Two CIA tribal women have been chosen for the third and final year of the Chilkoot Indian Association’s Traditional Arts Apprentice-Mentor Program. Over the next nine months the apprentices will work with an elder as they complete work on two under-represented art forms in the Valley. Rhonda Degtoff is apprenticing in basketry and Skweit (Jessie Morgan) will be working in silver carving.
Chilkoot Indian Association’s President James Hart noticed many Tlingit artists were aging without an influx of young people to keep the traditional arts of the valley going. So he and CIA staff applied for an economic development grant from the federal government.
Under the grant, the tribe received funding for an apprentice-mentorship program to revitalize traditional arts. Each year for three years, tribal members with skills or ancestry in an under-represented artform could apply and be paired with a master. The team would spend a year creating. This year’s apprentices are Rhonda Degtoff and Skweit Jessie Morgan. Degtoff will be working in basketry under Master Basket Weaver Deborah Head and Morgan will be working in silver carving under Master Jenny Lyn Smith.
Degtoff earned a blue ribbon in last year’s Southeast Alaska State Fair for a basket she completed and says the artform comes naturally to her. And Morgan says that carving represents her identity as a daughter, sister, auntie, friend and clan member.
In the program, an apprentice puts in around 520 hours of work and receives $6,000. Their mentor receives $10,000. The end product doesn’t go to the tribe, but is instead left up to the mentor and the apprentice on how it should be kept or sold.
CIA Cultural Department Director Helen Alten said that the program requires a lot of work. Each apprentice is expected to stay in Haines for at least two years at the end of their mentorship and commit to public programs like teaching classes in the artform. During the apprenticeship, they must also maintain a blog on the tribe’s website and take business classes with courses that include marketing and grant writing.
Alten said, “It’s not just free money. The obligation, and part of how we choose someone is it has to be somebody who will pass that knowledge along. And kind of work at passing that knowledge along. Because we recognize that part of what happened in our community is that people stopped passing knowledge to the next generation.”
An apprentice must be a member of the CIA tribe but the mentor can be from outside Haines. However, because the funding is from a federal grant, the mentor must be a United States citizen. This has posed a challenge for the program because many masters in traditional Native art forms are Canadian.
Alten explained that one of this year’s apprentices, Rhonda Degtoff, had to do an extensive search to find her basketry mentor. Degtoff is currently visiting Craig, Alaska, where her mentor Deborah Head lives. The team is spending the week gathering supplies and processing them. And later, Head will come to Haines in hopes of revitalizing the artform locally.
Alten said, “This year we prioritized some of the skills that we just don’t have at all. That’s why we really searched for someone who would do the basket weaving. It used to be that spruce root baskets were plentiful in this valley. And now I don’t believe anyone is working in spruce root at all. And so one of the things the apprentice and mentor are going to be doing is the mentor is going to come up here and we’re gonna go out in our boat that we have for CIA and look for sites for spruce roots. And try to identify where the sites are. And start harvesting.”
Not all apprentices have to look far for a mentor. In the program’s pilot year, apprentice Gwen Sauser was mentored by Klukwan resident Marsha Hotch in weaving. Hotch explained to KHNS that the program offered her an opportunity to honor an old friend, Saucer’s father.
Hotch said, “I”ve been friends with her parents. And her dad always said I was gonna teach his daughters to Chilkat weave. And when he passed, it was just something that was there in my heart. They were very good friends of mine.”
When Hotch began mentoring her, Sauser had no experience in the art, which the program prefers. But Sauser is the granddaughter of a famous weaver, and her ancestral history was taken into consideration when her application was accepted.
Hotch said teaching beginner weavers is especially difficult and most mentors want experienced apprentices. She explains why she agreed to be a mentor in the rigorous program, despite the challenges.
Hotch said, “I wouldn’t teach a big class. I’m different. I want to intact the culture, not just teach techniques and leave the “Why did our ancestors weave?” “What was so important?” “And why was there so much woven objects out there? What enabled them?” So there’s history. And I wanted that part to be intact. I’m not running out there marketing themselves. I would rather people do it the way my ancestors. The way those grandmas in Klukwan viewed the importance of doing this by keeping it intact with the cultural component to it. Today I feel like one becomes a weaver and I think that when we get into marketing we lose a lot of what it means to be Tlingit. And keeping that part alive with weaving, is important.”
The program’s newest apprentices will work with their mentors through September of 2024.
