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Unsettling Native Art Histories on the Northwest Coast

By Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse, Aldona Jonaitis

Inseparable from its communities, Northwest Coast art functions aesthetically and performatively beyond the scope of non-Indigenous scholarship, from demonstrating kinship connections to manifesting spiritual power. Contributors to this volume foreground Indigenous understandings in recognition of...

Art of the Northwest Coast

By Aldona Jonaitis

Originally published in 2006, Art of the Northwest Coast offers an expansive history of this great tradition, from the earliest known works to those made at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Although non-Natives often...

A Wealth of Thought

Franz Boas on Native American Art

By Franz Boas. Edited by Aldona Jonaitis

Although Franz Boas--one of the most influential anthropologists of the twentieth century--is best known for his voluminous writings on cultural, physical, and linguistic anthropology, he is also recognized for breaking new ground in the study...

Baleen Basketry of the North Alaskan Eskimo

By Molly Lee. Foreword by Aldona Jonaitis

Baskets made of baleen, the fibrous substance found in the mouths of plankton-eating whales—a malleable and durable material that once had commercial uses equivalent to those of plastics today—were first created by Alaska Natives in...

Discovering Totem Poles

A Traveler's Guide

By Aldona Jonaitis

Rising from a forest mist or soaring overhead in parks and museums, magnificent cedar totem poles have captured the attention and imagination of visitors to Washington State, British Columbia, and Alaska.

Discovering Totem Poles is the...

The Totem Pole

An Intercultural History

By Aldona Jonaitis and Aaron Glass

The Northwest Coast totem pole captivates the imagination. From the first descriptions of these tall carved monuments, totem poles have become central icons of the Northwest Coast region and symbols of its Native inhabitants. Although...

The Yuquot Whalers' Shrine

By Aldona Jonaitis. With Richard Inglis

In 1905 George Hunt, at the insistence of anthropologist Franz Boas, acquired a remarkable collection of materials from the Mowachaht band of the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) for the American Museum of Natural History. An assemblage of...