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.
Two Indigenous peoples, linked by a migratory bird, trade what they've learned
A Māori delegation shared a model of health at Sealaska Heritage — spirit, mind, body, and family as four walls of one house — with the people who once learned language revival from them.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo 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 — the standout in a year Sealaska Heritage Institute spent building a culture's permanence into stone and record.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Yukon Chinook sonar count 34% below average; fall chum added to concern list
Yukon Chinook count at 95,370 by July 6, down 34 percent from average and short of Alaska and Canadian escapement goals. • Fall chum designated a stock of management concern, forcing communities to restrict harvest on two salmon species at once. • Summer chum run tracking above 900,000 fish, offering some relief for subsistence harvesters.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
New book argues Alaska Natives lost hundreds of millions in pandemic relief
A new Sealaska Heritage Institute book argues Alaska Natives lost several hundred million in pandemic relief after ANCSA corporations were shut out of ARPA funding.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
NMFS creates rodent detection dog exception to Pribilof dog ban
NMFS lifted a 50-year dog ban on the Pribilof Islands to allow certified rodent detection dogs to inspect vessels, protecting seal rookeries and subsistence harvests from invasive rodents.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Drums from Japan and West Africa, together on one Anchorage stage
Japanese taiko group Chokoma joins Anchorage's Oni iLu West African drummers at Discovery Theatre Aug. 1 — two thunderous traditions, one stage. Tickets $32.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
North Slope mayor: 'Nothing about us without us'
The North Slope mayor used a Founders' Day message to demand the region get a real voice in federal and state decisions about its land — a bid for leverage it doesn't formally hold.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
North Pacific council directs Ecosystem Committee to revise 2004 groundfish policy goals
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is updating 2004 groundfish goals. Tribal groups want stronger protections for salmon.
by Alaska Newsadded 2mo ago3 min read
Bethel wants to charge owners who let buildings sit empty and rot
Bethel would charge owners to leave buildings empty, and help demolish burnt-out ones — waiving the cost if the owner rebuilds, or filing a lien if not.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
54 years of the North Slope Borough
Fifty-four years ago, Iñupiat leaders founded the North Slope Borough to tax the oil built on their land and govern their own homeland — an anniversary the mayor marked this week.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Rough water off Alaska's Arctic and Northwest coasts, easing by Sunday
Small craft advisories are up for Alaska's Arctic and Northwest coasts through Friday — winds near 25 knots, seas to 7 feet — before things calm down by Sunday.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
In Koyuk, old fuel tanks left petroleum in the ground. Now someone will measure it.
Two old fuel tank farms left petroleum in the ground in Koyuk, part of a statewide legacy of thousands of contaminated sites. A federal grant will assess how bad it is.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Alaska's high court reversed a decision to end a Native mother's parental rights — over how the state made its case
The Alaska Supreme Court reversed a Native mother's parental-rights termination, finding the state's ICWA cultural testimony too vague to meet the law's high bar.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
SHI book documents the fraught origins of three Juneau totem poles
Sealaska Heritage Institute released a book on Juneau totem poles. It details how the Forest Service commissioned Native art while seizing Native land.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
At The Aleut Corporation, a promotion is a window into how a Native corporation works
The Aleut Corporation promoted Theresa Cross to oversee operations across four subsidiaries — a look at how an ANCSA regional corporation works for its Unangax̂ shareholders.
by Melinda Communities.News2mo ago3 min read
Alaska's kings are down almost everywhere — here's the picture
From the Yukon to Kodiak to Prince William Sound, Alaska is closing or tightening king salmon fishing nearly statewide — a slow-motion decline now measured in decades, not seasons.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago3 min read
A Juneau artist beads a warrior, a relative, and a record
A Tlingit artist told a Juneau audience her beaded robe is more than art — it's at.óow, a clan relative with spirit, carrying an ancestor's story to generations she'll never meet.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Fairbanks sets aside a day to care for its Alaska Native Elders
On July 13, volunteers across Fairbanks spend the day helping Alaska Native Elders with yard work, painting, tech, and home repairs — the community caring for its own.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
Kawerak hauls 4,000 pounds of e-waste out of Nome
Nome shipped 4,000 pounds of old electronics to the Lower 48 — because rural Alaska's unlined landfills can't safely hold the poison inside them, so the only option is to haul it out.
by Alaska Newsadded 2mo ago2 min read
French anthropologist reframes Tlingit foodways as living relational system, not subsistence
A visiting anthropologist echoed what many Alaska Native people say: "subsistence" misses the point. Tlingit traditional foods are about connection, not calories.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Tanana Chiefs Conference reshuffles its leadership
Tanana Chiefs Conference staffed up this week — a former lobbyist to lead advocacy, a new tribal-priorities director, and a split of its top health job as the system keeps growing.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
A boat trip made Interior Alaska's needs visible. Who's responsible for them is the harder question.
