A group of women drummers nears the end of the Celebration parade route at the turnoff to Centennial Hall on Saturday. The four-day Alaska Native gathering is marking its final day with events at the hall including an afternoon of dances, a screening a film commemorating Celebration’s 40-year anniversary and the Grand Exit. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

A group of women drummers nears the end of the Celebration parade route at the turnoff to Centennial Hall on Saturday. The four-day Alaska Native gathering is marking its final day with events at the hall including an afternoon of dances, a screening a film commemorating Celebration’s 40-year anniversary and the Grand Exit. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

Celebration parade a priceless souvenir for visitors

Procession a chance for Alaska Natives to share stories and snapshots with folks from afar.

Cheriese Brown got more than she bargained for when she stepped off the Carnival Splendor megaship after it docked at Marine Park, since between her and the gift shops a few dozen meters away was a rather large number of colorfully festive people for a Saturday morning.

Brown, a Florida resident traveling with three family members, said she got a bit of a heads-up before departing the ship something special was afoot in Juneau during their daylong visit, but finding herself in the midst of one of the highlight events on the final day of Celebration was both a bigger and more intimately personal thrill than she could have anticipated.

Alaska Natives pass Juneau’s City Hall during the Celebration parade on Saturday. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

Alaska Natives pass Juneau’s City Hall during the Celebration parade on Saturday. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

“I just love to see the different cultures and the different tribes, and it just tells a story about how Alaska has a lot of enrichment,” she said while watching several hundred Alaska Natives gathering nearby for the start of a parade through downtown.

Brown’s family frequently paused their sidewalk stroll along the downtown gift shops to take photos with participants on their way to the parade, including an encounter with Angoon resident Daniel Brown of the Teikweidei (Brown Bear) Clan — no relation, of course except through a shared moment of laughter and camaraderie.

“I get their permission first,” Cheriese Brown said. “You have to be respectful.”

Cheriese Brown, left, a Florida resident, has a family member take a photo of her with Angoon resident Daniel Brown of the Teikweidei (Brown Bear) Clan on his way to the Celebration parade Saturday. The two Browns are not related, except through a spirit of camaraderie during their chance encounter. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

Cheriese Brown, left, a Florida resident, has a family member take a photo of her with Angoon resident Daniel Brown of the Teikweidei (Brown Bear) Clan on his way to the Celebration parade Saturday. The two Browns are not related, except through a spirit of camaraderie during their chance encounter. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

She said she probably took pictures and exchanged greetings with about 20 Celebration participants and, if all the nuances of the four-day gathering couldn’t be absorbed in a fleeting late-morning cultural immersion, the prevailing theme of cherishing cultures came though clear.

“Celebration for me here is just to know the life stories of different people,” she said.

For Denise Schooley, another passenger aboard the Splendor, the day was both a return home after a 35-year absence and a chance to share one of Juneau’s most unique gatherings with three generations of her family ages 3 to 82. She said it was considerably more appealing than classically popular options such as revisiting the (now considerably shrunken) Mendenhall Glacier.

“I’d rather have my kids walk around, listen to the music and see the parade,” she said.

Schooley said she lived in Juneau for four years starting only a few years after the first Celebration 40 years ago, working at the hospital and the Red Dog Saloon, the latter of which was of course a must-see spot for her family that just happened to be the starting point of the parade.

“It does seem like there’s a lot more people here and a lot more of the community involved,” she said, comparing it to her experiences during some of the first Celebrations.

Her husband, Teague, said he knew little about Celebration when he arrived, but it was easy to understand his wife’s enthusiasm for the event and return to her long-ago hometown.

“What I’m seeing here is exactly that I imagined,” he said. “Individuals proud of their heritage.”

Watching the parade was a whirlwind of emotions for Mary Snook, a Ketchikan resident who said she is used to being in the procession, not watching it from a sidewalk as she did Saturday with her two dogs. But the descendent of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian ancestry said too many members of her community’s dance group were unable to be in Juneau for reasons related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mary Snook, a Ketchikan resident of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian ancestry, takes a photo of her fellow Alaska Natives passing by during the Celebration parade in downtown Juneau on Saturday morning. Snook said she usually participates in the parade when visiting for the landmark biennial gathering, but too many members of her community’s dance group were unable to make it this year due to reasons related to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire).

