Juneau-based nonprofit promoting Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultural preservation, language revitalization, and educational programs.
Walter Soboleff Building, 105 S Seward St, Juneau, AK 99801
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Benjamin Young
“My name is Benjamin Young. My Haida name is Kwéyáng, and I'm Yak'wlanas.”Sealaska Heritage Institute: Yaadaas Clan Crest with Benjamin K’uyáang Young | Sealaska Heriatge · Aug 13, 2026
Benjamin Young
“It was Kasaan. They call it Old Kasaan now, but it was back at that time that people first moved to Kasaan.”Sealaska Heritage Institute: Yaadaas Clan Crest with Benjamin K’uyáang Young | Sealaska Heriatge · Aug 13, 2026
Benjamin Young
“The people were the Yaadas Haida clan. My people are Yaadas.”Sealaska Heritage Institute: Yaadaas Clan Crest with Benjamin K’uyáang Young | Sealaska Heriatge · Aug 13, 2026
Benjamin Young
“While they were hurrying to make their homes, Raven used to fly around them. Once in a while in the mornings, he'd come there and he'd fly around above them. When he flew around above them, he'd call out, "Tots, tots, tots."”Sealaska Heritage Institute: Yaadaas Clan Crest with Benjamin K’uyáang Young | Sealaska Heriatge · Aug 13, 2026
Benjamin Young
“The raven saved them at the place where it was first called Staatschuni.”Sealaska Heritage Institute: Yaadaas Clan Crest with Benjamin K’uyáang Young | Sealaska Heriatge · Aug 13, 2026
Benjamin Young
“it connects us with the land, it connects us with the people, it connects my clan with a lot of shared history... it tells me of the struggle. It tells me of the sacrifice”Sealaska Heritage Institute: Yaadaas Clan Crest with Benjamin K’uyáang Young | Sealaska Heriatge · Aug 13, 2026
Creators of first Tlingit opera take public questions Thursday in Juneau
Sealaska Heritage Institute will host a public panel with the creative team behind the first Tlingit opera, "Ḵutulagaaw: The Tlingit-Russian Battles," from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27 at its Clan House in downtown Juneau, ahead of the Sept. 11 world premiere.
by Maggie AlaskaNews16h ago1 min readAI
Tlingit law student Gloria Wolfe wins the Judson L. Brown Leadership Award
Sealaska Heritage Institute announced Sunday that Gloria Wolfe, a University of Arizona master's student in law and policy who has led cultural heritage work for the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe, received the 2026 Judson L. Brown Leadership Award and its $5,000 scholarship.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1d ago1 min readAI
Juneau Assembly votes 6-3 to sell old City Hall to Sealaska Heritage Institute for $1.5 million
The Juneau Assembly voted 6-3 Monday to sell the old City Hall at 155 Heritage Way to Sealaska Heritage Institute for $1.5 million, a million dollars below the minimum bid its own Lands Committee set in February. The proceeds were already committed to the Burns Building move.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
Yaadás clan historian says he only recently traced how his clan got the beaver crest
Yaadás clan historian Benjamin Young, in a talk for Sealaska Heritage Institute, traced his clan's migration from Haida Gwaii to Old Kasaan on Prince of Wales Island and laid out two accounts of how Haida Eagles came to hold the beaver crest.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
A Tsimshian carver, accused of inventing clan stories, is affirmed by another clan
Tsimshian carver David Boxley traced the Laxgyibuu clan's migration from interior British Columbia down the Stikine at a Sealaska Heritage Institute lecture in Juneau, saying the history he is reconstructing is older than the William Duncan mission that dominates accounts of Tsimshian settlement.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
Money for Alaska Native education keeps flowing, but no new competition has opened in nearly two years
Twenty-six federal Alaska Native Education Program grants worth $59.4 million reached the end of their performance periods on July 1 and July 31, and federal records show no new competition has opened since November 2023. Sen. Lisa Murkowski says continuation money for existing grantees was obligated Aug. 5.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
The first Tlingit opera in recorded history opens in Juneau next month
The first Tlingit opera in recorded history, 'Ḵutulagaaw: The Tlingit-Russian Battles,' opens in Juneau on Sept. 11, performed in the Tlingit language through Sept. 20.
