(SitNews) Ketchikan, Alaska - A clan hat from a Wrangell tribe was returned to Alaska last Thursday. The Oakland Museum of California returned the repatriated clan hat, Xhixhch’i S’aaxhw (Frog Hat). This clan hat is a sacred object and object of cultural patrimony of the Khaach.ádi clan of Wrangell. As a sacred object, the clan hat is a treasured object necessary for ongoing clan ceremonies.

The hat is painted, overlaid with copper and abalone shell, and decorated on top with small woven rings and ermine skins. The hat is an object of cultural patrimony, owned by a group and not an individual, which means Xhixhch’i S’aaxhw is inalienable by an individual without proven group consent.

The frog hat is at least 150 years old. A picture from 1898 shows the hat displayed at the Chief Shakes Tribal House in Wrangell. Further documented history of Xhixhch’i S’aaxhw indicates it was “collected” in Wrangell by a local shop owner named Fred Carlyon and his sister Anna Vaughn in the 1900s and was later donated to the Oakland Museum of California by the daughter of Mrs. Vaughn’s daughter in 1959.

The clan petitioned to have the hat back, and it was repatriated and arrived in Juneau last week. Will Micklin, Vice President of Tlingit Haida Central Council, accepted it.

The Yaaw Tei Yi dance group from Juneau brought the Chief Shakes Chilkat Blanket, a highly revered at.oow, and several other recently repatriated Chilcat blankets and clan hats to wear as they danced a welcome.

Historical photographs of Xhixhch’i S’aaxhw in use as well as the clan’s oral history on the clan hat, provided the evidence necessary to petition for its return. Tlingit Haida Central Council submitted a repatriation claim on behalf of the Khaach.ádi clan in 2008. The hat was approved for repatriation in 2013 and is the first repatriation from the Oakland Museum of California. Although the Xhixhch’i S’aaxhw had been turned over to Tlingit Haida Central Council, it had been on loan to the museum until arrangements could be made to retrieve it and has been displayed at the museum as part of an exhibit that explains the repatriation process.

Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s 1st Vice President William Micklin accepted Xhixhch’i S’aaxhw from the Oakland Museum of California. The Yaaw Tei Yi dance group welcomed the hat’s return with song and dance wearing repatriated Chilkat blankets of Chief Shakes of the Naanya.aayí, Herring Rock Robe of the Kiks.ádi, and the Dakhl’aweidí Killerwhale Hat.

The frog hat was wrapped in the Chief Shakes blanket for its journey to Alaska as well as the Yanyeidí Wolf Tunic with the repatriated Dakhl’aweidí hat alongside it.

According to a news release, the Khaach.ádi clan will announce at a later date when the hat will be brought out in Wrangell. The newly repatriated hat will be wrapped in the Chief Shakes blanket for its journey home to Wrangell, and will be formally reintroduced to the public next year.

“Yeedát sá yéi át yatee, oo awdudlixhaaji xhooni kháa, heinaxh kháa géidei yaxh ghaagoot, life should be this way that a relative you’ve given up hope of ever seeing again and suddenly they come around the corner,” said Cultural Resource Specialist Harold Jacobs during the repatriation ceremony.

Edited by Mary Kauffman, SitNews

Source of News: 

Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska
http://www.ccthita.org

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Ketchikan, Alaska

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