Sealaska Heritage Institute: Celebration 2026 | Day 3 - Friday June 5

Gudungay laagun. Thank you for coming. We are happy that you are here.

Hakaa ke wa'a. Good morning. Hello, my name is Michelle Martin. I am pleased to be with you here today. Welcome to Celebration 2026.

All of the Centennial Hall performances are broadcast live on Public Television's KTOO 360 TV and a live video stream. For the link, go to www.sealaskaheritage.org.

We would like to recognize our viewers who are participating in Celebration through the live stream. Gunalchéesh for being with us. SealaskaHeritage thanks Celebration sponsors, especially Alaska Airlines, Royal Caribbean, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the City and Borough of Juneau, Goldbelt Inc., University of Alaska Southeast, and Sealaska Corporation. You can see a full list of Celebration sponsors in the digital program. On that note, for a complete schedule for Celebration 2026, you will find that there as well.

There are a variety of activities to participate in today. We have our Baby Raven Reads pop-up at the Walter Soboleff Building Clan House between 2 o'clock and 5 o'clock PM for all children ages 0 to 5. At this time, we will welcome the dance group to the stage. The Yizh K'u Shu Gaa Yaat is a multicultural dance group comprised of many Indigenous nations including Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Aleut, Yup'ik, and other nations. The Tlingit name, Yizk'u, means new people, new beginning.

Shugayat is the Shemalgic translation. The late Clarence Jackson gave the name for the group at AFN in 2003, the year the dance group formed, with Senator Albert Kukesh as the witness. Our purpose is to share our songs with everyone. We strive to show the utmost respect to all and to teach the children through our songs and dances so that they will feel the pride of being indigenous. The group has performed in many venues, including the Governor's Inaugural Ball, the Juneau Maritime Festival, Washington, D.C. events, Gold Medal, AFN, as well as many local events.

This year, the group will celebrate its 23rd anniversary in October 2026. Please give them a round of applause.

Good morning, everyone. I hope you're all doing well. We did an outside the house song called Admiral We were given permission to do that song. So blessed and generous to have Kevin Clevenger give us that song to use. The song that we came in is a Yup'ik song.

Oh, I didn't see the mic.

The song that we came in on is the Yup'ik entrance song. Where's Alfie? We come to you as a person. I'm going to let him explain it. Yup'ik.

Yup'ik. So our entrance song is the Yup'ik entrance song. It was taught to me by my good friend Malu from Twin Hills, Alaska, who teaches the Yup'ik language. When I was fortunate enough to be with a cohort of Alaska Natives in California for a fellowship, we had to learn a song to share together to the hosts of the land which we were working on, which was the Mowakma Ohlone. And we had 30 minutes to learn a song together, and we were Alaska Natives from all over the state with different languages and traditions.

And we were given permission by Malouf to do this song. The lyrics translate to, "I come before you as a person." The next song we're going to do, real special. We had our longtime, for decades, leader that guided us, Cece Eunuch, and we're going to sing the Wuxkitan love song to you. She's sitting up here in front. And, uh, yeah, we love her, and this is for you, Grandma Cece.

Hi-yah? Huh... Okay. Heh heh. Yeah yeah yeah.

We love you, CeCe. Thank you, everyone. Dancers, you can turn around now. We're going to do the women's honor song. I don't know if it was mentioned, we are a multicultural group.

We're Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Aleutic. The next song we're going to do is the women's honor song. We'd like to honor all of the women here. Shagop.

So as Nancy said, this is the women's honor song. It was composed by my cousin Tim Lanet, David Nelson III. He composed it originally about my mother, who was a guidance counselor at the elementary school in Taquann. She was also learning and teaching Samayuk to the young ones, our Tsimshian language. He was her assistant.

He learned a lot from her, and they were working together on a project, and the teacher suggested he write a song to honor my mother. And so he did that with some assistance from a language teacher, De'eps. And so this song we use to honor the matriarchs, the important women in our lives. The words translate to, "Walk softly, great lady. Thank you and bless you for all that you do." Walk softly, great lady.