by Melinda Communities.News3w ago1 min readAI
Sealaska Heritage concludes ninth annual education conference
Sealaska Heritage Institute closed its ninth annual Culturally Responsive Education Conference in downtown Juneau on Thursday. Hundreds of people from Alaska, the Lower 48, Canada and New Zealand attended a keynote by Ernestine Saankalaxt Hayes and more than 50 breakout sessions.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
Juneau sets hearing on $1.5M City Hall sale to Sealaska Heritage Institute
The City and Borough of Juneau takes public testimony Aug. 17 on whether to sell the old City Hall site to Sealaska Heritage Institute for $1.5 million or open it to competitive bid. SHI released schematics of a 30,000-square-foot arts building for the site.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
41.3 million for Alaska Native education is freed up after a month's delay
Fifteen Alaska organizations will share $41.3 million in Alaska Native Education Program continuation awards, spread across 26 grants. The U.S. Department of Education obligated the money Wednesday, about a month after the July 1 date it was expected, after Sen. Lisa Murkowski raised the delay with Secretary Linda McMahon.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
Sealaska Heritage honors four Southeast educators at Juneau conference
Sealaska Heritage Institute gave awards to four educators from Juneau, Metlakatla and Sitka during its Our Cultural Landscape conference, held Aug. 4-6 at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall in downtown Juneau.
by Melinda Communities.Newsadded 1w ago1 min readAI
Sealaska Heritage publishes fifth graders' documentary on Walter Soboleff
Sealaska Heritage Institute published a documentary made by Auke Bay Elementary fifth graders about Ḵaajaaḵwtí Dr. Walter Soboleff, built around family and congregation interviews and aimed at filling a classroom gap ahead of Walter Soboleff Day on Nov. 14.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
Celebration 2026 opens in Juneau with canoe arrivals, cultural speeches
Sealaska Heritage Institute opened Celebration 2026 in Juneau with traditional canoe arrivals from eight Southeast Alaska communities. Speakers framed the gathering's theme, Enduring Strength, as a response to external political forces and internal community challenges.
by Melinda Communities.Newsadded 2mo ago2 min readAI
Juneau weighs selling City Hall for top dollar — or for less, to Sealaska
The Juneau Assembly advanced two ways to sell City Hall — a high-bid auction with a $2.5M floor, or a $1.5M negotiated sale to Sealaska Heritage Institute — and will let the public weigh in.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
SHI book documents the fraught origins of three Juneau totem poles
Sealaska Heritage Institute published 'The Juneau CCC Poles' on Thursday, tracing how the U.S. Forest Service hired Tlingit and Haida carvers to create three poles between 1938 and 1942 while simultaneously controlling millions of acres of Native land, a tension still visible in the poles standing in Juneau today.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Tlingit artist warns AI hiring tools are already screening out job seekers of color
Larry McNeil, a Tlingit photographer and Boise State professor emeritus, warned a Sealaska Heritage Institute audience Tuesday that AI hiring tools Stanford flagged as racially biased are already in wide use, and urged artists to rely on authenticity and their own voices rather than AI-generated work.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago2 min readAI
Juneau's plan to move city hall leans on a sale that's coming up short
Juneau's plan to sell City Hall and relocate is under financial strain: the only offer is $1 million below the $2.5M floor, the new building is delayed to 2027, and the backup fund relies on the sale.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
A Haida class spends two years recovering a 74-line migration story
Jasḵwaan Bedard told a Sealaska Heritage Institute audience in Juneau on Monday that she spent about two years retranscribing a 74-line 1901 Haida story into modern orthography, then taught it to 10 students representing all three major Haida dialects.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3w ago2 min readAI
New SHI book argues Alaska Natives lost hundreds of millions after CARES Act win
A new Sealaska Heritage Institute book argues that despite a 6-3 Supreme Court ruling affirming Alaska Native corporations as Indian tribes, Congress and the Biden administration later excluded them from the American Rescue Plan Act's $20 billion tribal pot, costing Alaska Natives several hundred million dollars, with downstream consequences still unknown.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago3 min readAI
Juneau to host world premiere of first Tlingit opera
Sealaska Heritage Institute and Perseverance Theatre announced Friday that tickets are on sale for 'Ḵutulagaaw: The Tlingit-Russian Battles,' the first Tlingit opera in recorded history, premiering Sept. 11 in Juneau — a production performed entirely in Tlingit and rooted in a war most of the world has never heard of.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago1 min readAI
A new book makes the case that saving the Haida language now means 'immerse or die'
A new Sealaska Heritage Institute book by Ka'iljuus Lisa Lang argues that saving the highly endangered Haida language X̱aad Kíl now requires full immersion, tying language survival to tribal sovereignty.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
New book argues Alaska Natives lost hundreds of millions in pandemic relief
Sealaska Heritage Institute published a policy analysis Tuesday arguing the Supreme Court's Chehalis decision and a flawed Treasury formula cost Alaska Natives several hundred million dollars in federal relief funds, with the author calling for legislative and strategic remedies.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Kodiak Alutiiq Dancers honor late elder at Celebration 2026 performances
Kodiak Alutiiq Dancers opened Thursday night's performance program at Celebration 2026 with a tribute to late elder Margaret Roberts, who helped revive their song tradition. Groups from across Alaska and Hawaii followed at Centennial Hall in Juneau.
