Alaska State Museum to show 10 robes telling the story of the 1882 Navy bombardment of Angoon

The Alaska State Museum in Juneau will open a solo exhibit of 10 robes by Lingít weaver Shgendootan George on Friday, Nov. 6. Each robe tells one episode of the 1882 U.S. Navy bombardment of Angoon, her home village.

According to the museum, the robes follow the story from the days before the shelling through the attack itself, survival, rebuilding and the Navy's 2024 apology. They take three forms: Naaxein (Chilkat), Yéil koowú (Raven's Tail) and Kaayuka.óot x'oow (button blankets). Photographs, drawings, ship's logs and accounts of the events tied to each robe will be shown alongside them.

The exhibit's title, "Miscellaneous Events of the Day - Yee een kakkwalaneek yáa Aangóont akawdulgaaní," includes a Lingít phrase that translates as "I will tell you all the story of when Angoon was set afire." The show runs through March 20, 2027, as the latest in the museum's 2024-2026 Solo Artist Exhibition Series.

George is Lingít, Dakl'aweidí, and a housemaster of Kéet Ooxú Hít, the Killer Whale Tooth House. A lifelong educator, she has more than 22 years of classroom teaching and founded TIDES Education Associates. Her work is in the permanent collections of Sealaska Heritage Institute, the Museum of the North and the Juneau-Douglas City Museum.

George proposed the project in 2022 for Rasmuson Foundation support and a solo show at the museum. "I'll create 10 robes documenting the history of Aangóon when we were bombed by the United States," she said in a February 2025 University of Puget Sound profile.

A separate University of Puget Sound account says Rear Adm. Mark Sucato apologized for the Navy on Oct. 26, 2024, the 142nd anniversary of the attack. Alaska News later covered Angoon youth dancers at Celebration 2026, who performed after that apology.

Opening night begins at 5 pm in the APK Atrium, where the robes will be danced, many for the first time, before they move into the museum. Among them are "Déix Hándít L'ée - 200 Blankets," shown in museum photos worn by Awastí Elizabeth George-Frank, and "Táakwde yaa kugaháa - Winter Started to Come," worn by Kichnalx/AanDeinaAt Edward Gordon Kookesh III. George will talk about her work, her process and the story of the robes at 7 pm in the APK Lecture Hall.

The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm. Admission is $9 for adults, $8 for seniors 65 and older and free for visitors 18 and under.