You walk in the path of your grandmothers. And today, it's a special performance with a song. My cousin Sandra is here, who was really close with my mother. My son is one of our drummers. It was his grandmother.

And my daughter is here visiting, and that was her grandmother, and they were very close. But not only that, I received a special gift from my auntie. She sent me this kwišnepaatl that my mother made. We're Gishpitwada, Killer Whale Clan, and I'd like to show you this.

You can see the intricate beading. You can see the killer whale inside the killer whale. My mother made it for my grandmother. It's the first time it's been danced. Women's honor song, Waiwa.

Are any of the Kodiakalutik people here? I think they might be doing another performance. The next song we're going to do is called We Are One. It is a Sugpiaq, Aleutic song. And when we were in Cordova, they were singing this song, and she said that they would like to give permission to any Aleutic or Sugpiaq people to use this song.

And I am Tsimshian and Aleutic, so we're so blessed that they gave us this song. We did it for the first time last night with them there, so we would like to honor our Aleutic relatives. Gidaagwa.

Ariye!

We are one.

All right, we're going to do another Tsimshian song, Stret'en Raven, another Kevin Clevenger song. And so I'd like all our ravens to come up front. Any ravens out in the audience from Metlakatla, come up here. I just see a wolf over there.

Another one of our favorite songs. Okay, are we ready? No? Hi, you want to come up? Okay.

All right, I see there's a raven up here. And we're just waiting for our mask. Last night, Juno Dietrichson, he had gifted our group a mask, and last night in turn we put a new vest on him and a headdress. Ravens up front. Juno.

Dietrichson's gonna wear the mask. He made this for us. He's been a real big supporter. Raven.

Okay. The next song we're going to do is the Tsimshian entrance song. Sometimes we call it the clan song. If there are any Tsimshians out there, In the audience, in the fourth row over there, feel free to— we're going to call out the clans and we'd love your support and help. Ndoyek's at Newsom, Hau'aa at Gungshcheesh, everyone.

Happy death, everybody! Everybody!

¡Madre mía! ¡Madre mía! 1 Minute and 54 seconds. Where's Sarah Peel.

We're going to follow Sarah Peel. We're going to do the Haida exit, and we're going to end at the— off the stage with the killer whale song, which the late great Clarence Jackson taught us, and he also helped name the group, Waiwaa Hoxdaw.

That's my younger cousin. Okay. Khadkhiyakhchke.

Okay. How can I teach the Katuwan how to yadi?

Aaishhuss Deesheetaan. Kaahsiiskohuss Wooshkeetaan. Hi, my name is Ezra Ellisoff. My Tlingit name is Donahwaaq. I'm pleased to welcome you here to Celebration 2026.

Please be aware that songs you will hear and the crests you see on the regalia worn by the dancers are owned by clans. We respectfully request that you honor this ownership. SHI is accepting memorial donations in honor of loved ones. If you are interested in making a donation, you can stop by the info booth at Centennial Hall. Your donation will be acknowledged on stage, TV, and our livestream.

SealaskaHeritage thanks celebration sponsors, especially Alaska Airlines, Royal Caribbean, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Culture, Cultural Heritage, the City and Borough of Juneau, Goldbelt Incorporation, University of Southeast Alaska, and Sealaska Corporation. You can see a full list of Celebration sponsors in the digital program. Please use your program for a complete schedule for Celebration 2026. There are a variety of activities to participate in, including our Indigenous Science Building Open House today and tomorrow from 12 to 2 PM. Participate in family craft projects, learn how to beat mix, or enter a contest for heaviest earrings for all of you aunties.

At this time, we will welcome the dance group to the stage. The Anakha Kaudagan Ya'atste'k'i were founded in 2023 by Douglas Indian Association. Language associates and students are mentored by Hakasot Florence Marks-Shakely, Sukahadi Naiki Klaw, Dinah Hobson, who's Wooshkitown, Fred Knaak White, who is Shangukeidi, and Paul Kinkaudinik Marks, who is Sukahadi. Douglas Indians Association is a federally recognized tribal government that was founded in 1967. This dance group was formed to connect the indigenous youth to a cultural base in the Juneau-Douglas area, also known as the unceded territory of the Aukwane, Aukwukwane, and to affirm their identity, identities, and representation of many clans, communities in Southeast Alaska.

