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Photographs of Alaska and British Columbia

 Collection
Call Number: WA Photos Folio 154

Description of Photographs

Photographs at Klawock, Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, as well as West Cracroft Island and Haida Gwaii (formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands), British Columbia created during the summers of 2012 and 2013, and printed as 91 inkjet color and black-and-white prints that document Tlingit, Haida, and other indigenous people and cultures. The collection consists of six groups of images related to discrete events. Events include a memorial service for Dian Darlene White, the ceremonial destruction of a wooden panel, the repatriation of a house screen, an installation of totem poles, ravens, and murals created by Corey Bulpitt.

A group of color photographs documents a memorial service for Dian Darlene White at Masset, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, in June 2012 that includes images of the service as well as attendees including Mary Swanson, Christian White, and Lisa White.

A group of black-and-white photographs documents the transportation and ceremonial destruction of a wooden plaque at Bones Bay on the north side of West Cracroft Island, British Columbia, Canada, during the summer of 2012. Images document the ceremony as well as participants that included Haida wood carvers Corey Bulpitt and Christian White.

A group of color photographs documents the repatriation of a wooden screen that decorated the front of the traditional home of the Tuxekan L'eeneidi Clan (Dog Salmon Clan) at the Tlingit village of Tuxecan, Alaska, from the Smithsonian Institution in August 2013. Images include unpacking the screen from crates and assembling it at Klawock High School, which includes detail photographs of the screen, as well as portraits at a celebratory event that included Tlingit members of the Tuxekan L'eeneidi Clan, including Barbara Bean, as well as Haida individuals including Leslie Isaacs.

A group of color photographs documents totem poles installed at the Klawock Totem Park and associated potlaches during the three-day event that included Inupiat, Haida, Tlingit, Tsimshian people in August 2013. Poles installed include contributions from Alaskan Tlingit communities including the Brown Bear Peoples Clan from Kake, the Dowhiteidi Clan from Tuxekan, the North Country from Karluk, and the Shankweidi Peoples Clan from Tuxekan. Portraits of identified Tlingit individuals include wood carvers Nathan Jackson and Jonathan Rowan as well as the wife and daughter of the latter, Patricia Rowan and Eva Rowan, in addition to military veteran Alva "Dubsy" Pradavich. Portraits of identified Haida individuals include furrier Sherman Roger Alexander, attorney Lisa M. Lang, and mayor of Hydaburg, Alaska, Anthony Christianson, as well as a portrait of Tsimshian military veteran Ruth F. Buxton Snook.

A group of black-and-white photographs documents ravens (called Yaahl in Haida) in the Pacific Northwest during the summer of 2013, which relates to the Haida name of the photographer, Yaahl Huun Guuaaas (White Raven Traveling).

A group of color photographs documents murals by Haida artist Corey Bulpitt during the summer of 2013 and includes portraits of him with the works as well as with his son Koyas Bulpitt.

Individual prints are 28.5 x 43 cm. Signed and dated by the photographer on versos of prints. Titles in this guide created by the photographer.

Dates

  • 2012-2013

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The Owen Luck, Photographs of Alaska and British Columbia are the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchased from Owen Luck on the Walter McClintock Memorial Fund, 2014.

Arrangement

Arranged by the photographer.

Extent

8.0 Linear Feet (4 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.luckowenwpf154

Abstract

Photographs at Klawock, Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, as well as West Cracroft Island and Haida Gwaii (formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands), British Columbia created during the summers of 2012 and 2013, and printed as 91 inkjet color and black-and-white prints that document Tlingit, Haida, and other indigenous people and cultures. The collection consists of six groups of images related to discrete events. Events include a memorial service for Dian Darlene White, the ceremonial destruction of a wooden panel, the repatriation of a house screen, an installation of totem poles, ravens, and murals created by Corey Bulpitt.

Owen Luck (born 1947)

Owen Luck is an American photographer known for his photography of Native American and First Nation Canadian life and history. In 1973, after serving two tours as a combat medic in Vietnam, Luck travelled to Pine Ridge, South Dakota to provide medical support during the occupation of Wounded Knee by the American Indian Movement (AIM). He also carried a camera and created an extensive record of the confrontation between AIM and the United States Marshals Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, and other law enforcement agencies. His account of that experience, "A Witness at Wounded Knee 1973," was published in The Princeton University Library Chronicle in 2006. In 1975 Luck documented the Menominee Warrior Society’s occupation of the abandoned Alexian Brothers Novitiate in Gresham, Wisconsin, near the Menominee Indian Reservation. Since 2004 he has worked among indigenous communities of the Pacific Northwest. Luck has donated photographs to Ogallala Lakota College in Pine Ridge, to the Haida Gwaii Museum in Skidegate, and to the Makah Museum in Neah Bay. Significant collections of his work are held by Princeton University Library and the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Processing Notes

Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, competing priorities, and whether or not further accruals are expected. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards. For more information, please refer to the Beinecke Manuscript Unit Processing Manual.

Titles and image descriptions as well as arrangement provided by the photographer.

Each folder in the collection contains a single inkjet print.

Title
Guide to the Owen Luck, Photographs of Alaska and British Columbia
Status
Completed
Author
by Matthew Daniel Mason
Date
April 2021
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository

Contact:
P. O. Box 208330
New Haven CT 06520-8330 US
(203) 432-2977

Location

121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511

Opening Hours

Access Information

The Beinecke Library is open to all Yale University students and faculty, and visiting researchers whose work requires use of its special collections. You will need to bring appropriate photo ID the first time you register. Beinecke is a non-circulating, closed stack library. Paging is done by library staff during business hours. You can request collection material online at least two business days in advance of your visit, using the request links in Archives at Yale. For more information, please see Planning Your Research Visit and consult the Reading Room Policies prior to visiting the library.