Tlingit Whale House Series

Nine years ago, brilliantly carved Tlingit artifacts linking the
Chilkat people with their ancestors were sold and removed from the
village of Klukwan. Since then, families, neighbors and lawyers have
fought bitterly over ownership. No one sees them now.

By Marilee Enge

Whale House Series
http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/Tlingit/Battle/
Series At A Glance

Part 1 : The sale of the Whale House legacy.
http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/Tlingit/Battle/part1.html
Part 2 : Carving the masterworks.
Modern-day carvers and anthropologists follow the trail of a Tlingit
artist of profound skill and vision
http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/Tlingit/Battle/part2.html
Part 3 : A Tlingit buyer of Tlingit artifacts.
Tlingit nobleman Louis Shotridge, so of a keeper of the Whale House,
becomes a scholar of his people - and a controversial collector
http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/Tlingit/Battle/part3.html
Part 4 : A dealer's passion for the Whale House.
A Seattle art dealer's decade of obsession ends in bitterness and in court.
http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/Tlingit/Battle/part4.html
Part 5 : Epic sage becomes litigation.
A tangle of bloodlines and birthrights is now a court's to unravel.
http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/Tlingit/Battle/part5.html

See also
CHILKAT INDIAN VILLAGE, IRA v. JOHNSON Decision
Summary
In an action brought by the Chilkat Indian Village, IRA against an
individual and a corporation and individuals comprising the "Whale
House Group" for the conversion of tribal trust property and
violation of a tribal ordinance which prohibits the removal of such
property from the village without prior notification of and approval
by the Chilkat Village Council seeking declaratory and injunctive
relief and monetary damages, the Chilkat Indian Village Tribal Court
orders the return of artifacts and the payment of expenses for the
artifacts' return as well as costs and fees of litigation.
Full Text
http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/Tlingit/ChilkatIndianVillage/