The group is made up of indigenous youth, language associates, and their mentors from all over Singit Ani. Without further ado, please help me welcome Anaha Kaudhaganya Ashaikh.

Hast du auch 2, 3 Kinder? Gut, hier. Die ich hasse, hast du ich hasse? Johannke, achua. Zu ihr schon ich hasse?

Hast du schon ich hasse? Zu hast du Konstantin? Zu hast du Slicko hasse?

The song was Agwaaht, the song we just finished singing.

Nishkoo. Now it's Nishkoo. Nishkoo is potlatch. Potlatch. We should do this after Ishmael's presentation.

Geet Wayne. I just want to say thank you. Singing on this stage, George Jim, he'd say, Yanash Tuk, he'd say, "Shayaydehein atudeksikhadeekha." We are related to many people who are here. And so that's what this is about that I'm explaining. That it's the Deshitaan, we thank many, there are many Deshitaan grandchildren here.

And there's Grandma Gaze, who is among us as one of our elders. And we want to acknowledge Geet Wayne as one of their grandfathers. Ah, yéyéti. And then, ah, ya, diya'e shaadehane'eweh ha'nakwugood. Yéyeweh wadoodaat ha'tunatitch.

Yékwotikunatish.

We want to acknowledge that one of our leaders, Clarence Leite has passed on, and he was Yoniedi, and he was a grandchild of Ineidi, Willie Peters, who was Kawii, and the Kawii before him. And he's also a grandchild of Anyethlahash Ishkitan. So acknowledging the Yoniedi.

And then this year, the DIA sponsored the veterans canoe from Angoon in honor of the late President Clarence Leite for his hard work and leadership for the people, being a protector of the Taku River and a fighter for the people. Hakuk huwusgawun ya goonwak. He fought for us. Ye'ue. And at this time, we would like to make a presentation of an akahi, a paddle.

We would like to give it to leaders among the organization who are Tehkwe Deesha, Kaas Woot, and Kaats Ondaatoo, and Kaas Woot, Dion Kediyente Leyti, and Andrea Leyti. The tribal administrator. Yayati, kunachish. Ah, ati ah. If you can come up and receive this, Andrea.

Good night, sheesh.

Good night, sheesh, everyone.

This barnum has been the hardest chapter of my life.

Someone told us recently that with the years, the decades that I spent with Clarence Butch Leite, that we eventually become one, and we did. And it's been very, very difficult for me because not only do I miss him from my life, I miss working with him side by side as he fought to defend the Taku and the salmon run and helped to build the Douglas Indian Association into what it is now. So gunalchéesh to our dancers who have honored him. To the veterans who have held us up during this time, and to all of you. Never really think that we'll reach a place in this lifetime to grieve so deeply, but it just means that— and I know I don't stand alone because many of you have suffered losses— but it means that we loved so very deeply.

And we loved our people so very deeply.

So I thank each and every one of you and want to extend not only my appreciation but the love that my husband, our president of the Douglas Indian Association, also felt for his people of the Takukwan as a young AD man. Thank you so much. For letting me share my words of sadness and love for each and every one of you. Gunalchéesh.

We have finished it off though.

It is always hard to lose a loss, have a loved one go beyond.

Afterwards, our sorrow, we begin a potluck song.

Take a break.

I'm sure proud of these young people.

We went to— yeah, go ahead, kuk.

Some of them I thought would never sing or dance, but you know what, they became some of the best singers and the best dancers. You want to know which ones they are? All of them. Won't get in trouble then.

Okay.

Yahatchewoods Khan, Invitational Koktushie EGS. Gook, goosoo waygao. Keekawshay.

Lucky Boo! Lucky Boo! People, whoa, whoa, whoa!

Wah-hee-yah! Wah-hee-yah! I think we have a couple minutes. If I could ask Dionne, if she could Come forward, please.

She does all the work where we are able to do all these things, and I think it would be in bad taste if we left without you, without you knowing who she is. Dionne.

