Alaska Native Heritage Center, Alaska, United States

5Mark D 5:00 PM Jun 20, 2022

A must if you want to learn!
Beautiful facility in a beautiful setting, a short drive from town (we had a ride service for $20). Unlike how many museums are overwhelming with too much ‘stuff’ to take in, ANHC has just enough. Take the free guided tour of the village, showcasing reproductions of several different styles of dwelling, and learn about the variations in lifestyle and material circumstances. There are also multiple short films playing in the theatre as well as a schedule of live demonstrations. I particularly enjoyed the ‘games’ demo, and the short film about qayaks and canoes. They are on a couple of times a day. Guides are friendly and informative. Cafe is fine. I would have enjoyed a chance to eat some indigenous cuisine but you can’t have everything! Not cheap ($29/19 adult/kid) but it supports the center’s mission of community building and was well worth it. We spent about 4.5 hours. Nice gift store too.

4veryuniquetraveler 5:00 PM Aug 20, 2022

recommend a visit
This was one of our first stops on our trip as I felt we should start out learning something about the natives and their culture before we set out touring the state. Center did a good job explaining about the different clans across the state and their ways of life. There is a walking tour outside of the different historical villages and a whale skeleton ( which should be under a covered roof for protection in my opinion ). We were there on a weekend, but there were no staff in the buildings that day to explain the sites. There were info cards in each building to explain what the different exhibits were. Lots of furs and small artifacts to look at. Inside there is an exhibit hall and several local artisans demonstrating how they make their crafts. You can take guided tours of the villages and exhibit hall or explore on your own to avoid the crowds. There is a theater showing several different movies all day about various subjects. FYI, if you are going to the Museum of the North in Fairbanks, make sure you watch the movie about whales here because they will charge you an additional $5 to watch the same movie in Fairbanks. There are also various talks and cultural presentations throughout the day. Be sure not to miss the dance performance. There is also an interesting demo on native games. It was good to see young people wanting to learn about and share their culture. It will easily take 6 hours to see most of the movies and demos. The cafe was open but had a very limited selection. At least you could get a snack or drink. Seating was outdoors on a deck with very few covered tables. There were a couple of tables inside by the exit to the villages.