Museum through Sept. 8.
Museum officials say they are excited to have them all together.
"It's really incredibly significant to have these four masks back in Alaska," said Kirsten Anderson, the museum's deputy director of collections, special exhibitions and projects. "So many of these works, like I said, they just kind of end up all over the place without understanding the history or meaning of their places or their geography, so it's great to have them here."
To welcome the masks back home, the museum held a free event featuring Yup'ik elder Chuna Mcintyre and a performance by Yup'ik dancers.
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