Hat, c. 1973

So, a potlatch is usually a celebration of a marriage, or an adoption of a new clan member or it could be various things just celebrating the passing on of somebody. Whenever a well-known elder passes on, they hold a potlatch in their name. Everybody comes together and they receive gifts, and they eat, and they dance and sing songs.

So my name is Aaron Tolen and I was born and raised here in Anchorage. My family comes from Nome and Ketchikan, so I’m Tlingit-Inupiaq. I am a senior studying Anthropology at UAA with a minors in Alaska Native Studies and Alaska Native Business Management.

So the object that I chose was the Southeast Potlatch ceremonial hat. So what I see is a cedar bark hat that looks to be handwoven and it has 4 cedar rings that are on top of it. So with the hat, usually the chief or the clan leader has his hat and as his job, he has to host potlatches. So potlatches are different from potlucks. The difference is with a potluck, everybody brings food and community and everybody shares versus a potlatch—it’s the clan leader who provides all the food and he also provides gifts that he gives out to everybody who is in attendance, mostly for the people who are not from his clan. He gets gifts for everybody and makes sure everybody goes home with a gift.

With the potlatch rings, they represent how many potlatches this clan leader or chief has hosted so the more rings that they have shows their wealth and how much of a provider they can be for their community so it’s a huge significance in Southeast culture.