Credits

This web site was developed by the CHICO Project at the University of Michigan School of Information. Original team members included Tammy DeWitt, Tim Peters, Christie Nowak, Kari Smith, and Keiko Yokota-Carter. The interface was significantly updated in 2001 by Zilia Estrada and John Northup. This site was a collaboration with the National Museum of the American Indian and thanks must go to Marty de Montano at NMAI who facilitated its development in every way possible.

Much thanks must go to Ann Fienup-Riordan, the curator of the exhibit, and author of the book, The Living Tradition of Yup'ik Masks: Agayuliyararput, Our Way of Making Prayer, University of Washington Press, 1996, who provided all the textual material for this site, James H. Barker, who allowed us to use his wonderful photographs, the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, the University of Washington Press, photographer Barry McWayne, and all the lenders who allowed us to use their material.

Below you will find a listing and information on the lenders who provided the masks and other materials to the exhibit and images of these objects to the web site. We have also included the introduction from the museum exhibit which thanks the people involved.

Introduction from the Museum Exhibit

• Paul and Theresa John
• Andy Paukan
• Elsie Mather
• Mary Stachelrodt
• Cecilia Martz
• Alexie Isaac
• Tim Troll
• Fr. Rene Astruc, S. J.
• Marie Meade, translator and transcriber
• Ann Fienup-Riordan, curator
• Staff of the Anchorage Museum of History and Art

Quyaviksugaput...Our thanks!

We want to thank the elders who helped to prepare for the brief return of old masks from museums in this country and abroad. In our travels searching for information of traditional mask use and ceremony, old men and women welcomed us into their homes with kindness, food, and shelter. As we listened to them tell of their brief experience with mask ceremonies, we knew they were expressing freely the ways of their ancestors, as evident in their tales of the angalkut (shamans) who they candidly spoke about.

At this time we want to thank the elders we spoke with directly: Mary Mike, Justina Mike, Jasper Louise, and Johnny Akaran, and Willie Kamkoff from Kotlik; Kay Hendrickson, Dick Andrew, Maxie Alciq, and Fannie Wasky from Bethel; Nickolai Berlin and Natlia White from Nunapitchuk; Wassillie Berlin from Kasigluk; Martha Mann, Julia Azean, Charlie David, and Elena Phillip from Kongiganak; Joseph Evan from Napaskiak; Harry Wesley, and Robert and Edna Kolerak from Mekoryuk; Joseph Tulik and Angelina Ulroan from Chevak; Walter Naneng from Hooper Bay; Theresa Moses from Toksook Bay; Frank Andrew from Kwigillingok; Jack Angaiak and Elsie Tommy from Newtok. We also want to thank those elders who have passed on since we talked with them, including Andy Kinzy from St. Marys, Mary Worm from Kongiganak, William Tyson from Anchorage, Nick Charles, Sr., from Bethel, and Mary Friday from Chevak.

We are deeply grateful to the many museums which have allowed us to bring masks and other objects together in Alaska for the exhibit, including:

• Alaska State Museum, Juneau, Alaska
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
• National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.
• National Museum of the American Indian, New York, New York
• Sheldon Jackson Museum, Sitka, Alaska
• Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin, Germany
• The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Seattle, Washington
• University of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks, Alaska
• University of Washington Press, Seattle, Washington