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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Beth Weldon
“if we get money for this, it would be one-time money, and we have a structural deficit in our budget, and we have $7-8 million that we have to come up with.”Juneau: August 17, 2026 Regular Assembly Meeting · Aug 17, 2026
Madeline Sayet
“the pictures that we've sort of structured into each scene also tell the story. So in any scene, we've worked really hard to make sure that the narrative of the scene is actually being broken down into a series of images”Sealaska Heritage Institute: A Panel Discussion with the Tlingit Opera Creative Team | Sealaska Heritage · Aug 28, 2026
Frank Koshykatas
“opening at some— on September 11th at Thunder Mountain Middle School. We're very, very excited.”Sealaska Heritage Institute: A Panel Discussion with the Tlingit Opera Creative Team | Sealaska Heritage · Aug 28, 2026
Vera Starbuck
“If you want to come in jeans, great. If you want to come in a ball gown, I'm dressing.”Sealaska Heritage Institute: A Panel Discussion with the Tlingit Opera Creative Team | Sealaska Heritage · Aug 28, 2026
Madeline Sayet
“if you come in and you're like, what does this literally mean? And some of the words are made up. Like, it's a, it's a much less joyous experience than if you hear the sounds, hear the poetry, watch the performers, and let it wash over you and receive whatever it is that you receive”Sealaska Heritage Institute: A Panel Discussion with the Tlingit Opera Creative Team | Sealaska Heritage · Aug 28, 2026
Vera Starbuck
“There will also be— spoiler— a bit of a storyteller who will be explaining pretty much the whole story before you even begin. That was also a tradition for Tlingit performing arts, that you would have oratory or storytelling before you even performed it.”Sealaska Heritage Institute: A Panel Discussion with the Tlingit Opera Creative Team | Sealaska Heritage · Aug 28, 2026
Alaska Native students in Juneau and Klawock to pitch tech prototypes to Elders
Sealaska Heritage Institute and McKenzie's Adventures are running STEM for Change, a five-day program in Juneau and Klawock. Alaska Native students build prototypes, take a Microsoft Azure exam, and compete for spots at ASTE 2027.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read
Sealaska Heritage Institute wins federal grant for Juneau's Tlingit language school program
Sealaska Heritage Institute wins $899,980 Esther Martinez Immersion grant for the TCLL Tlingit language program at Harborview Elementary in Juneau.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read
A new state program is lifting Alaska's worst-in-the-nation aid filing rate
Seniors in Alaska's Career Guides program filed federal financial aid applications at 60.1 percent, far above the statewide rate, rootEd Alliance reported.
by Walter AlaskaNews4w ago2 min read
You can name your own price to see the Tlingit opera in Juneau
Sealaska Heritage Institute and Perseverance Theatre are offering pay-as-you-can tickets at the door for the Tlingit opera, with all closing-night seats included.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago1 min read
Juneau Assembly votes 6-3 to sell old City Hall to Sealaska Heritage Institute
The Juneau Assembly voted 6-3 to sell its old City Hall to Sealaska Heritage Institute for $1.5 million rather than put it out for bid at $2.5 million.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Tlingit opera adds program guide and pre-show storyteller for audiences who do not speak the language
At a Sealaska Heritage Institute panel Thursday in Juneau, the creative team behind "Ḵutulagaaw: The Tlingit-Russian Battles" described how audiences who do not speak Tlingit can follow the opera, which premieres Sept. 11 at Thunder Mountain Middle School.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Sealaska Heritage president says Tlingit-Russian War story belongs to all clans, not Kiks.ádi alone
At a Sealaska Heritage Institute panel Thursday in Juneau, a Kiks.ádi audience member asked how the institute handles clan-owned stories in the first Tlingit opera. SHI President Rosita Worl said the war story belongs to all clans and the Haidas because all united to fight.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
First Tlingit opera moves to Thunder Mountain Middle School after lighting failure
An electrical failure disabled the stage lighting at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé, moving the world premiere of the first Tlingit opera to Thunder Mountain Middle School. Ticket holders are being reassigned to equivalent seats by Friday.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago1 min read
Juneau Assembly votes 6-3 to sell City Hall to Sealaska Heritage Institute for at least $1.5 million
Juneau's Assembly voted 6-3 to sell the old City Hall to Sealaska Heritage Institute for $1.5 million, rejecting a competitive bid with a $2.5 million floor.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago1 min read
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 AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
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 AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
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 AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
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 AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
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 AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
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 1mo ago1 min read
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 AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
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 AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
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 AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
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 AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
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 AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
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 AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
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.News2mo ago1 min read
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 AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
House panel advances bill to let Alaska Native artists sell work with feathers
A House committee advanced Rep. Nick Begich's bill letting Alaska Native artists legally sell handicrafts containing migratory bird feathers, named for artist Archie Cavanaugh.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
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 AlaskaNews2mo ago3 min read
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 AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
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.News2mo ago2 min read
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 AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
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 AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
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 AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
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 AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
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 AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
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 AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
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 AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
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 AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
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 AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
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 AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
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 3mo ago1 min read
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 AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
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 4mo ago2 min read