Dry Bay Documentary

Abstract

The Yakutat tribe, National Park Service, US. Forest Service and University of Alaska Southeast began an ongoing collaborative research project in Dry Bay, searching for the historical tribal house sites on the Akwe River and in Dry Bay, in 1997. The goal of this collaborative project is to locate all of the original house sites of the Guseix village. This year the descendants of Dry Bay and the people of Yakutat plan to have a l0-year celebration in Dry Bay in commemoration of the research done and the 10th year of the last KU.eex (potlatch) in the Bay. The elders of Yakutat have requested me to document the Dry Bay celebration, which will happen at the end of May. I am therefore requesting funding to enable me to make a video documentary of the event. I plan to film the celebration as well as conduct interviews with participants involved with the event. It is my goal to show this documentary at Sealaska Celebration, Juneau, 2012. I would also like to submit the finished documentary to state and national Native documentary film festivals. The original ethnographic video footage will be conserved for the clan and tribe. The ethnographic research from this project will be part of my senior project and a paper for the Alaska Historical Society meetings Fall 2011 and at the Alaska Anthropology Association meeting Spring 2012