Indigenous Affairs

Two Bering Straits directors retire. One seat goes to shareholders, one to the board.

Two Bering Straits Native Corporation directors are retiring, but shareholders will only vote on one replacement seat because the other will be filled by board appointment under company bylaws.

by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

A Fairbanks firm runs Boston's Moakley Courthouse under a $31.6 million agreement

A company owned by four villages on the Koyukuk River keeps a Boston federal courthouse running, gulls on the roof included. It just added a water station.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago1 min read

Tlingit opera adds program guide and pre-show storyteller for audiences who do not speak the language

Alaska's first all-Tlingit opera adds program guides and a pre-show storyteller so non-speakers can follow the 1802-1804 Tlingit-Russian War told in the language itself, running Sept. 11-20 in Juneau.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Sealaska Heritage president says Tlingit-Russian War story belongs to all clans, not Kiks.ádi alone

Sealaska Heritage says the Tlingit-Russian War story belongs to all clans and Haidas, not the Kiks.ádi alone, ahead of the opera's September premiere in Tlingit.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Ketchikan tribe sues Forest Service over South Revilla logging near Ketchikan

Ketchikan Indian Community sued the Forest Service over logging that would cut 44% of winter deer habitat on Revillagigedo Island, threatening subsistence hunting.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Ahtna closes Cantwell-area lands to the public for moose season

Ahtna, Incorporated closed its private lands near Cantwell to all public hunting and camping during moose season, though state-regulated hunting continues on public lands in the area.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

NANA opens the Hunter Building with five subsidiaries under one roof

NANA opens the Hunter Building in Anchorage on Friday, bringing five subsidiaries under one roof. They will cut a length of qupak instead of a ribbon.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago1 min read

Chugachmiut is hiring a lead for nearly $7 million in Indigenous education work

The Chugach region's Native nonprofit is seeking a contractor to lead nearly $7 million in Indigenous education work, from language revival to youth programs.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago1 min read

Koniag takes board candidates to nine communities before proxy voting closes

Koniag will take board candidates to nine communities in September, six on Kodiak Island and three outside the region. Proxy voting closes Sept. 30.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

FAA awards $79,899 to Palmer-based Port Graham Development Corporation for Cleveland radar power work

A company owned by the tiny Alutiiq village of Port Graham won a federal contract to keep an air-traffic radar's backup power running in Cleveland, Ohio.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago1 min read

A young weaver 3D-printed his own form to make a cedar bark hat

A Bartlett High grad wove himself a cedar bark hat using a form he designed and 3D-printed at a tribal lab — work that led to an internship and a paid job.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Victor Joseph receives a national tribal health advocacy award

Victor Joseph, the Tanana Chiefs Conference's top administrator, received the National Indian Health Board's inaugural Sovereignty in Action Award for advocacy.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Alaska Native youth die by suicide at five times the rate of White youth

Alaska Native youth died by suicide at more than five times the rate of White youth from 2016 to 2024, the state reported. The gap in attempts is wider.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Creators of first Tlingit opera take public questions Thursday in Juneau

Juneau can meet the team behind the first Tlingit opera in recorded history at a free panel Thursday, ahead of the Tlingit-language work's premiere next month.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Follows: The first Tlingit opera in recorded history opens in Juneau next month

Tlingit & Haida back a Ketchikan plan to treat addiction closer to home

The Tlingit & Haida tribe backs a Ketchikan plan for a residential addiction treatment center so Southeast Alaskans no longer have to leave the region for care.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

The federal government wants to lift roadless protections, including in the Tongass

USDA wants to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule across 58.5 million acres, including the Tongass. Alaskans have until Sept. 21 to weigh in on it.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

AFN holds a subsistence listening session in Fairbanks on Aug. 31

The Alaska Federation of Natives holds a subsistence listening session in Fairbanks on Aug. 31, gathering harvesters' and elders' input on the future of subsistence.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Tlingit law student Gloria Wolfe wins the Judson L. Brown Leadership Award

Tlingit law student Gloria Wolfe won the 2026 Judson L. Brown Leadership Award and $5,000 scholarship for her work leading Indigenous organizations and founding a consulting practice.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

The State Fair is open now

The Alaska State Fair is back in Palmer through Sept. 7 — a stacked concert lineup, giant cabbages and pumpkins, carnival rides and fair food.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Tlingit & Haida moves to expand its printing business into a historic Juneau building

