When the dancers approach the stage for the Grand Entrance at Celebration on Thursday, June 5, the robes and blankets, headdresses and other accessories they'll be wearing are not costumes. They are regalia.

Rooted in the word regal, the term describes clothing that is special or sacred. Westerners might relate to it when they think of special outfits worn for special occasions - such ascoronations, weddings, graduations and baptisms. The clothing donned at these events have more significance than costumes worn in a theater play or Halloween party.

"(Regalia) is a step up from costume because of the depth of the spirit in this significant piece of clothing that can transform people's emotions and mental state and spiritual state," said Clarissa Hudson, a Tlingit regalia maker.

Hudson is Yéil (Raven) T'akDeinTaan (Black-legged Kittywake) of the Snail House from the Glacier Bay-Hoonah area.

The regalia of Southeast Alaska Native cultures include Chilkat and Raven's Tail robes, button blankets, tunics, beaded leather dresses and vests, headwear - such as clan hats, carved frontlets with ermine, cedar and spruce root basketry hats and headbands - and the accompanying accessories, such as beaded bibs or collars, masks, aprons, octopus bags, leggings, moccasins, bracelets, pendants, staffs, drums and rattles.

"The regalia shows what clan you are, what moiety you are, Eagle or Raven," said George Ramos, an elder on Sealaska Heritage Institute's Council of Traditional Scholars. "It shows what house you are from. Like mine, I'm from the Frog House, so I have a frog on my vest. ... Different areas have their different styles of regalia. In the original time, things that got put on your regalia, it meant something really close to the culture."

Ramos is from the Yéil (Raven) moiety of the L'ukna x .ádi clan, from the Frog House in Yakutat. His Tlingit name is Wooshgeé x oo Eesh.

Traditional regalia are often centuries old, having been passed from generation to generation in extremely formal ways.

"You always created for the opposite clan. You never created your own robe. In the old days you commissioned the opposite clan to make it for you," Hudson said. "When you do work for other people you want to honor them, and you will do your best. You give them more than they expect, more than what they bargained for. You work for a standard of perfection, and this is one of the reasons why the Northwest Coast art form is so spectacular and has survived - because we were taught to do our best for others."

Original crest designs were often related to supernatural experiences in which the design was revealed to a person at a certain place and time, then taken back to the clan where it was formalized in ceremony and cared for through the generations.

Ceremonies were carried out in how the materials were acquired, as well as the presentation when the piece was finished. These included recounting the story of the crest's origin, singing songs, performing dances and reciting clan names. These presentations were followed by gift giving and a formal response from the opposite clan.

The presentation ceremony counted as a legal transaction validating the item as property of the host clan. Once the transaction was complete, the object transformed into a sacred, or treasured clan object, referred to as at.óox. At.óox were then carefully stored and brought out only for important occasions. This tradition has lasted thousands of years, with some ancient pieces still in use today.

At.óox describes the tangible and intangible properties of regalia, including the crest design and its associated stories, songs, names and site of origin - as well as the physical object on which the design is depicted.

Property rights associated with at.óox are complex, but very important in Southeast Alaska Native cultures. Each clan's at.óox are protected under tribal ownership laws, similar to intellectual property rights in Western cultures and legal systems. Great care is taken to honor these rights.

This means that Native crest designs are not available for public use. Non-Natives who use them for business logos or other commercial purposes are breaking traditional laws similar to Western copyright laws.

"Traditionally all our regalia was owned by the clan and usually you had somebody who took care of it - a caretaker of your clan," said Rosita Worl, Sealaska Heritage Institute president, who is from the Ch'áak' (Eagle) moiety of the Shangukeidí (Thunderbird) clan from the Kawdliyaayi Hít (House Lowered from the Sun) in Klukwan. Her Tlingit name is Yeidiklats'okw.

"The regalia that people use today as individual property is usually made by someone in their family. They don't have to go through the formality of commissioning it and then paying somebody from the opposite clan," said Worl, who wrote her doctoral dissertation on Tlingit property law.

In modern times, Southeast Alaska Native people wear both traditional and new regalia. New regalia follow many of the same designs and principles of traditional regalia, but with new themes and materials, minus some of the rituals.

"In the old days you didn't own your own personal regalia, it belonged to the entire clan, when we all lived within the same vicinity or within the same clan house," Hudson said. "This is a big thing that has changed now that families no longer live with or near each other."

Many aspects of Southeast Native culture are reinforced through making and wearing regalia.

Hudson said making regalia has therapeutic value, almost like medicine. She names cultural identity, sense of place, spiritual connection and pride in one's heritage as important aspects of making and wearing regalia.

"One of the things that is very important to the people, especially the grandmothers and mothers because it's mostly the women who make the regalia, is that they want to give identity to their children so they know where they come from. ... It gives a sense of place in the world when they know," Hudson said.

"There is a sense of pride when they put on the robe. ... There's a spiritual aspect that comes with it. When you have this spiritual connection it can better your life because the spirit affects the emotion, and when the spiritual aspect is strong in you, all else will become more harmonious," she said.

"When we have that sense of well-being, we lift ourselves up and we lift up our communities at the same time, and we come full circle. And the songs continue."

• Teri Tibbett is a writer and musician living in Juneau. She can be reached at www.tibbett.com.