Juneau - Alaska State Museum

The Alaska State Museum in Juneau features permanent exhibits on Alaska's Native peoples, Natural History, The American Period (of Alaska's history), Russian America and the Children's Room. Temporary exhibits are also featured throughout the year.

The first floor features the ethnographic galleries where visitors can learn about the Aleut, Eskimo, Athabaskan and Northwest Coast peoples.

The Aleut gallery has a notable collection of baskets woven from fine strips of beach grass. The Athabaskan display features an important collection of masks, arrows and snowshoes. The focus of the Eskimo gallery is a umiak (34 foot boat) along with hunting and fishing implements made of ivory, bone, wood and metal. The Northwest Coast Indians include Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian; they are represented by a clan house and housing artifacts.

Russia sold Alaska to the United States in 1867 for $7.2 million but not before it established a reign of almost 130 years of hunting and trading. The Russian America exhibit has some important artifacts from this time period.

The American period deals with the development of Alaska's natural resources -- fisheries, timber, minerals and oil.