Mary Snook, a Ketchikan resident of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian ancestry, takes a photo of her fellow Alaska Natives passing by during the Celebration parade in downtown Juneau on Saturday morning. Snook said she usually participates in the parade when visiting for the landmark biennial gathering, but too many members of her community’s dance group were unable to make it this year due to reasons related to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire).

“My heart is full,” she said. “I miss it. I love it.”

As with some of the out-of-state visitors, Snook took numerous photos and exchanged greetings with passing parade participants — although in her case it was clear they knew each other well. And unlike Schooley’s impression of more participation than remembered long ago, Snook said the size of the gathering compared to her most recent experience was a contrast.

“This year is so small and the restrictions are hard, especially on the elders as well as the little kids,” she said.

Celebration officials estimate about 1,200 dancers are at this year’s event, compared to more than 2,000 who participated in the most recent in-person gathering in 2018.

The energy and spirit of this year’s performers got off to perhaps a counter-intuitive start on the final morning as most of them were told to “hold still” as they crowded into a semi-circle in the newly opened Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus , Antnané Hít, for a group photo. Or, more precisely, 15 photos shot at ⅛-second exposure each that will be electronically stitched into a panorama, a process repeated three times in case a few too many people were blurry in some of the takes.

Afterward they broke into applause and chants before making their highly visible trek to the parade starting line — many stopping to greet and pose for pictures with visitors along the way.

Contact reporter Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com.

Alaska Native veterans pass by gift shops next to Marine Park during the Celebration parade Saturday. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

Alaska Native veterans pass by gift shops next to Marine Park during the Celebration parade Saturday. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)

Most of the 1,200 dancers participating in Celebration this year gather for a group photo at the newly opened Sealaska Heritage Campus on Saturday morning just before the parade to Centennial Hall for the final events of the four-day gathering. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empir

Most of the 1,200 dancers participating in Celebration this year gather for a group photo at the newly opened Sealaska Heritage Campus on Saturday morning just before the parade to Centennial Hall for the final events of the four-day gathering. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empir

More in News

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Aurora forecast for the week of March 25

These forecasts are courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute… Continue reading

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Tuesday, March 26, 2024

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

The aging Tustumena ferry, long designated for replacement, arrives in Homer after spending the day in Seldovia in this 2010 photo. (Homer News file photo)
Feds OK most of state’s revised transportation plan, but ferry and other projects again rejected

Governor’s use of ferry revenue instead of state funds to match federal grants a sticking point.

The Shopper’s Lot is among two of downtown Juneau’s three per-hour parking lots where the cash payments boxes are missing due to vandalism this winter. But as of Wednesday people can use the free ParkSmarter app to make payments by phone. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Pay-by-phone parking for downtown Juneau debuts with few reported complaints

App for hourly lots part of series of technology upgrades coming to city’s parking facilities.

A towering Lutz spruce, center, in the Chugach National Forest is about to be hoisted by a crane Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015, for transport to the West Lawn of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to be the 2015 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service)
Tongass National Forest selected to provide 2024 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree

Eight to 10 candidate trees will be evaluated, with winner taking “whistlestop tour” to D.C.

Annauk Olin, holding her daugher Tulġuna T’aas Olin, and Rochelle Adams pose on March 20, 2024, after giving a presentation on language at the Alaska Just Transition Summit in Juneau. The two, who work together at the Alaska Public Interest Research Group’s Language Access program, hope to compile an Indigenous environmental glossary. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Project seeks to gather Alaska environmental knowledge embedded in Indigenous languages

In the language of the Gwich’in people of northeastern Alaska, the word… Continue reading

The room where the House Community and Regional Affairs Committee holds its meeting sits empty on Tuesday. A presentation about an increase in the number of inmate deaths in state custody was abruptly canceled here. (Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
Republican lawmakers shut down legislative hearing about deaths in Alaska prisons

Former commissioner: “All this will do, is it will continue to inflame passions of advocacy groups.”

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Monday, March 25, 2024

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

Employees at the Kensington Mine removing tailings from Johnson Creek on Feb. 17 following a Jan. 31 spill of about 105,000 gallons of slurry from the mine, although a report by the mine’s owners states about half slurry reached the creek 430 meters away. (Photo from report by Coeur Alaska)
Emergency fisheries assessments sought after 105,000-gallon tailings spill at Kensington Mine

Company says Jan. 31 spill poses no risk to Berners Bay habitat, but NOAA seeks federal evaluation.

Most Read