Indigenous Culture
RSSIndigenous Culture in Alaska is the languages, arts, ceremonies and traditions of Alaska Native peoples. It also covers language revitalization, repatriation of ancestors and artifacts, elder knowledge, dance groups, and traditional arts, known as Alaska Native culture or Native culture.
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August 2026
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
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
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
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
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 AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
More from Indigenous Culture
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 AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
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 AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min readFrom 
July 2026
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 AlaskaNews3mo 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.News3mo 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 AlaskaNews3mo 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 AlaskaNews3mo ago1 min read
House panel advances bill to let Alaska Native artists sell work with feathers
A Tlingit artist was made to strip the feathers off his own work and hand them to federal agents. A House committee just advanced the bill named for him.
by Maggie AlaskaNews3mo ago2 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.News3mo ago2 min read
Coming up
Steve Langdon Lecture on Tlingit Offshore Resource Rights
Shuká Hít (clan house), Walter Soboleff Building, downtown Juneau, AK, and livestreamed on SHI's YouTube channel
Class
Elder Tea
Community event
Third Thursday at the Ch'k'iqadi Gallery
Exhibition
Howard Rock & Ted Stevens Smokehouse Gala
Community event
Sewing Circle Sundays at KCC
Class
About Indigenous Culture
Indigenous culture in Alaska takes in the languages, arts, ceremonies and traditions of Alaska Native peoples, among them Tlingit, Haida, Yup'ik, Alutiiq, Dena'ina and Iñupiaq cultures. It includes carving, ivory work, beading, weaving, regalia, totem poles, dance and the knowledge held by Elders.
Repatriation is a recurring thread, as museums and federal agencies return ancestors, funerary objects and clan belongings to tribes under federal processes. Language revitalization, the use of feathers and walrus ivory in Native handicrafts under federal wildlife law, and cultural education for Native students also recur.
Institutions such as Sealaska Heritage Institute, the Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes and the Alaska Native Heritage Center carry much of this work, along with tribes, schools and health organizations. The subject sits beside tribal government, Alaska Native corporations and subsistence rights.
More from Indigenous Culture
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 AlaskaNews3mo ago1 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 AlaskaNews4mo ago2 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 AlaskaNews4mo 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.News4mo 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 AlaskaNews4mo 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 AlaskaNews4mo ago2 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 4mo 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 AlaskaNews4mo 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 AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
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 AlaskaNews4mo 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 AlaskaNews4mo ago1 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 AlaskaNews4mo ago1 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 AlaskaNews4mo ago1 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 AlaskaNews4mo ago2 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 AlaskaNews4mo 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 AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
June 2026
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 AlaskaNews4mo 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 4mo ago1 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 AlaskaNews4mo ago1 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 AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
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 AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
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 AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
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 AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
Kodiak Island artifacts set to leave Maine museum under NAGPRA
Ten Alaska Native cultural objects held at a Maine museum must be claimed by July 4, 2026, or transfer to Alaska tribes may proceed under federal repatriation law.
by Maggie AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
