Alaska '08 Day 31, Anchorage

Sat July 12, 2008

We visited the Alaska Native Heritage Center. They have displays about Athabascan, Aleut, Inupiaq, Yupik and Tlingit/Haida/Eyak/Tsimshian peoples. They have a small display inside on each and then outside they have a house or structure outside for each. They put on various demonstrations and talks and we saw the native games demo and a native dance demo. For the games they demonstrated a standing long jump where you start on your knees. They kicked a ball on a string where you start sitting with one leg in your hand and leaning on your other arm. They had some high school kids that could start from a sitting position and spin into a one armed handstand and kick the ball when it was like 7 foot in the air. They also have an event where they kick the ball in a one legged kick where you start and land on the leg you kicked with. For the dance they had 6 to 8 men who played a skin hoop drum and 6 to 8 women who danced. The dancing has the hand motions of a hula. The kids really liked the shows and crawling
through the houses.

- Jon