Goodnik'chiih. Part of my life's work has been to make sure our children know their songs, and we have a dance group who represent a lot of different clans and tribes, and that's why you hear us singing different songs from different communities. So our goal in our education program is to affirm our children. They should know their stories. They own them.

They have a right to them. They should know their songs. They own them. They have a right to them. And that is the work of this dance group, to make sure that we embrace all of them and hold them up.

And they work hard. They work really hard. So gunalchéesh to all of our dance group members. This is a life's work. And we call them language warriors.

Because we hope they are the future generation of our fluent speakers. Gunkaachiiish. I almost said something to my Raven brother here. You know, he's Yeljádi and I'm Yelchayn, so there.

But they're just one and the same.

Hoojee ayayaya. This is our end of our performance, and we will end with the killer whale migration song.

Gook, gook.

Good people, it's an honor to be with you today. I just love DIA, you know, my son was a part of that group for so long and they just do an amazing job of just pulling in all the kids from the community who, you know, we're not from Juneau, we're not from Zanta Kahini, but they just make sure that there's a place for all the kids from all the different villages. And just, can we give them another round of applause, please? Francis Demert Peel, Dinaanu Ijin. Sandra Demert, Ilskadee, Diau Ijin.

Wathal Girak, Hinidikyang. Barbara Blake, Ya'atsetay Hinidikyang. Franklin Demert Sr. di chun u'eejan. Ken Johnson di had u'eejan. Gaya las gust u' di kwalang'ang.

Good people, my name is Wafaa Gidoc. My English name is Barbara Blake. I am the granddaughter of Frances and Franklin Demert Sr. from Cloaque in Heidelberg. My grandmother was Frances Peel before she was a Demert. I am the daughter of Sandra Demert.

Otherwise known as Iil Skideh. She was just in the dance group. I don't know why she always stands in the back. She's all 4'10". I couldn't see her at all.

And also the daughter of Ken Johnson. My father is Athabascan. I am Yaaklonis, or Raven from the Shark House, from Hengt'a Hunglai, Heidelberg. I get the honour of introducing the next group, but a couple of announcements. The Centennial Hall performances are broadcast live on KTO 360 TV.

For the link, go to www.sealaskaheritage.org. We would like to recognize our viewers who are participating in celebration through the livestream. So tell family, tell friends so that they can be watching. They scan the audience sometimes, which is always fun when you're watching from home. SealaskaHeritage thanks Celebration sponsors, especially Alaska Airlines, Royal Caribbean, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the City and Borough of Juneau, Goldbelt, University of Alaska Southeast, and Sealaska Corporation.

You can see a full list of Celebration sponsors in your digital program. Please see your program for a complete schedule for Celebration 2026. There's all kinds of things taking place. Today, for instance, there's Baby Raven Reads pop-up. At the Walter Soboleff Building Clan House between 2 and 5.

So if you have any kids between the ages of 0 and 5, send them over for some Baby Raven Reads opportunity. And at this time, I get the honor of introducing the next dance group, the Keeks Kwan Dancers, growing our youth with guidance of elders by perpetuating our culture through the songs, dance, and drumming of our people and our clans. In the late 1970s, a group of their children began to learn traditional songs and dance. And continued to perform as Keek Jom dancers. In 1989, a group of their people began a regalia-making class that later expanded to performing as the Keeks Kwan dancers.

The group consists of Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian nations. And I also want to say that I know that Uncle Joel Jackson is watching right now, and we just, we love you, Uncle Joel. We know that you've spent your entire life fighting for our people and fighting for our rights, and now you've got your own battle. That you're fighting for. So we love you, we know that you're watching.

So please help me give Keeks Kwan a round of applause.

Somebody needs to give them a cigarette.

They're in daylight savings mode.

We are the Kihwan Dancers, and we have been looking forward to this for 730 days. So it feels really good to be here.

I would like to say gunalchéesh to Auk Kwan for allowing us on your land and to Sealaska Heritage, to our host. Gunalchéesh. It is so good to see all our family and friends, and I would like to give a special shout out to Kanuk, if you're watching, we love you.

