Imagine a beating drum; families in their best skin clothing gathered for a festival;  a warm sod house decorated 
  with animal pelts and hunting gear.  In the low winter light, dancers emerge into a wood-planked room reenacting a 
  scene  from a summer hunt.  Each wears a mask carved in the likeness of a human or animal spirit.  As the men
 dance, the  spirits come to life and are honored for the gifts of the past year.  In Alutiiq cosmology each animal has
 a soul - or sua - that when treated respectfully will give itself to the human world over and over again.  Health,
 prosperity, 
  and  life itself, rely on this celebration.  As the dance ends, the masks are broken and discarded, burned, or
 secreted away for a future use.  This will insure that no disrespect befalls the spirit worlds.  

 Mask carving continues in modern Alutiiq communities as an expression of traditional values and enduring ties to  
 the natural world.  Lena Amason’s Salmon Mask is both an aesthetic work and a connection to her Alutiiq  
 ancestry.