Southwest Gallery
Southwest Alaska includes the Alaska Peninsula, Kodiak Island, Pribilof Islands, and the Aleutian Islands extending more than 1,000 miles across the North Pacific Ocean.
Seabirds by the tens of thousands use the Aleutian Archipelago for nesting in the summer as shown in this exhibit area.
Forced to Leave. A photo exhibition and folio tells about the World War II evacuation of Alaska's Japanese Americans and Aleuts.
The northern fur seals exhibit shows a large male with the much smaller female and a pup. The fur seal rookeries in the Pribilof Islands were discovered by the Russians in 1741 with an estimated population at 3 million.
The Southwest gallery shows a splendid collection of some of the world's finest basketry, which flourished among the Aleuts until about 1919.
Despite a decline in the number of Aleut basket makers over the last 40 years, there is now a growing interest in reviving this craft.