Alaska’s Indigenous culture isn’t a relic of the past; it’s a living, breathing culture, with 229 federally recognized tribes practicing their ancient traditions today. As Alaskan museums and venues rethink their exhibits and interpretations, Bailey Berg explores the changes in a state where 20 percent of Alaskans identify as Indigenous.
On a quiet lake just outside Anchorage, a row of traditional Indigenous dwellings arcs along the shore—an Iñupiat sod house, an Athabascan ceremonial house, and a Haida clan house—each one representing a distinct Alaska Native culture. For decades, this was the heart of the Alaska Native Heritage Center (ANHC), a place where travelers came to learn how the state’s original peoples lived before colonization.
However, after a multi-year overhaul, the narrative has shifted. Where visitors once encountered dioramas and interpretive panels focused on the past, they now see video interviews with Native artists, installations that grapple with sovereignty, and exhibits showcasing fashion designers and entrepreneurs from every corner of the state.
It’s a subtle but powerful reframing for the center that has long offered one of the only entry points for travelers to learn about Alaska’s Indigenous peoples.
“Our old exhibits were very much in the past tense,” says Emily Edenshaw, of Yup’ik and Iñupiaq descent, former president and CEO of the ANHC and current CEO of Ketchikan Indian Community. “Being able to create spaces that are reflective of the past and present and future, versus just the past, was so important. It used to be that when people left here, a lot of times, they would talk about the way we used to live. So we’re flipping that narrative. It’s the way we continue to live.”
It’s a crucial distinction. Alaska is home to 229 federally recognized tribes (nearly half of 574 nationwide) and more than 20 distinct cultural groups. Roughly 20 percent of Alaskans identify as Indigenous, making it the state with the highest percentage of Indigenous residents in the US.
“I speak to them about our relationship with the land, our connections to the animals, what it’s like in the villages, Native corporations, land rights, language preservation—just a broad spectrum of subject matter.”
- Shane McHale, founder, Blueberry Tours
And though tourism is one of Alaska’s largest industries, Indigenous stories have often been sidelined. However, across the state, a growing number of Indigenous-led tourism initiatives are offering travelers the opportunity to engage more deeply (and respectfully) with Alaska Native cultures.
From learning the art of totem pole carving from Tlingit elders in Ketchikan to visiting Utqiagvik’s Iñupiat Heritage Center for Indigenous song, dance and art experiences, there are myriad ways to explore the state, through an Alaska Native lens. Here’s what that looks like across the state.
The ANHC is still the most comprehensive place to start in this region—it’s often where Shane McHale, the Inupiaq founder of Blueberry Tours, a company that offers private day trips in Anchorage and the Matanuska Valley, will take guests to learn about the region’s First Peoples. And while the excursions aren’t necessarily Indigenous focused (one takes visitors to a wildlife sanctuary and another goes to a glacier), McHale says he’s often given opportunities to share his culture with his guests.
“I speak to them about our relationship with the land, our connections to the animals, what it’s like in the villages, Native corporations, land rights, language preservation—just a broad spectrum of subject matter,” McHale tells me. “Often, people are curious about these things and have questions.”
Elsewhere in Anchorage, Native-owned businesses continue to grow. Pick up a scarf made with qiviut—the downy-soft fiber of Arctic musk ox—at Oomingmak Musk Ox Co-op, run by approximately 250 Alaska Native women from remote villages who knit the pieces by hand. Visit Trickster Company, co-founded by siblings Rico and Crystal Worl, for skateboards, prints, and accessories that blend Indigenous formline design (a type of drawing that uses continuous, flowing, curvilinear lines, and is considered a traditional form of art in Southeast Alaska) with streetwear aesthetics.
An unexpected spot is at the Alaska Native Medical Center where its craft shop, on the first floor of the hospital, sells exceptional Indigenous artisan products, from baskets to jewelry. In summer, look for Indigenous vendors selling bentwood boxes and clan hats at the Anchorage Market downtown or First Friday (a monthly art walk that takes place on the first Friday of each month) events across town.
Among the rainforests, fjords and glaciers of the Inside Passage, a coastal route that stretches 500 miles along the Pacific Ocean, the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian communities have long used cedar trees to tell their histories—the old-growth trees produce tight-grained wood that’s ideal for carving.
Today, those stories are expanding. In Sitka, the Sheet’ká Kwaan Naa Kahídi (the local tribe) hosts song and dance performances inside a modern clan house during the summer, while in Ketchikan, at Saxman Village and Totem Bight State Park, carvers are restoring poles and teaching apprentices the art form. The Sealaska Heritage Institute in the Alaskan capital of Juneau has launched a digital archive and educational walking tours to bring Indigenous histories into public view.
