18th-centruy Tlingit music documented during Spanish expedition recreated by experts

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - In 1791, the two sailing ships of the Spanish Malaspina expedition sailed into Yakutat Bay in Southeast Alaska.

It was a scientific expedition that spent four weeks collecting information. At the end of their time in Yakutat they sailed away with all of their collected materials.

Tucked away in the botanist’s notes were four sheets of paper. Recently those four pages were found safely stored in a museum in Spain. It turns out it was sheet music.

The Tlingit music was silent for more than two centuries until experts with the Sealaska Heritage Insitute figured out a way to recreate it.

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