by Lucas Brownadded 2mo ago2 min readAI
Haida class returns a 1901 migration story to its own language
Jasḵwaan Bedard speaks at Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau Aug. 3 on a Haida class that translated a 1901 Kaigani migration story back into X̱aad Kíl.
by Maggie AlaskaNews4w ago1 min readAI
Two Indigenous peoples, linked by a migratory bird, trade what they've learned
A Māori group called Te Ara Kuaka presented their four-pillar hauora wellness framework at Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau, revealing deep parallels between Māori and Alaska Native approaches to health as inseparable from culture, land, and ancestry.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
The Army apologized for bombing a Tlingit village. It only took 156 years.
The U.S. Army formally apologized for its 1869 bombardment of a Tlingit village, a milestone in Sealaska Heritage Institute's year alongside a new science building and 14th totem pole.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
French anthropologist reframes Tlingit foodways as living relational system, not subsistence
Renaud Chandivert of Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier III lectured at Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau, arguing that Tlingit traditional foodways form a multidimensional 'archipelago of connections' that federal subsistence law cannot adequately describe or protect.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
TCLL graduates first 8th grade class after years of Tlingit immersion
The Tlingit Culture, Language and Literacy program celebrated its inaugural 8th grade graduation Tuesday, with students delivering speeches and presentations entirely in Tlingit after years in the immersion program.
by Melinda Communities.Newsadded 3mo ago3 min readAI
A Tlingit robe turns a warrior's last stand into sacred clan property
Tl'aagunk Renee Culp, SHI's demonstrating artist in residence, will present Tuesday, June 30 in Shuká Hít Clan House on her beadwork robe documenting a Chookaneidí ancestor's battle with a giant octopus, a piece that will become at.óow, sacred Tlingit clan property.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Juneau Assembly to weigh $1.5M negotiated sale of City Hall to Sealaska Heritage Institute
The City and Borough of Juneau Assembly is set to introduce an ordinance on July 27 authorizing a negotiated sale of City Hall to Sealaska Heritage Institute for $1.5 million, $1 million below the $2.5 million minimum bid the city originally sought through a competitive process that drew no public testimony in April.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Navy SEAL returns to Southeast Alaska after 28 years
Nathan Mitchell, a retired Navy SEAL Command Master Chief who deployed 17 times, completed the canoe journey to Celebration 2026 with his son. Alaska Natives serve in the military at five times the national average.
by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago2 min readAI
AFN prepares for 60th convention with land, tradition and political voice at center
The Alaska Federation of Natives is preparing for its 60th annual convention, themed around land, tradition and political voice, with Sealaska Heritage Institute president Dr. Rosita Worl set to deliver the keynote address.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readAI
A Juneau artist beads a warrior, a relative, and a record
Tlingit artist Renee Culp told a Juneau audience her beaded clan robe is a living document and clan relative — at.óow — carrying ancestor Kahtushtu's story forward.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Sealaska Heritage Institute names seaweed contest winner at Celebration
Sealaska Heritage Institute announced the winners of its seaweed contest at Celebration 2024 in Juneau, completing a three-part traditional Native food competition that also judged seal oil and dry fish.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min readAI
Angoon youth dancers perform at Celebration following Navy apology
The Koozie Da Kwan dancers from Angoon performed at Celebration 2026 on Thursday, their first major appearance since the U.S. Navy formally apologized in October 2024 for the 1882 bombardment that destroyed the village and left the community without winter resources.
by Melinda Communities.Newsadded 2mo ago2 min readAI