Amos Wallace

Amos Louis Wallace was a Tlingit artist from Juneau, Alaska. His Tlingit name was "Jeet Yaaw Dustaa." He was of the T’akhdeintaan, a Raven clan, from Hoonah.
In 1958, a New York department store hired him to carve totems in celebration of the Alaska Statehood Act which led to him being invited to appear on the Tonight Show starring Jack Paar and to be invited to carve a totem pole for Disneyland.

Personal life

Born in 1920 in Juneau, Alaska, Amos Wallace lived in Hoonah until the age of six, and moved back to Juneau at the age of seven when he started to learn carving from his uncles and brothers. He attended elementary school at the Pius X Mission Catholic boarding school in Skagway, and later attended boarding school at the Wrangell Institute for Alaska Native youth.
He served in the Army in World War II, and in 1960 married Dorothy Wanamaker, who became Dorothy Wallace. Their children are Merle, Beverly, Anna, Kenny, Kathleen, Daryle, Roger, Sonja and Brian.

Collections

Amos Wallace's art is in the collections of the Brooklyn Children's Museum, the Clausen Memorial Museum, and museums in Toronto, Boston, and the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. His archive of drawings, photographs and notes and newspaper clippings are in the Sealaska Heritage Institute.