We'd also like to give, send our love to those that couldn't be here tonight, and special, special thoughts and prayers to Joel Jackson, to Cheryl Rose, to Janice Johnson, we're thinking of you and we, we hope things are going to be okay. We love you guys.

The 3-part song that we came into is, uh, is part of our Kurdova set and it's always lively and jazzy and that's one of our favorite sets to to do. The next song we are going to do is, was a song gifted to us by Kastyn, our Sagooteen song, and it's about living in happiness and having joy in your heart. Sagooteen, kashi.

Goonish-cheesh. The next song we're going to sing is our Powlatch song, Saayegheh Hwachii, and it's the song that we sing when the canoes are approaching shore.

Onkina.

Our next song we're going to do is our killer whale migration song, Ya Ya Nagwain. So all the Saa Gwaydi and Kluth Na Kadi, please join us. Stand where you are. Ya Ya Nagwain. Angoodaskup.

The next song we're going to do is Yewalkish, and it's a song that is about when our people first came in contact with non-native people.

You walkies? Ya k'nai nachan?

We ready? Ready. Ha ha ha ya, ha ha ha ya.

The next song we're going to do is called our good luck lady song, Klaanaa Kiraaw. And legend goes is that if you hear her, she'll bring you good luck. Klaanaa Kiraaw.

Do we have time for one more under the ice time limit? Timer? 7 Minutes.

We're just debating if we have time for another song because we got 7 minutes left. Two more. Two more. On a half. On a half.

We got time for one more song? Yeah. Okay, we are going to do our Flickerbird song and It's Anahia peace dance— it's a peace dance. Angadas! Anahia!

That is one of our favorite songs to do. It's so lively and jazzy. We are now going to do our exit. And we thank you guys for your time and for your love. We are going to exit to our Deshíton song.

Yahá hui.

We—. Ah!

We— ohh! Ohh!

Let's give them a round of applause for Kek Kwan.

I just have a quick announcement before the next moderator comes on. We have a silver Silverado— silver Subaru parked in the wrong place with the license plate ETG 277. Again, silver Subaru ETG 277, please move your vehicle. Thank you.

Good afternoon here. My name is Rob Edwardsen. Welcome to Celebration 2026. Can you hear me?

Okay, you can hear me in back. So I'm a Yaaklonis Haida, originally from Ketchikan. My grandparents were Robert and Nora Kogo, Antleek Iskian Skanjat. My mother is Verna Edwardson, Haida, from Ketchikan now. Hopefully she's watching on TV.

I'm going to introduce the next group here, and I'm going to make a few announcements here first. So please be aware that the songs you'll hear and the crests that you see on the regalia that'll be worn and carried by the dancers are owned by clans. We respectfully request that you honor this ownership. SHI is accepting memorial donations in honor of loved ones. If you're interested in making a donation, you can stop by the booth at Centennial— here at Centennial Hall.

Your donation will be acknowledged on stage, on statewide TV, and on livestream. Sealaska Heritage thanks celebration sponsors, especially Alaska Airlines, Royal Caribbean, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, City and Borough of Juneau, Goldbelt Inc., University of Alaska Southeast, and Sealaska Corporation. You can see a full list of Celebration sponsors in your digital program. Please see your program for a complete schedule for Celebration 2026. There are a variety of activities to participate in.

Today we have our Baby Raven Reads pop-up at the Walter Soboleff Building Clan House between 2 and 5 PM for children, all children ages 0 to 5. So now we're going to welcome the next dance group to the stage. The Hastu Atik Haasati is a dance group formed in 2015 by a group of individuals and families who have a strong desire to learn the Lingít language alongside their family and friends. A key component of this dance group is their children, who they hold up in all that they do.

The name translates to "We are the seeds left in their remains," which exemplifies the trust and expectations that they hold for their children. The name was given to them by Maya Rudolph. Please welcome to the stage— welcome them to the stage with a round of applause.

Aplausos.

"Hastu itik akaydi hasati aya uhan." We are the seeds left in their remains. That's the name of our dance group in Tlingit.

