Athabascan Village Echoes With The Past

EKLUTNA, Alaska - This is where visitors hear echoes from Alaska's past.

The tiny Athabascan Indian village of Eklutna - a 30-minute drive from downtown Anchorage - is a nugget of long-ago Alaska.

Here is a Russian Orthodox church of hand-hewn logs that may have been standing when Abraham Lincoln was president.

Here is a cemetery marked not with headstones and marble angels but with "spirit houses" painted in vibrant colors.

It's a place, says Ann Chandonnet, an Eklutna historian, "of full lives and bright memories."

Athabascans have occupied Eklutna (pronounced Ee-KLOOT-nah) for almost 350 years. They were here when Capt. James Cook explored Arctic waters for England, before Russia occupied Alaska - and long before there was a city called Anchorage.

But now the Eklutna Athabascans are dwindling in number. Only about 60 remain in the village.

"We are working hard to preserve our culture," says Theresa Hartman, operations manager of Eklutna Village Historical Park.

Eklutna, Inc., the village corporation, opened the park six years ago to protect the church and the burial ground.

Before access was limited, vandals prowled the village, trampling graves and stealing candles and other family items from the "spirit houses." One thief even made off with the old bell from St. Nicholas Church.

The park is open from mid-May to the end of September - and with Alaska's long hours of summer daylight, from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $3.50.

The centerpiece of the village is the toy-like St. Nicholas Church, built of spruce logs held together with wooden pegs. There are no records to document when the church was built, but historians say it must have been some time between 1844 and 1867.

That's when Father Igumen Nikolai, a pioneering Orthodox missionary from Russia, toiled among the natives of Eklutna and nearby villages. Eklutna leaders believe the church was built under his direction.

Whatever the exact date of construction, St. Nicholas is the oldest building in the Greater Anchorage area.

Inside are precious icons brought from Russia before the czars sold Alaska to the United States in 1867. And hanging from the ceiling is a hand-carved candelabra with brass rifle shells for candle holders.

Old St. Nicholas isn't Eklutna's only church.

Because of the fragile condition of the original church, a second church was completed in 1962 to provide facilities for religious services.

The two churches, with their Russian-style onion-dome cupolas, form a dramatic backdrop for the cemetery and the 100 or so "spirit houses" that decorate villagers' graves.

Nobody is sure how the spirit- house custom began.

"My understanding is that the spirit house is simply a monument," writes Ann Chandonnet in "On the Trail of Eklutna."

"But perhaps the deeper meaning is that it is a gesture of love," she added.

The hand-made structures - looking something like wooden doll houses - are built atop each grave on the 40th day after a villager's death.

Spirit houses for adults generally are about six feet long and four feet high. A mini-house inside a larger spirit house indicates that a mother and child are buried together.

In most cases, there are no headstones. Instead, family plots are identified by colors reserved by each family for their "spirit houses."

Red and white are the colors for the "spirit houses" of Eklutna royalty, members of the Alex family.

Alex Vasily, who died in 1953, was the last shaman (medicine man) of Eklutna. White settlers nicknamed him Eklutna Alex.

His son, Mike Maxim Alex, who died in 1977, was the last traditional chief of Eklutna.

Mike Alex was the volunteer caretaker of the village cemetery and St. Nicholas Church for more than 20 years. And it was Mike Alex who led the effort to build the newer church.

He is honored with one of the few headstones in Eklutna's cemetery -and with a little log chapel built in his name by village children. A guided walk

Visitors hear the story of Eklutna at the visitors center and tour the grounds on a half-hour guided walk-around.

They learn how early-day Athabascans used to fish for salmon in Ship Creek, in the heart of what now is Anchorage, Alaska's largest city.

In Eklutna's small museum, they see old-time Athabascan garments made of moosehide and adorned with intricate bead work.

And outside, on the trail through the cemetery, they hear whispers from the past through the towering spruce trees - and they hear a church bell.

Yes, there is a happy ending to the story of the stolen bell from St. Nicholas Church.

The 200-pound bell was spotted at an Anchorage auction in 1980. The price was $400, more than the people of Eklutna could afford.

An Anchorage real-estate company bought the bell and returned it to the village. ----------------------------------------------------------------- IF YOU GO

Visiting Eklutna

Getting there: Eklutna is 26 miles northeast of Anchorage by way of Alaska Highway 1, the Glenn Highway. Take the "Eklutna" exit, then turn left for the visitor center.

More information: Eklutna Village Historical Park, phone (907) 696-2828. Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau, (907) 276-4118.