“I think that having opportunities to learn about Alaska Native culture from Indigenous people gives guests a deeper connection and it’s more meaningful for them. And, importantly, it means we get to tell our own stories.”
- Stacey Simmons, Kodiak Brown Bear Center and Lodge
Travelers can also plan their visit around Celebration, a biennial gathering in Juneau that draws thousands of Indigenous participants for regalia-making, language preservation workshops, and public performances. Or for a more immersive experience, join a sailing with Alaska Dream Cruises, the only Indigenous-owned cruise line in the United States.
Unlike the floating cities that dominate the Alaska cruise market in the summer, these ships are limited to just a few dozen people and are more community-focused. By day, guests might stop on islands home to predominantly Indigenous communities, such as the village of Kake to see one of the tallest totem poles in the world, or meet carvers in Wrangell working to revive ancestral design techniques, and by night, they may attend onboard lectures delving into topics like matrilineal governance and salmon lifecycles.
Vast and sparsely populated, Alaska’s Interior and Arctic regions are home to Athabascan, Iñupiaq, and Yup’ik peoples. Deep inside Denali National Park, at the end of the 92-mile (148-kilometer) Park Road, sits Kantishna Roadhouse, an Indigenous-owned lodge operated by Doyon Tourism, a subsidiary of the Alaska Native regional corporation for Interior Alaska.
Getting there is an adventure in itself. Until at least 2027, the only way in is via bush plane (the road into the park has been closed since 2021 due to a rock slide), skimming over braided rivers and glacial valleys, before touching down on a gravel airstrip surrounded by alpine tundra. At the roadhouse, Athabascan guides lead botany walks that focus on the medicinal plants their ancestors have used for generations. You might learn to identify salmonberries and fireweed or listen to stories about how families once moved seasonally through this valley.
“It creates a deeper understanding and appreciation when you visit a place and can understand the history of it and its people,” says Jordan Sandord, president of Doyon Tourism. “I think that’s important to your visit as a whole. There are so many beautiful places in Alaska, and if you can experience that and understand the history of the people, it’ll be more impactful.”
Much farther north, in Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska’s northernmost community, visitors can tour the Iñupiat Heritage Center, which includes exhibits on sea ice navigation, whaling crews, and modern subsistence practices. But to truly understand the place, it’s best to connect with a local guide. Companies like Northern Alaska Tour Company, which partners with Native communities, offer cultural tours that might include storytelling, aurora viewing, or visiting traditional ice cellars used to store whale meat.
Start in the city of Kodiak, where the Alutiiq Museum functions as both a cultural anchor and a community hub. It documents 7,500 years of maritime lifeways and ongoing efforts to reclaim the Alutiiq language, and depending on when you visit, you might catch a mask-carving class or a traditional food demonstration.
Further southwest, in Unalaska, the Museum of the Aleutians tells the story of the Indigenous people (who typically refer to themselves as Unangax̂—which translates roughly to ‘seasiders’, although are more commonly known as Aleut) who survived both Russian colonization and WWII internment—yet continue to pass down knowledge of sea hunting, weaving, and place-based survival.
Alaska’s Indigenous cultures aren’t artifacts to admire from a distance, or stories to skim on museum walls—they’re living communities shaping the present.
For a more immersive experience, on the southwest side of Kodiak Island, surrounded by old-growth Sitka spruce and salmon-rich streams, the Kodiak Brown Bear Center and Lodge offers unparalleled wildlife watching, while also teaching visitors about what it means to be Indigenous. Guests arrive by floatplane at the lodge owned and operated by Koniag, Inc., the regional Alaska Native corporation, and stay in modern cabins with views of Karluk Lake.
Each day, Alaska Native guides lead small groups into bear country—along game trails, across muskeg, and through berry thickets—to observe massive coastal brown bears feeding in the wild. Along the way, guides share traditional stories, ecological knowledge passed down through generations, and insights into how Indigenous stewardship informs modern conservation.
“I think that having opportunities to learn about Alaska Native culture from Indigenous people gives guests a deeper connection and it’s more meaningful for them,” said Stacey Simmons, the Sugpiaq and Alutiiq director of operations at Kodiak Brown Bear Center and Lodge. “And, importantly, it means we get to tell our own stories.”
For travelers, the lesson is simple: Alaska’s Indigenous cultures aren’t artifacts to admire from a distance, or stories to skim on museum walls—they’re living communities shaping the present. The artists, guides, and cultural leaders opening their doors aren’t asking visitors to marvel at what was—but to engage with what is.
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Bailey Berg is a writer and editor with bylines in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, The Guardian, Conde Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, Lonely Planet, Atlas Obscura and Architectural Digest. Previously Associate Travel News Editor at AFAR (where she still contributes), she's the author of 'Secret Alaska: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure.' When not working, she can be found hanging out at a brewery, hiking with her dogs, or planning her next adventure.
