Indigenous Affairs
RSSAlaska Native and tribal affairs: governance, ANCSA regional corporations, subsistence rights, language, and cultural preservation. Spans roughly 20% of Alaska's population and every major policy domain the state touches.
Dorothy Grant's 40 years of Haida design come home to Juneau
Four decades of Dorothy Grant's Haida fashion, including a wedding dress on loan from the Smithsonian, are on view in Juneau through Oct. 17. Free for anyone under 18.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min read
The first Tlingit opera in recorded history opens in Juneau next month
The first Tlingit opera in recorded history opens in Juneau Sept. 11 — in the Tlingit language, telling the Tlingit-Russian War from the Tlingit side.
by Melinda Communities.News1mo ago1 min read
NANA's fall payout works out to about $1,687 for an original shareholder
NANA's fall payout is $16.87 a share — about $1,687 for an original shareholder with 100 shares. Update your information by Nov. 6 to be paid on time.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Haida class returns a 1901 migration story to its own language
A century-old Kaigani migration story, recorded by an outside ethnologist, is back in X̱aad Kíl. The teacher behind the translation speaks in Juneau Aug. 3.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
A sacred site promised in 1978 is being considered by Congress to go to Doyon
A sacred Athabascan site was promised to Doyon in 1978, then a national park grew around it. Congress is finally moving to hand it over.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Deadline TONIGHT for Park Service tribal heritage preservation grants
Alaska tribes, Native villages and corporations have until 7:59 p.m. Monday to apply for Park Service grants preserving oral histories and sacred places.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
One new rural Alaska prosecutor, against deep tribal-justice cuts
The DOJ is adding one rural Alaska prosecutor while proposing to cut the budgets that fund tribal police and victim services by roughly a quarter.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read
Nominations open for Arctic shipping panel with reserved Alaska seats
Alaska Native tribes and coastal groups have until Sept. 22 to seek seats on a new federal panel shaping U.S. Arctic shipping policy as sea lanes open.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read
Western Alaska leaders take food security to a circumpolar assembly
Western Alaska tribal leaders are in Nunavut for the first circumpolar Inuit assembly in nearly a decade, with food security high on the agenda.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
New SHI book argues Alaska Natives lost hundreds of millions after CARES Act win
Alaska Native corporations won a Supreme Court ruling on pandemic relief but lost hundreds of millions when Congress excluded them from a larger relief package, a new SHI book argues.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago3 min read
Tlingit artist warns AI hiring tools are already screening out job seekers of color
Tlingit photographer Larry McNeil warned that AI hiring tools already screen out job seekers of color, keeping them unemployed longer. • AI-generated artist statements are appearing in college applications, raising questions about authenticity in creative fields. • AI cannot replicate the precision of formline art, producing cartoonish results instead.
by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago2 min read
Four TCC employees selected for ANTHC leadership programs
Four Tanana Chiefs Conference employees selected for competitive nine-month leadership programs run by Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium to develop skills across tribal healthcare.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Pioneer Park main shelter closes mornings July 23-24 for volunteer work
Pioneer Park's main shelter closes 9 a.m. to noon Thursday and Friday, July 23-24, while volunteers including Outer Coast do maintenance work. The park itself stays open.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
AFN opens Co-Chair nominations ahead of October convention vote
Alaska Federation of Natives opens nominations for a new co-chair to be elected October 24, with applications due September 25.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Three art commission calls open to Alaska Native and American Indian artists close by Aug. 14
Three art commissions for Alaska Native and American Indian artists close by Aug. 14, with two deadlines on July 31: Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium seeks proposals for a skilled nursing facility, and Ketchikan's Totem Heritage Center seeks a 50th anniversary design. Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage is also commissioning artwork, deadline Aug. 14. Alaska Literary Awards applications close Aug. 17.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
IHS picks Sitka and Bethel tribal health groups for first-ever elder care construction program
Indian Health Service picked Sitka and Bethel tribal health groups to build and expand skilled nursing facilities, the first time the federal program has funded long-term elder care in Alaska.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Federal grant would re-launch Alaska Native elder resource center; deadline July 27
The federal Administration on Aging is offering $215,000 annually for three years to re-establish a resource center for Alaska Native elders, with applications due July 27.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Murkowski, Schatz introduce $800M bill for Native children and families
Senators Murkowski and Schatz introduced an $800 million bill to fund Native children and families, with nearly $500 million flowing directly to tribal governments starting immediately upon passage.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago3 min read
Senate committee advances bill to give land to five landless SE Alaska Native communities
A Senate committee advanced a bill granting 115,000 acres to five landless Southeast Alaska Native communities. The wait is fifty years.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Tlingit & Haida leaders ask tourists to stop using totem poles as social media props
Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian leaders are asking tourists to stop using totem poles as social media backdrops, saying the carved poles hold sacred stories and ancestors, not Instagram props.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Alaska runs on federal money, and a proposed rule change has people worried
Alaska leans on federal money for basics — water plants, shelters, emergency response — and nonprofits, cities, and Tribes warn a proposed federal rule change could make that funding less reliable.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
The federal unit handling Alaska's MMIP cases can't return a family's calls
The federal unit handling Alaska's missing and murdered Indigenous cases hasn't returned one family's calls in 10 months, a Crow Nation professor told Congress.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Steel and pilings shrink Juneau's Oak Landing to a third its size
Steel doubled and the ground needs 100-foot pilings, so Juneau's Oak Landing is shrinking to a third its size — but the welcome center, shops and seawalk survive.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Kuskokwim subsistence fishing reopens as salmon run strong
Subsistence fishing is back open on the lower Kuskokwim as salmon run strong — and the state is managing the mainstem again after losing a long fight over who controls the river.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
A faster way to settle Native trust estates, starting in Alaska
Settling a Native allotment after a death has meant slow federal paperwork — now Interior has an online system to speed it up, and Alaska families are first to use it.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
How a borrowed good-luck charm became Bering Strait ivory art
A grinning good-luck charm invented Outside became a Bering Strait ivory art form — thanks to master carver Happy Jack, who made the borrowed Billiken his own.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
A Nome teacher heads to Stanford to rethink how schools teach
A Nome reading teacher is off to Stanford for a Ph.D. — studying how Inuit knowledge and values can be built into what schools actually teach.
by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago1 min read
A Native org is coaching Yukon harvesters on how to testify effectively
Tanana Chiefs Conference is running a July 24 workshop coaching Yukon harvesters to testify effectively on salmon policy — pressing a bycatch argument that scientists say is only part of the story.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
BBNC kicks off shareholder season with a salmon-day picnic
BBNC's shareholder season kicks off Aug. 8 with a salmon-day picnic in Anchorage, tours eight communities, and builds to the Oct. 3 board vote in Naknek.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
At a remote Interior camp, sobriety is celebrated the Athabascan way
Old Minto, a remote Interior camp that roots addiction recovery in Athabascan tradition, holds its Annual Sobriety Potlatch July 23 — celebrating sobriety the way the culture always has.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Bering Straits bets big on federal contracting, just as the business gets harder
Bering Straits Native Corp. bought nine federal contractors, doubling down on government work just as awards to Native-owned firms drop and the 8(a) program comes under fire.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
BBNC subsidiary offers shareholder enrollment help July 25
Bristol Bay Native Corporation shareholders can update stock records and enroll descendants at a free open house with brunch on July 25 in Anchorage.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Fewer geese on the Y-K Delta, and a proposal to let hunters take fewer
White-fronted geese are declining on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, so Alaska wants to cut the bag limit from 10 to 6 — in a region where geese are a staple food. Comment by Aug. 5.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
A Tlingit artist crossed the border to teach Anchorage kids an ancient craft
A Tlingit artist traveled from British Columbia to Anchorage to teach kids the ancient art of bentwood box making — a watertight box bent from a single seamless plank.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Alaska Native ivory carvers can now sell their work in all 50 states
A new federal law lets Alaska Native artists sell walrus-ivory handicrafts in all 50 states, fixing a mess where anti-elephant-ivory bans accidentally swept up legal Native carving
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Goldbelt gets a new chair as its biggest bets take shape
Goldbelt named a new board chair a year after installing the last one — just as the Tlingit-owned corporation pushes its biggest development bets, a Douglas Island port and the Eaglecrest gondola.
by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago1 min read
An Unalakleet playwright brings Alaska's hardest truths to the stage
An Unalakleet playwright turned her work in suicide prevention into The Bird Blind — a story of abuse, addiction, and survival in an Iñupiaq village, told in its own voice.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read
Registered Alaska Native artists can keep selling fur on Etsy
Registered Alaska Native artists can keep selling fur on Etsy after Sen. Sullivan won an exemption — but unregistered makers are still cut off when the ban starts August 11.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Bering Straits promotes a shareholder into its executive ranks
Bering Straits promoted Nome shareholder Brittany Daletas to VP of operations — a step in something ANCs keep working at: growing their own shareholders into the people who run them.
by Alaska News2mo ago1 min read
A new book makes the case that saving the Haida language now means 'immerse or die'
A new Sealaska Heritage book argues the Haida language is down to one option — full immersion — and that saving X̱aad Kíl is itself an act of tribal sovereignty.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
