Tlingit Objects Repatriated to Alaska Village

JUNEAU, ALASKA—The Anchorage Daily News reports that 25 items, including baskets woven of spruce root, ceremonial paddles, headdresses, and a wooden mask have been returned to the village of Kake, which is located in southeastern Alaska. The objects, taken from the village in the early twentieth century, were found at Oregon’s George Fox University by Tlingit researcher Frank Hughes, a Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act coordinator, and Lincoln Bean, vice chairman for the Organized Village of Kake. Most of the items are thought to have been taken by Quakers who built a mission in the village of Kake in 1891 and left when the building was handed over to the Kake Memorial Presbyterian Church in 1912. To read about a geophysical survey that identified the location of a Tlingit fort in Sitka, go to "Around the World: Alaska."