Tlingit & Haida is seeking up to $375,000 to expand its tribally owned printing business and move it into a historic Juneau building it recently bought.

by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read

AFN gives delegates another week to file convention resolutions

AFN gave delegates another week to file convention resolutions, now due Aug. 28. Divisive issues go to the Board rather than to the delegates.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

A Tlingit infant, held for years in a Seattle museum, is coming home to Petersburg

A Tlingit infant girl whose remains were held for years in a Seattle museum is returning home to Petersburg, where her tribe will welcome her Sept. 4.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Tanana Chiefs wins federal grant for suicide prevention in 15 villages

Of 122 youth referred to Tanana Chiefs behavioral health last year, 76 were admitted. A new federal grant funds suicide prevention in 15 Interior villages.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Bering Straits firm wins environmental work at four Air Force bases

An Anchorage firm owned by Norton Sound shareholders will run environmental compliance at four Air Force bases, two of them nuclear-mission installations.

by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago2 min read

Koniag shareholders get nine chances to question their corporation's leadership in person

Koniag shareholders get nine chances this month to question their leadership in person, from the Kodiak Archipelago to Seattle, Portland and Soldotna.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Alaska tribes get their yearly say on Head Start funding, against a backdrop of documented shortfalls

Alaska tribes running Head Start get their annual say next month on how the program's money is divided, amid research finding tribal programs underfunded.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Money for Alaska Native education keeps flowing, but no new competition has opened in nearly two years

Money for Alaska Native education keeps reaching current grantees, but no new competition has opened since late 2023, leaving no clear door for new applicants.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Koniag subsidiary lands State Department writer work, up to $1.6 million

Koniag Professional Services won a State Department contract worth up to $1.6 million to staff a writer and editor position, though the job is based in Virginia, not Alaska.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Ouzinkie village corporation wins courthouse contracts in Florida

A village corporation from a 110-person Alutiiq island is fixing courthouse restrooms in Florida. One of the five awards bought only a new contract number.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Tanana Chiefs benefits staff come to McGrath on Wednesday

Tanana Chiefs Conference benefits staff visit McGrath on Aug. 19 to meet families and explain programs for employment, cash assistance, and education in person.

by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read

Yaadás clan historian says he only recently traced how his clan got the beaver crest

Yaadás clan historian Benjamin Young recently traced two competing accounts of how his Haida clan acquired the beaver crest, one from early ethnography and one from fur trade history.

by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read

Sealaska Heritage honors four Southeast educators at Juneau conference

Sealaska Heritage Institute awarded four Southeast Alaska educators for weaving Indigenous knowledge into classrooms at its annual conference in Juneau.

by Melinda Communities.Newsadded 3mo ago1 min read

A Tsimshian carver, accused of inventing clan stories, is affirmed by another clan

Accused by some in his own community of inventing Tsimshian migration stories, carver David Boxley was publicly affirmed by a Wrangell clan that shares them.

by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read

APIA is hiring two paid interns in Anchorage and Sand Point

APIA is hiring two paid interns, in Anchorage and Sand Point, for hands-on work in employment and social services for Alaska Native communities.

by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read

SBA rule drops 8(a) disadvantage presumption for individual owners, leaves Native corporations untouched

Alaska Native corporation-owned firms keep federal 8(a) contracting eligibility unchanged, but individual applicants must now prove disadvantage starting Sept. 10.

by Alaska News3mo ago3 min read

Supreme Court declines to review Alaska's challenge to rural subsistence priority

The Supreme Court declined to hear Alaska's challenge to federal subsistence priority, leaving rural residents with first claim to fish and game on federal waters when supplies run short.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago5 min read

Sealaska Heritage publishes fifth graders' documentary on Walter Soboleff

Auke Bay Elementary students produced a documentary on Dr. Walter Soboleff. The film fills a gap in classroom history materials.

by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read

A free clinic helps BBNC shareholders decide who inherits their shares

A free Dillingham clinic Aug. 13 lets BBNC shareholders write stock wills, choosing who inherits their shares instead of leaving it to default law.

by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read

Six graduate a Tanana Chiefs apprenticeship built to staff Interior clinics

Six apprentices finished Tanana Chiefs Conference's yearlong clinical training in Fairbanks — the first cohort where everyone who started made it through.

by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read

Tanana's rebuilt village clinic has opened

Tanana's village health clinic has reopened after a tribe-led rehabilitation of a building that needed structural repair, one of nearly 40 clinics TCC runs in the Interior.

by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min readFrom Jul 31