.png)
Lukaax̱.ádi Clan re-dedicates Raven House in Haines
- Chilkat Valley News
- 4 hours ago
- 5 min read
Lukaax̱.ádi ceremony follows years of renovation on Front Street house
By Rashah McChesney
Chilkat Valley News
In the week before Saturday’s four-hour ceremonial ku.eex, Lukaax̱.ádi clan trustee Jackie Pata spent her days running the culture camp at Chilkoot and her evenings in town putting the finishing touches on the Raven House.
Pata said she had been watching children run through the house carrying things out to the garbage, helping with planting and carrying down paintbrushes, and then everyone sat down to dinner while clan leaders made a plan for the next day. Pata has strong memories of sitting in the Raven House as a young woman, watching the same things unfold.
“I was just so overwhelmed by the feelings,” she said. She told the group to revel in all of the coordination, planning and energy in the historic clan house. “You will never, ever forget this moment. I want you to think it and feel it.”
As the sun slowly warmed Front Street on Saturday, Pata and another clan trustee, Nathan Yéil Yádi Jackson, made a final visit to the Haines Sheldon Museum which stores a number of Lukaax̱.ádi Raven house heirlooms for safekeeping.
People began to arrive around 10 a.m. for the ceremony which Lingit language scholar and teacher X’unei Lance Twitchell suggested be named tsu héide shoowduwataan ḵu.éex’, or the Ku.eex’ for Opening the Doors Again.
A Lingit clan house is at the center of clan activity. Members can stay at the Raven house when they travel through the area; Pata said it’s also a place for workshops and ceremonies and sharing meals.
This particular one has a long, complicated history in the Chilkat Valley and is an amalgamation of at least three others, including the Two Door House and Raven’s Wing House. According to a history of the Lukaax̱.ádi clan told by Jeremy Timothy, the Raven House was first constructed at a village site at 19 Mile, Kaatx’waaltu.
After a mudslide it was relocated to Yandeist’aḵyé. Then it was dismantled again and relocated to Front Street.
There was a dispute over ownership after Austin Daanawáak Hammond died and broke with tradition to leave it in trust, rather than passing it along to one person. Along the way the house fell into disrepair. The process of restoring it again began in 2021, but that was complicated by the pandemic and Pata said even going into this year – when she knew they’d be re-dedicating it – painting was delayed by the long winter. People who have worked on the house in recent years have redone the plumbing and the majority of the electrical.
“It was just an ongoing process,” Pata said. “We didn’t get any grants to do this, the clan members are just contributing their time and resources to do it as we can. That’s how it has been.”
Pata said they put out the invitation to this year’s ku.eex’ later than they had hoped to.
“”I had an RSVP. I was hoping to get a rough count but few in Lingit country RSVP. Finally, I just gave up. I had no idea who was going to come and who wasn’t,” she said.
But on Saturday the house was packed. At least 70 people came through the doors, some from the Lukaax̱.ádi, but many from other clans, there to witness and support the event. Mary Daaljini Cruise and Ricardo Kingeistí Worl stood in the center of the crowded living room, checking off names, coordinating where elders and honored guests were to sit, and keeping the ceremony moving. Cruise, who lives in Juneau now, is Kaagwaantaan from Gooch Hit in Tlakw An (Klukwan) and Worl is Shangukeidí from Kaawdliyaayi Hít, also in Tlakw An. They both served as the naa káani, a person from an opposite clan who consults and guides the ceremony.
Eventually, the crowd grew so large that clan members set up a microphone inside, its long cord trailed to a speaker in front of the house, so people could sit in chairs or stand along Front Street and still hear the ceremony. Many chose to do that when the heat inside became unbearable.
Still, there were enough people moving through the space that the floors were creaking, particularly during the songs, dances and name-giving ceremonies.
“One person said to me, ‘when you guys decided to stomp your feet we were nervous,’” Pata said.
Pata said one of the reasons the clan pushed to get the house restored and re-dedicated is that its current caretakers are getting older. Kermit Cesar, of Juneau, was the third caretaker alongside Pata and Jackson. He recently died. Jackson himself is nearly 90.
“If anything happened to Nathan…,” Pata paused, then continued, “time became of the essence.”
During the ceremony, the clan unveiled a new screen painted by Tsimshian artist David R. Boxley, whose father David A. Boxley crafted a new drum for the house. Both attended the ceremony.
As she reflected on the day, Pata said she was struck again by the number of young faces, some of whom took on new names as part of the ceremony, including Kaayák’w Brandon Gomez, of Juneau, who was given the same name as the new drum Yéil Yádi X̱’út’ayi Du.áx̱ji, or “the sound of Nathan Jackson’s adze (can be heard).” Aankadax̱steen Jeremy Timothy was given the same name as the newly unveiled screen, Yéil G̱aat X̱’éen.
Shawna Pustinen was given the name Jiwdu.oo Al’eix̱í, or “The dancing of Nancy Jackson,” who Twitchell joked may have been the only one better at dancing than Nathan, who is well-known for his imitation of raven when he dances.
Pata sees the Raven House renewal as part of a larger trend in Southeast Alaska where clans are coming together to restore historic homes and rebuild new ones.
“We have a clan house emergency,” she said. “I’m looking forward to seeing the energy as clans strengthen themselves.”
Pata pointed out that everyone who took on a new name was young —an intentional move by clan leadership.
“They’re going to carry it. They’re going to feel the responsibilities and also the honor to represent the clan and continue its heritage,” she said.
She recalled Chilkat Valley elders like Smith “Smitty” Katzeek and Joe Hotch who have died in recent years.
“As I sat there in that room and I saw their descendants in the room with us, it was like their spirits were there and will continue on. It’s like they never left.”
• This article was originally published in the Chilkat Valley News.
