ALASKA NATIVE HERITAGE CENTRE – ANCHORAGE, ALASKA

I didn’t know what to expect … thought we’d be there for an hour or 2 … but ended up staying for 5 hours! What a great place!

We spent the first couple of hours watching some great young people demonstrate some of the many native games … they are incredibly difficult! Very fun to watch and the narrator was interesting and amusing as well. Next came some native dancers who kept us intrigued for a while. We were taught some of the meanings of the hand gestures and kept interested as well by the fellow (the teacher) explaining about the music and background. Very informative, and the women were all good dancers!

Dancers at the Alaska Native Heritage Centre

We had a quick lunch (expensive) in their café, then went on a tour of the village. It’s worth it to take the tour – it’s all included in the price of admission – and learned a lot about the different native cultures in Alaska. My only disappointment is that the young woman could have been a bit more personable, as well as known a bit more instead of telling us facts almost by rote. A bit more training would help her I think as well as a bit more tolerance of questions.

Overview of village in Alaska Native Heritage Cultural Centre

We then watched a couple of films in the theatre … different ones run all thru the day … which were very well done and interesting.

Well worth the price of admission! Note: You can purchase a ‘cultural pass’ for $29 that gets you admission to both the cultural centre and the Anchorage museum … a good deal if you plan on going to both.