SITKA — The Sheldon Jackson Museum’s January Artifact of the Month is an Inupiaq mask (SJ-II-DD-3). The museum has little information on the mask, but it was collected by former Sheldon Jackson Museum curator Esther Billman and purchased from Willie Hugo of Anaktuvuk Pass for $22. The details on the January Artifact of the Month and the time period in which it could have been purchased suggest that the mask is probably a later piece made in the 1960s or 1970s.
The mask will be exhibited until Jan. 31. The museum is home to five Anaktuvuk Pass masks including men’s faces, a child’s face, and faces with wolf ears. It can be seen Tuesday through Saturday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. The museum is closed for lunch from noon to 1p.m. General admission is $3 and free for those 18 and under or members of either the Friends of the Sheldon Jackson Museum or Friends of the Alaska State Museum.
For more information on the mask, go to museums.alaska.gov/documents/sjm/artifacts/jan_2017.pdf.