"Jahatu asiku hayati hasausku adusa haskseti." We just want our children to know who they are. "Acheeya hastu." Aku aya dekhaa'chi, neeste wuhtu daadii, wa'atshi wuhtu ashi, hayu khatangi ku atlatuku, kautootashi khad ka nawk, ka kaasteen, ka neela toka, kautootashi wa'atshi 2022. Today's special. We were able yesterday to do our very first performance with this lineup in a public event. And we took Davey Boxley's challenge, I think it might have been from like 2014, to compose new songs.

So every song that you see us sing today is a song that's been composed by people within our dance group.

This song is a glaigu, which is like a lullaby, and it's all about babies at the feet of weavers.

So what I was saying for earlier and saying it was for years, Shkan and Kosteen have been showing me pictures and taking pictures of all of their babies growing up at their feet while they're weaving. They have albums and albums of that. And so So this song was composed in honor of that.

Aha!

Kĭlĭkɛdeenx̱w̱s̱akwu̱ wa̱s̱ayu̱x̱aḥwataana daatiya. Woojiax̱, woojiax̱aax̱lii daatsaaya. Haatuwaasiguu, haasaa'wuuskuwu, woojiax̱aaxlii, haawuusdaaxlii. Haasaa'uskuutsu, just kusaxan, kusaxan dxeetii. I'm still learning how to speak in Tlingit, and I'm having a hard time describing basic human rights in Tlingit, but what I'm saying is that we're all human beings and we're all equal, and that love is love.

And so, gona tseesh, gona tseesh.

As an LGBTQ person, last year was pretty scary for our family, and so I hosted an event and I composed this song song because I want everybody to know that love is love and that we love— if we love each other, then we can succeed. So that's what this song is about.

I also wanted to acknowledge the Zach Gordon Youth Center and Lily Hope and all the weavers who were involved in creating this pride robe here. We were able to borrow this from the Zach Gordon Youth Center to let our youth dance in this pride robe. So gunalchéesh.

So I think this is the time where I'm going to pass on Davey's challenge to continue composing songs. So if you have the abilities or have friends who have the abilities to help you with the language pieces, our culture is living all the time. And it doesn't mean that we only have to sing our old songs. We should be creating and continuing to live our culture the way our ancestors did.

At this time, next speaker, good luck.

All right. Good night, Doc Genie. Our kids are in good hands.

Hello, my name is Jericho Pleng. My Tlingit name is Thurtin. I am Kiksáadi, and I am from Sitka. Welcome to Celebration 2026. All of the Centennial Hall performances are broadcast live on Public Television's KTOO 360 TV, and live video stream.

For the link, go to www.sealaskaheritage.org. We would like to recognize our viewers who are participating in celebration through the livestream. SealaskaHeritage thanks celebration sponsors, especially Alaska Airlines, Royal Caribbean, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the City and Borough of Juneau, Goldbelt Inc., University of Alaska Southeast, and Sealaska Corporation. You can see a full list of Celebration sponsors in the digital program. Please see your program for a complete schedule for Celebration 2026.

There are a variety of activities to participate in, including our Indigenous Science Building Open House today and tomorrow from 12 to 2 PM. Participate in family craft projects, learn how to bead mix, or enter a contest for heaviest earrings. At this time, we will welcome the dance group to the stage. This is a dance group that's very near and dear to my heart, my great-grandfather's people. The Sitka Kaguantaan dancers are rooted in the community of Sitka.

For centuries, there were over a dozen house groups based in Sitka, and today their descendants are located all over Alaska. They celebrate traditional culture and love of relatives by welcoming all Kaguantaan houses and their Nakani opposites to celebrate with their community. Please give them a round of applause.

We are the Sitka Kaguantaan Dancers. We're here to show you guys a good time.

The song we entered in on is called "Hondewak." The next song we'll be doing is a men's song, but before we get started, I'd like to let all you folks know that if there's any other Kogwantan in the audience, Harvey, and myself, we'd very much love for you to come join us.

So while we're waiting for our relatives to come up, I'd like to talk about some folks in our family who unfortunately aren't here with us right now. One of them is my Auntie Isabel Sam. She was taken too soon. The other is my uncle, Dona Schitzayat, Chuck Miller. So these two folks, they had a very crucial part in my life and a lot of our dancers' lives up here.

