Indigenous Culture
RSSAlaska Native language revitalization, cultural events, Native Youth Olympics, dance groups, repatriation, elder knowledge, place-name restoration
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 AlaskaNews1d ago3 min readAI
His own community accused him of inventing the stories, David Boxley said. Then a Wrangell clan leader said his archives affirm them.
Carver David Boxley told a Juneau audience that Tsimshian history predates the 1887 mission. He is working to reclaim stories lost to colonial suppression.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2d ago4 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews4d ago2 min readAI
Juneau's casino opened on shifting ground and now faces suits on two fronts
Juneau's tribal casino opened through a federal opening since rescinded, and now faces the state, a family lawsuit and doubt about whether it's even legal.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
Sealaska Heritage concludes ninth annual education conference
Sealaska Heritage Institute concluded its ninth annual education conference in Juneau, drawing hundreds of educators from Alaska and beyond for sessions on culturally responsive teaching.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago1 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
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 1d ago2 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
House passes Alaska Native walrus-ivory protection bill
House passed legislation allowing Alaska Native artists to sell walrus-ivory handicrafts nationwide, overriding state bans that had criminalized traditional art protected under federal marine-mammal law.
by Alaska Newsadded 2mo ago2 min readAI
Nalukataq season carries Alaska whaling traditions into summer
Nalukataq celebrations honoring bowhead whale hunts move across five northern Alaska communities from mid-June through early July, distributing whale meat and muktuk to mark the tradition.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
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.News2w ago1 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
Celebration 2026 opens in Juneau with canoe arrivals, cultural speeches
Sealaska Heritage Institute opened Celebration 2026 in Juneau on Wednesday with traditional canoe arrivals from eight Southeast Alaska communities and speeches centered on cultural resilience and overcoming external and internal challenges.
by Melinda Communities.Newsadded 2mo ago2 min readAI
St. Paul Island artists retell Kipling's 'White Seal' from Unangan perspective
Kipling wrote "The White Seal" about the Pribilof without Unangan voices. St. Paul artists are fixing that.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
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.News3w ago2 min readAI
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.News1mo ago1 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Tanana Chiefs Conference sets June family events in Fairbanks
Tanana Chiefs Conference hosts a resource fair June 5 in Fairbanks and a cultural activity night June 29 with crafts, drumming, and family workshops.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min readAI
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 1mo ago1 min readAI
A Haida class spends two years recovering a 74-line migration story
A Haida class spent two years retranscribing a single 74-line migration story, uncovering meaning a century-old English translation had flattened — and connecting a scattered Haida diaspora through the work.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
NOAA says dead pregnant fin whale arrived in Seward on cruise ship bow
NOAA confirmed the Seward whale was a 61-foot pregnant fin whale found on a cruise ship's bow. A necropsy is underway, and federal law enforcement is investigating.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
Interior youth learned to tan hide and to save a life
Moose hide tanning, fiddle dancing, CPR, and naloxone — TCC's youth summit taught Interior kids their traditions and how to save a life, all in one weekend.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
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 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 — the standout in a year Sealaska Heritage Institute spent building a culture's permanence into stone and record.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
First Peoples Fund fellowship open to Alaska Native artists through July 15
Alaska Native artists can apply through July 15 for a First Peoples Fund fellowship that provides grant money, business training, and mentoring to help independent artists build sustainable livelihoods.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
Kodiak Alutiiq Dancers honor late elder at Celebration 2026 performances
Kodiak Alutiiq Dancers honored late elder Margaret Roberts at Celebration 2026, performing traditional and newly written pieces that document ancestral knowledge and cultural revival across Alaska and Hawaii.
by Lucas Brownadded 2mo ago2 min readAI
TCLL graduates first 8th grade class after years of Tlingit immersion
Juneau's Tlingit immersion program graduated 8th graders who delivered speeches in Tlingit after years of fluency growth. • Students moved from reluctant speakers to confident communicators in the language. • Program is free for all students and partners with Sealaska Heritage Institute. • Graduates received traditional headbands and advance to high school.
by Melinda Communities.Newsadded 2mo ago3 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews4w ago1 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Alaska Tribes Removed 1.5M Pounds Marine Debris Despite Funding Barriers
Rural Alaska communities successfully cleaned massive amounts of marine debris from shores but face significant barriers accessing federal funding and resources needed to continue protecting subsistence areas.
by Alaska Newsadded 4mo ago3 min readAIAnchorage clinic offers kuspuk, beading, and talking circle classes
Southcentral Foundation's Traditional Healing Clinic in Anchorage offers Alaska Native cultural classes like kuspuk sewing, beadwork, and talking circles as part of its health care model that blends traditional healing with modern medicine.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago2 min readAI
