This diminutive spruce root basket, by the late Tlingit master weaver Teri Rofkar, DFA, features a spiderweb pattern with false imbricated red diamonds and a deer hide handle. Rofkar was a celebrated weaver who worked and taught for many years in Sitka, Alaska, at the Sitka National Historical Park. According to her memorial on the National Park Service website, although her first teacher was her grandmother Eliza Mork, Rofkar “took classes and learned from Delores Churchill, Esther Littlefield, and Lucy Raymond. All of whom taught classes at the Southeast Alaska Indian Cultural Center at Sitka National Historical Park.” [1] She was also an award-winning artist who won the “2004 Governor’s Award for Native Art in Alaska, the 2006 USA Rasmuson Fellowship, the 2009 National Heritage Fellowship, the 2009 National Heritage Fellowship Award, the 2012 Creative Capital Visual Arts Award, the 2013 NACF Artist Fellowship, the 2013 Rasmuson Foundation’s Distinguished Artist Award[9], and an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Alaska Southeast in 2015.” [2] Today, Rofkar’s works can be found in the permanent collections of fine public institutions, such as the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and the UAF Museum of the North, but her work is relatively rare on the secondary art market.

1. Teri Rofkar. National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/people/teri-rofkar.htm. Accessed 16 Jan 2026.

2. Ibid.