Artifact of the Month: November 2019

Modern Tlingit-style war helmet

Native warriors wore battle helmets with crest animals or ancestors and were outfitted with wooden visors, thick leather tunics, and body armor made of wooden rods or slats. They armed themselves with bows and arrows, spears, clubs, and daggers. This helmet is a modern recreation of a Tlingit-style war helmet made by Matthew J. Helgesen, an emerging yet accomplished artist raised in Hydaburg. Matthew is Kaigani Haida of the Eagle Clan, and has studied under Haida carver Warren Peele of Hydaburg and as an apprentice of Tlingit carver Norman Jackson of Ketchikan.

The helmet was made in 2010 and depicts a stylized killer whale with a removable dorsal fin. It is made of alder and painted in the Tlingit-style to represent the Killer Whale crest. The teeth are made of operculum shell and the fin has horsehair streamers.

The war helmet is on exhibit at the Tongass Historical Museum in the special exhibit, "Solving Problems: Telling Stories" and on view through January 2020. Purchase of Matthew's war helmet was made possible through the generous support of the Rasmuson Foundation and Museums Alaska's Art Acquisition Fund grant program.

Ketchikan Museums, KM 2010.2.23.1 A&B