Buildings that hold what comes next

Working alongside tribal communities across Alaska and Washington. Building homes, schools, clinics, cultural centers and the institutions that carry generations forward.

A landmark for the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples.

Sealaska Heritage Institute's mission is to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures. We built the Walter Soboleff Building in 2015. 35,000 square feet. LEED Gold. The second Southeast Alaska structure to achieve gold certification.

Inside: offices, archives, classrooms, exhibit space, art demonstration space and a traditional Native cedar clan house anchored by work from Robert Davidson, David Boxley, Preston Singletary, Steve Brown and Wayne Price. We are now in construction on the Arts Campus next door. Heritage Square. The dedicated teaching and demonstration home for monumental Northwest Coast art.

Native cedar clan house and craftsmanship inside the Walter Soboleff Building

Dawson team at work on a Ketchikan Indian Community housing project

Be strong and have courage. A community standing behind you

KIC is a federally recognized Tribe with 6,000+ Tribal citizens, the second largest Tribe in Alaska, sovereign since time immemorial in Kichxaan. The building is a $16 million, three-story Housing First project for elders 55 and older at risk of or experiencing homelessness, in partnership with KIC Housing Authority and Cook Inlet Housing Authority. Ground blessed July 2025. Foundation work began the same month.

Two grounds broken. One Nation leading

The Lhaq'temish, the Lummi people, are the original inhabitants of Washington's northernmost coast. Their mission is to sustain a way of life they have built and defended for thousands of years.

In March 2025 we broke ground on Eagle Haven Tiny Home Village, 24 off-site-fabricated homes for Lummi tribal members facing housing instability, with all units set by Fall 2025. Later in 2025 we broke ground on the Lummi Early Learning Center, a Lummi Nation-led early childhood education facility, and delivered the Larry Olsen Housing Subdivision. On the Lummi Reservation we also support Northwest Indian College, the accredited tribal college chartered by Lummi Nation, serving over 1,200 students annually from more than 90 Tribal nations under the banner Building People, Building Nations.

Dawson team at a Lummi Nation groundbreaking with Tribal leaders

Jilkaat Kwaan Cultural Heritage Center exterior in Klukwan, Alaska

The home where the Chilkat River keeps speaking

The Chilkat Indian Village sits in Klukwan on the Chilkat River, the ancestral home of the Jilkaat Kwaan. Dawson built the Jilkaat Kwaan Cultural Heritage Center to house and protect the village's clan robes, totems and ancestral artifacts, with a dedicated carving shed for living practice. A working home for the people of Klukwan to gather, teach and carry the work forward.

The carver's hand. Our framing

In late 2023 we restored multiple totem poles in our Juneau warehouse before they were installed again along Kootéeyaa Deiyí, the Totem Pole Trail. Before we touched the steel and structure beneath, we met with the master carver.

Our job was to keep the work standing for the next generation that reads it.