YUPIIT QUKI, 2024

This doll box featuring Golga Oscar, the first man in the series, precipitated a series title change from First American Girl to First American Doll. Golga, whose nickname is “Quki” is Yup’ik from Kasigluk, Alaska, and in the Yup’ik language, Yupiit translates to “the real people.” A self-taught textile artist designer—and a photographer in his own right with a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts—Golga is the only male seamstress in his extended family. He works to carry forward his grandmother’s legacies through sewing, using various animal skins, fur, wool yarn, and beads. In this doll box, Golga is surrounded by clothing and dance implements he has made. To his right hangs a pair of Vans sneakers he customized with beadwork, and to his left is an empty carton of Sailor Boy Pilot Bread crackers, a type of hardtack that remains popular amongst Alaska Native communities today.