Kiana Traditional Council and three partners to receive 2026 Eileen Devinney Award

Western Arctic National Parklands will present its 2026 Eileen Devinney Award to the Kiana Traditional Council and three community partners, Tessa Baldwin-Cyrus, Robin Kornfield and Thomas Jackson, for their work with the National Park Service documenting the ties between Kiana and Kobuk Valley National Park.

The long-term ethnographic project records the relationships, experiences and connections of Kiana and neighboring communities with the park. Its report, "I Love That Country — That's Why I Go There," was completed this year, according to a National Park Service release. It's available through Portland State University.

The work began in 2015 with interviews of Kiana Elders. It built on earlier archaeological research led by Doug Anderson of Brown University, with support from the Kiana Traditional Council. Elders and youth later worked together, including at Kiana Elders Camp in 2023.

From 2024 through 2026, Baldwin-Cyrus, Kornfield and Jackson helped organize a community gathering at Swift Water Place, which the Park Service called an important place for the Kiana community. More than 50 community members attended this summer. Youth from the Opt-In program performed Iñupiaq dancing, there was a community potluck, and Doug and Wanni Anderson took part.

Jeanette Koelsch, superintendent of Western Arctic National Parklands, said the Park Service's ability to care for the parklands is strengthened by "listening to the people whose knowledge and connection to these lands extend across generations."

The annual award recognizes service that helps perpetuate traditional knowledge tied to Kobuk Valley National Park, Cape Krusenstern National Monument and Noatak National Preserve. It honors Eileen Devinney, a former Park Service anthropologist and resource manager who died in 2017 and whose work in Northwest Alaska championed documenting and preserving traditional knowledge. The award was established with her family's blessing.

Cyrus Harris of Kotzebue received the award in 2025, the late Shield Downey Jr. of Ambler in 2024, and Hilda Booth, Thurston Booth, Ricky Ashby and James Adams of Noatak in 2023.