Alaska Heritage Center

This is actually the Anchorage Visitors Center in downtown Anchorage.

The Alaska Heritage Center had replicas of winter homes for natives by their area.

This group is primarily in eastern Alaska and northern Canada. Their houses are 2-room log houses. One room for cooking and one room for everything else.

This is a fish catcher.

Many dwellings were built underground. This one had a fire pit, but most didn't, they were just heated with body heat! But even then it would be 60 degrees inside compared to -60 outside.

This group separated the single males and females. The males went into the large shelter at 5 years old and the females went into the smaller shelters.

The female shelter.

One of our tour guides holding a whale's bailing that filters the small fish.

Polar bear skin.

Whale jawbones were used to mark the location of a shelter. With the shelters underground they were very hard to find in the winter.

Grey whale bones.

The heritage center from across the lake.

Our guides telling about one of the groups.

The entrance into the shelter. The shelters in western Alaska and on the Aleution Islands had no wood. There is no wood there! They used bones from fish and game.

Tow shelters from across the lake.

Inside a shelter.

This shelter was from the group that lives on the coast around Kechikan. Notice the totem poles.

More totem poles.

The shelter with a totem pole to the right. Very informative and fun to visit.