A Tanana Chiefs boat trip showcased four remote villages' needs. Who's responsible for meeting them is a tangle of federal, state, corporate and tribal roles.
by Alaska News3mo ago3 min read
The ancestral parcels behind a quiet land questionnaire in Port Graham, Nanwalek
Families around Port Graham and Nanwalek are being asked how their Native allotments — ancestral parcels won by proving generations of use — should be managed. The deadline is Aug. 31.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
A federal royalty-rule change could shortchange the states and tribes it's owed to
A federal plan to simplify mineral royalties could shortchange states, tribes, and Native owners, as an audit finds the agency isn't collecting what it's owed.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
A remote Kodiak village tries tp fix its water
Karluk — a village 88 miles from Kodiak city, ringed by refuge — is replacing its failing water system, closing a gap most of America never has to think about.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Veterinary care reaches rural Alaska, where dog-bite rates run high
Veterinary care is coming to about 80 rural Alaska tribal communities July 1, where Alaska Native children are hospitalized for dog bites at about twice the U.S. rate.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read
Juneau's ski hill picks a new leader — in public
Eaglecrest is interviewing its lone GM finalist in open session Thursday — a returning Juneau face — while a mystery sit-down with Goldbelt raises the more interesting question.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Alaska Native groups take the salmon crisis to a national tribal stage
Four Alaska Native groups took the salmon crisis to the national tribal stage, pressing for a bigger Native role in managing runs that have collapsed on the Yukon and Kuskokwim.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago2 min read
A Tlingit robe turns a warrior's last stand into sacred clan property
A Juneau artist is beading the story of a Tlingit ancestor who fought a giant octopus into a clan robe — a piece that will become at.óow, sacred property with a soul.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Rain offers Interior Alaska's fire crews a needed break
Rain and cooler air are headed for Interior Alaska this weekend — a real break for fire crews who've spent weeks protecting cabins, fish camps, and allotments.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Federal migratory bird subsistence rules take effect across Alaska
Alaska's spring subsistence bird harvest is older than the U.S. — and a 1916 treaty effectively banned it until 1997. This week's update continues a hunt Native communities never gave up.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Juneau to host world premiere of first Tlingit opera
Juneau hosts the world premiere of Ḵutulagaaw, the first Tlingit opera in recorded history, Sept. 11-20, performed entirely in Tlingit language.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago1 min read
Aleut & Bering Straights, scholarship deadlines arrive this summer
Two Alaska Native corporations have summer scholarship deadlines — part of how ANCSA's land-settlement corporations quietly fund the education of the generations that followed.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Young leaders from 42 Interior villages gather near Fairbanks
Interior Alaska Native youth, ages 12 to 24, closed a four-day leadership summit near Fairbanks by naming six priorities to guide their communities in the year ahead.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Three new Community Health Aides head to Interior Alaska villages
Tanana Chiefs Conference recognized three new Community Health Aides for Tetlin, Dot Lake, and the Upper Tanana — often the closest thing to a doctor for miles.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Tlingit & Haida Unveils Revitalized Veterans Totem Pole in Juneau
The Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes held a ceremony to unveil a revitalized veterans totem pole at Southeast Alaska
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
Sullivan's Bycatch Bill Wades Into Alaska's Hardest Fish Fight
Sullivan's sweeping bycatch bill targets trawl salmon catch — a real and raw grievance, even as federal science pins Alaska's river collapses mostly on a warming ocean.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago3 min read
On the wild Alatna, a guide makes his case to the state
A Fairbanks guide wants the state's OK to run commercial trips on the Alatna — a Wild and Scenic river so remote the only way in is by floatplane.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Supreme Court narrows damages path in prison religious-rights cases
SCOTUS just made it harder for prisoners to sue individual guards for money over blocked religious practice. Alaska settled under this law in 2019.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Southcentral Foundation treats traditional food as medicine at a free Anchorage gathering
Southcentral Foundation hosts a free two-day Traditional Foods Gathering July 27 and 28 in Anchorage, treating Alaska Native harvests as medicine and health, not just culture.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
