Louis Shotridge ("Stuwaka") was born about 1882, into a high-ranking family of the Chilkat Tlingit Indians in or near Klukwan, Alaska. He married an educated woman, Florence ("Katkwachsnea"), of the Chilkoot Tlingits. When Florence was selected to demonstrate Chilkat blanket weaving at the Lewis & Clark Exposition at Portland, Oregon in 1905, Louis accompanied her with Tlingit masks and other objects. There, Louis met George Gordon, curator at the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. Shotridge began to collect Alaska Indian objects for the Museum, and eventually joined their staff as assistant curator. The Shotridges documented Tlingit culture in oral recordings of traditional songs and stories as well as through objects. They headed the John Wanamaker expedition to Southeast Alaska in 1916, to gather "ethnological specimens" of Alaska Indians and to continue documenting the Tlingit culture. Florence had contracted tuberculosis and died in Alaska during this trip. Louis later remarried twice, but outside of Tlingit custom.

With his insider's knowledge, Shotridge developed one of the most extensive collections of Indian culture at the University Museum. The value of his work was in his meticulous record-keeping, which recorded the history, context and identity of the objects. Some of the objects he bought from his people caused much controversy. Shotridge's efforts to remove artifacts from the Klukwan Whale House caused a deep distrust. Toward the end of his museum career he had begun to question his own actions in having removed important cultural objects from his own people.

Louis Shotridge was found in 1937 with a broken neck near his cabin at Redoubt Bay south of Sitka. After the incident, which led to Shotridge's death, no witnesses came forward. Some believed his mortal injury was made to seem accidental by Klukwan Natives. The true circumstances were never revealed.