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PHOTOS: Indigenous Peoples Day at the Sealaska Heritage Institute

Published 6:00 am Tuesday, October 14, 2025

By Mari Kanagy

Joe Yeilnaawú Zuboff performs Yéik Utee (Imitating the Spirits) at the Sealaska Heritage Institute ceremony on Monday. "We're calling on our ancestors, the ones before us that got us to this point we're to give thanks to them," Zuboff said. (Mari Kanagy / Juneau Empire)
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Joe Yeilnaawú Zuboff performs Yéik Utee (Imitating the Spirits) at the Sealaska Heritage Institute ceremony on Monday. "We're calling on our ancestors, the ones before us that got us to this point we're to give thanks to them," Zuboff said. (Mari Kanagy / Juneau Empire)
Joe Yeilnaawú Zuboff performs Yéik Utee (Imitating the Spirits) at the Sealaska Heritage Institute ceremony on Monday. “We’re calling on our ancestors, the ones before us that got us to this point we’re to give thanks to them,” Zuboff said.
Photos by Mari Kanagy / Juneau Empire Haida master carver Lee Wallace takes the hand of his granddaughter and carving apprentice, Elizabeth Peele. Wallace led the carving of the Sukteeneidí clan totem pole which was dedicated at the Sealaska Heritage Institute ceremony on Monday.
Photos by Mari Kanagy / Juneau Empire Lance X’unei Twitchell moderates the ceremony at Shuká Hít (clan house) in the Walter Soboleff Building on Monday. Twitchell said that cultivation of Native art and architecture around Juneau contributes to a “massive restoration of the visual landscape of our peoples.”
Mari Kanagy / Juneau Empire Sukteeneidí Spokesperson Ed Thomas speaks to a full audience at the at the Shuká Hít (clan house) in the Walter Soboleff Building, standing before Sukteeneidí Clan elders.
Eva Rowan embraces Lee Wallace, a Haida master carver who led the creation a Sukteeneidí Clan totem pole joining the ranks of SHI’s Kootéeyaa Deiyí Totem Pole Trail.
The Sukteeneidí Clan and Yées Ku.oo Dance Group lead the grand exit dance, marking the end of the three-hour ceremony at the Walter Soboleff Building on Monday, Oct. 13.

Sealaska Heritage Institute hosted a ceremony to officially name its new Indigenous Science Building and dedicate a Sukteeneidí kootéeyaa (totem pole) on Indigenous People’s Day, Monday, Oct. 13.

The building serves as a center for SHI’s education programs, which integrate Indigenous knowledge, languages and values with Western science.

“Our people have accumulated knowledge for the thousands and thousands and thousands of years that we have lived on this land.” said SHI President Rosita Kaaháni Worl.

The Sukteeneidí kootéeyaa is one of 30 totem poles planned for SHI’s Kootéeyaa Deiyí Totem Pole Trail along the Juneau waterfront.

“Our culture is strong. It had to be strong, considering all the things that we face, environmental changes, the rise and the falling of the seas, the advances and the retreats of the glaciers.” Worl said. “We had to be strong to survive that.”

Correction: This story has been updated to remove a source’s middle name, which was included in error.

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