Tlingit Artist Samuel Sheakley

Samuel Sheakley is of the Eagle moiety, from the Brown Bear clan, and from the Cedar House in Hoonah. He learned a great deal of his cultural history and knowledge of the Tlingit from his grandmother Anita Lafferty, who appointed him to be an artist when he grew out of his regalia as a teenager. In 2017 he was chosen to be an apprentice for the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation’s Master Artist Mentorship Program with mentor artist Nicholas Galanin.

Sheakley takes on the honorable responsibility of carrying some a culture’s most vital information and securing it not just for his children and grandchildren, but our future leaders, just as our Elders and ancestors did before us.