IT TAKES A VILLAGE; ANCHORAGE'S NEW ALASKA NATIVE HERITAGE CENTER TO PRESENT THRIVING INDIGENOUS CULTURE.

Byline: Eric Noland Travel Editor

Perry Eaton peers intently at the map of Alaska he has spread out before him. ``There are no roads . . . here,'' he says, applying his entire palm to the western portion of the state with an audible slap.

The only way to get from point to point out here is by air. Or foot. Or boat. Or, during most of the year, something with runners on it.

And it might be difficult for residents of the lower 48 to appreciate the vastness of these distances. Overlay this same map on the contiguous United States, and Ketchikan is at Jacksonville, Fla., Point Barrow is just a few miles south of Fargo, N.D., and the Aleutian chain runs into the Pacific Ocean, 170 miles west of San Diego.

The geographic and meteorologic realities quickly conspire against any tourist who wants to examine the native cultures of any of Alaska's five main indigenous groups.

The solution? Bring the groups to the tourist.

The consummation of this plan is the Alaska Native Heritage Center, which will open in Anchorage - the state's largest city - on May 1. Eaton, born into the Aleut/Alutiiq culture 54 years ago on Kodiak Island, will serve as its president, and he could barely contain his enthusiasm for the project on a recent visit to Los Angeles.

This won't be a static museum. Rather, representatives of each native group will gather in village environments to build kayaks, make moccasins, prepare food, sing, dance - all for the purpose of familiarizing outsiders with their worlds. Imagine a rough hybrid of Williamsburg, Va., and Hawaii's Polynesian Cultural Center, but established several latitude lines to the north.

``We call Alaska the last frontier,'' Eaton said, ``and, in that regard, you can extend that assumption and say the indigenous people there are on the frontier also. So if the visitor were actually to go into the village, it would be like entering a village in the frontier back at the turn of the century.

``Alaska is unique in the American Indian experience because there was no Indian removal here. These people are still residing in our original villages, so the context of the culture is unique to America. What we're endeavoring to do with the center is bring you closer to that original baseline culture and share some of the real beauty of it.''

The center, a nonprofit educational enterprise with representatives of all five native regions on its board, will be housed on a 26-acre site on the northeastern edge of the city. Tourists will first enter the Welcome House, a 26,000-square-foot structure containing interpretative displays, a theater and an area for dance performances and storytelling.

Beyond this building will be a small lake, surrounded by re-creations of villages. A walking path, which will be wheelchair-accessible, will connect them.

Visitors will be able to survey working environments for all five major cultures: Athabascan from central Alaska; Yup'ik/Cup'ik from the west; Inupiaq/St. Lawrence Island Yupik from the north; Aleut/Alutiiq from the Aleutian Island chain in the southwest; and the Eyak, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples from the southeast.

``We want to present ourselves as a live, living, functional culture,'' said Eaton, an Anchorage banker who has been active in native affairs throughout his career. He cited several examples:

``A woman making moccasins won't be behind glass. You're going to walk in and have a conversation with her. She'll tell you about the deer hide, where she gets it today, where she got it yesterday, where her mother got it.''

``You might see how different cultures treat salmon. In August, we will be splitting fish and drying fish, and different cultures have different ways of doing it. We might even ask you to help.''

``You might see some elders teaching some youth on kayak-building. You don't just get to see it made, you get to see the sharing and how it comes down traditionally between the generations.''

Eaton added: ``We want you to know that we still make these things. This is not a dead culture in which you're going to handle artifacts from many years ago. And the goal of the center is to celebrate and to perpetuate and to share the traditions. We want you to see us the way we are.''

For some visitors, some of those details might be shocking, even troubling, but that will be part of the educational process, too. Native Alaskans hunt whales, seals and sea otters for food and other products. It's an integral part of a cycle of sustenance that has been in place for thousands of years.

Eaton, who admitted that the seal and sea otter harvests, for example, are conducted ``out of sight,'' was asked if some urbanites would be horrified by the practice. ``Totally,'' he said, ``and that's a real dilemma. And that's real important for the center to educate (outsiders). There is no shortage of seals, and we don't go around clubbing the babies the way the Canadians do. And we don't just harvest them for the hides. And it's not in any danger at all. But because of perception, it makes it very difficult.''

The Alaska Native Heritage Center will seek to convey these messages, among many others. These native people, according to center officials, are under tremendous pressure from policies made thousands of miles away in Washington, D.C. When a duck-hunting season is defined, and bag limits are set, what specific impact does that have on an Inupiaq village along the Colville River in northern Alaska?

This might provide a prime opportunity to explain.

``You don't need to go to the Amazon rain forest to find indigenous people who are threatened in their environment,'' Eaton said. ``It's right here in America.''

The project is being launched in part as a response to surveys conducted by Alaska tourism officials. Visitors, it was learned, have a profound curiosity about native life in this largely untracked wilderness.

Ken Morris, of the Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau, said, ``When visitors come to Alaska, they're looking for scenery, wildlife and native culture. You can usually guarantee the first two, but people just don't have the time or energy or wherewithal to get out to the different villages.''

Another anticipated benefit of the center will be to provide an environment in which the native groups themselves can interact and share experiences. Those vast distances and forbidding conditions have prevented them from having significant contact, too.

But the primary function is tourism. The entrance fee will be $20 for adults and $15 for children under 12, and center officials have wisely worked with cruise lines to set up shore excursions for passengers. One agreement is already in place with Princess, and final details of another are being worked out with Holland America.

Regardless of how outsiders get there, the center's leaders are seeking to make the experience a profound one.

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos, Map

Photo: (1--2--Color) Visitors to the Alaska Native Heritage Center will be able to see artisans at work. The doll, above, was made by Lena Mae Shontz of the Inupiaq culture. Tourists won't see artifacts in a glass case. Instead, native people will make baskets and other items, discussing the process as they work.

(3) The center's president, Perry Eaton, says, ``This is not a dead culture. We still make these things.''

David Sprague

(4) At the Alaska Native Heritage Center, dancers will perform daily - and visitors should prepare for an interactive experience.

Map: Alaska Native Heritage Center