Haggin Museum bark houses exhibit honors Yosemite Native American tribe

The Haggin Museum in Stockton is honoring the Yosemite Valley's Native American heritage with a special exhibit featuring paintings of indigenous bark houses — thanks to the efforts of an artist whose work has been hung in the Smithsonian.

Jonas Kulikauskas is a Lithuanian-American Fulbright grant recipient artist. When he visited the Haggin Museum in 2022 for another project he worked on, called "Yosemite People," he saw famed painter Albert Bierstadt's Yosemite Valley classic paintings — and thought there was something missing.

"And that something was the Native people," Kulikauskas said. "And I thought, why not have them represented? So you can think of it as an interruption or intervention, but I think in a very respectful way because I don't touch the paintings."

Kulikauskas said he collaborated with Ben Cunningham-Summerfield, a Yosemite park ranger and cultural demonstrator, to ensure the structures are accurate. The paintings were created on transparent acrylic panels

Kulikauskas said the Ahwahneechee people lived in seasonal bark houses made from sugar pine, cedar, and grapevines, caring for the land. He said he hopes the exhibit gives people an idea of what the area would have resembled at the time.

In a previous project, titled "Yosemite People", Kulikauskas said he visited Yosemite 19 times between 2014-2016, bringing his camera, and highlighting the people at Yosemite, such as the rangers, the volunteers and the tourists. It was during this project that he conceived the initial concept of the exhibit, he said.

Kulikauskas said that he appreciates the museum's willingness to collaborate on the project, and expressed hope that it can become a traveling exhibit.  

"This is just my art," Kulikauskas said. "This is just completely from my heart." 

The exhibit will be on display at the museum until November 29.