Episcopalians
Plan Thanksgiving
St. Peter’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church will hold a Thanksgiving prayer service 10 a.m. Nov. 25.
The service will be held via Zoom. For the link, e-mail the church at stpetersbytheseak@gmail.com. The church is located at 611 Lincoln Street and is open daily 8 a.m.-4 p.m. to stop in for quiet, rest and prayer.
Natural Resource
Committee Meets
The Sitka Tribe of Alaska’s Natural Resource Committee will meet via Zoom at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 30.
The meeting is open to the public. For a link to the meeting contact Elizabeth Borneman at 738-3165 or email elizabeth.borneman@sitkatribe-nsn.gov.
Holiday Brass
Concert Dec. 18
Tickets are on sale for Sitka Fine Arts Camp’s annual Holiday Brass Concert, 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 18, at the Sitka Performing Arts Center.
Some of America’s finest brass musicians will perform holiday music, organizers said. Tickets are available at www.fineartscamp.org/shows.
Ornament-Making
Class at Museum
Friends of Sheldon Jackson Museum invites the public to a holiday ornament-making event noon Tuesday, Dec. 7, on Zoom, as part of the Winter Share Your Culture/Share Your Research Zoom series.
June Pardue (Alutiiq/Sugpiaq) will show how to make a holiday seal ornament for the Christmas tree or home in this first event of the series. Participants will have to obtain materials in advance of the class, including:
Burgundy, light purple, or teal wolf fish leather ($50 each and available from the artist); faux leather or other backing; cotton balls or pillow stuffing; size D Nymo thread; size 10 short beading needle; size 10 seed beads
People interested in participating may email Jacqueline.Fernandez-Hamberg@alaska.gov or call (907) 747-8981 for details on how to purchase pre-prepared fish leather from Pardue. Most of the materials are available from local craft stores and bead shops.
Zoom meeting information to participate or observe: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84671287279?pwd=QnJ0MVFKTFBhaERyakZmbFI5UCtldz09; Meeting ID: 846 7128 7279; Passcode: 648734.
Email friendsofsjm@gmail.com or call (907) 747-8981 with questions.
‘Yaa at Woone’
Screening Dec. 9
A free screening of the film ‘‘Yaá at Wooné: Respect for All Things’’ will be hosted by the Herring Protectors 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9, at the Coliseum Theater.
Following the short film will be an opportunity to ask questions about the film.
Grab & Go Craft
Offered at Library
Sitka Public Library will offer a Grab & Go bag program in December with free crafts for preschoolers.
Bags will be ready on Saturdays Dec. 4, 11 and 18. Participants can pick them up anytime during the week. The program is for children ages 3 to 5 years old.
Registration begins on Sunday, Nov. 28, and is required. Space is limited. Call 747 4020 to register or e-mail maite.lorente@cityofsitka.org
Yup’ik Mask is
Artifact of Month
At SJ Museum
The Sheldon Jackson Museum’s November Artifact of the Month is a Yup’ik mask, collected from Andreafsky by Sheldon Jackson in 1893.
‘‘While it is lacking in obvious zoomorphic or anthropomorphic qualities, it does have several characteristics and embellishments commonly found on many masks from this region of Alaska,’’ the museum said.
The artifact is long, slender and oval in shape; slightly narrower at one end than the other. Three feathers are pegged in place along the top edge of the mask. The left and right feathers are stripped jaeger feathers. Photographs and records show the right-most feather, like the left feather, once had a white downy swan plume tied to the top.
The museum said it is unknown when the right white plume went missing, but it was still in place as of 1996 based on old photographs.
Three other Yup’ik masks are in the museum’s collection with red-painted grooves carved out and running down their lengths and/or wooden pegs potentially representing teeth. Many Yup’ik masks have human baby teeth, caribou teeth or carved wooden teeth.
In ‘‘The Living Tradition of Yup’ik Masks,’’ Ann Fienup-Riordan cites Margaret Lantis’ description of toothy mouths of masks as being connected to traditional stories about monsters or supernatural beings such as the “hammer child” tale, which was a deformed baby with a mouth filled with teeth stretching from one ear to the other. In retaliation for breaking taboos, the baby ate its mother and other community members.
‘‘If the red cavity does represent a mouth, it is likely that the thinned out black paint splatters in the lower two-thirds of the mask represent the blood of the creatures’ victims (Fienup-Riordan, 179, ‘The Living Tradition of Yup’ik Masks’),’’ the museum said.
Several masks at the museum have similar “mouths” running down their center with pegged teeth and splatters of paint on each side.
The mask will be exhibited until Nov. 30. The museum is open 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. General admission is $8, $7 for seniors, and free for those 18 and younger, or members of either the Friends of the Sheldon Jackson Museum or Friends of the Alaska State Museum.