My uncle, he taught us how to sing, he taught us how to dance, he taught us how to harvest. He taught us how to be really good, healthy thingits. So we'll be up here dancing our absolute hardest for you folks.

So the next song we'll be doing, it's called Tawyaat, and it's a men's style song. So our young gentlemen and our not-so-young gentlemen will be out front dancing as hard as they can for you.

Ayaat khayr, ayaat khayr. Good.

Hey, Captain Kajit!

Filipinos, cheese! I hope our men made you real proud.

If I could get our men to make way and move their way to the back so our ladies could be out front dancing, we'll do a woman's song now. Give these guys a break.

The next song that we'll share with you folks, it's called Kwáshk'ashii. All but one of our songs, they'll be coming from our clan, and I'll let you know when it changes. All right, the next song we'll do is Kwass.

Gimatsiich for watching all of our relatives up here dance. We're really trying to show you folks how proud we are to be Tlingit, and how proud we are to have our uncles' and our aunties' teachings with us, and how it's like a medicine. This is how we carry them on. This is how we carry them with us. So we'll do our absolute hardest.

The next song we'll be doing is a men's song. It is called Kaahtaan. So our gentlemen will be featured out in front of the ladies again.

Time.

Cool.

Very proud of our relatives and how hard they're dancing for you folks. Up next, I think our Uncle Harvey would like to speak to you guys before we do our exit song.

Sea Alaska Heritage for inviting us.

I want to thank the Aukwan for allowing us on their country.

I also wanted to thank all those that helped support us to get us here. We had a repatriation of hats this past year, and it wasn't until after that that we decided that we'd try to come. So our ladies tried to raise money, but we— it is a very long, slow process, but my hat's off to the ladies and our clan mother Cheryl Duncan, who led the thing to make us so our group could make it here.

I wanted to invite all Kogwantan. I wanted to, to eliminate what our colonists have kind of brought to us, where they divided us and made us separate.

My elders always told me that when Kaagwaantaan got together, we were one Kaagwaantaan, Clay Kaagwaantaan.

So this is why I wanted all Kaagwaantaan to join us if they could. Thank you. Koonisheesh.

Hello. I too would like to thank all the contributors that helped us get here to Celebration. Kagwantan appreciates it very much. Gunaakchii shigatihang.

Harvey spoke on it a little bit, but my grandma Cheryl here, she was the tip of getting all of us here and making sure that we stayed on track. We couldn't have done it without her. It was a lot of weekends selling clam chowder and fry bread out of the A&B Hall, but here we are. We're all here, we're all here as family, and we're all here as one Kogwonton.

For your guys' time, for watching us dance. I hope that we made my uncle and our auntie very, very proud of us, and I hope that they're looking at us and they're smiling. The next song that we'll do, it's the Dakhlawedi entrance song, but we're going to use it as our exit song. Gooch Tlah Ann Johnson gave our dance group permission. She's been one of my lifelong teachers through the Sikka Native Education Program.

So I'm very grateful that she gave us permission to do her clan song as our exit. Gnaasheesh for coming, watching us dance. I hope you guys enjoyed.

Rook!

I'm gonna go ahead and get ready to do this one more time for you so we can wrap up tonight's show here on The Daily Bugle News Network Live Showroom Tour of 2020. So if there was anything that came out today or something else about it later down the line when people start asking questions like what kind of car did they use, how much does it cost, things along those lines then just let me know because obviously these videos will be available online after Saturday night live stream ends. But yeah man thanks again everybody who tuned into us from around the world watching our livestreams last week at SEMA International Raceway right now over my shoulder but anyway thank y'all very much once again everyone stay safe keep your eyes open look forward to seeing some cool cars next weekend alright bye-bye. Oh hey, oh hey, oh hey!

Oh hey! Free!

Oh hey! Oh hey!

Let's give Sitka Kaguantaan another round of applause.

Gunasheesh. We are on a break until 2:30, so make sure you stretch your legs and get some water and take care of yourselves. We'll be back at 2:30.

Yayeki, it seems that the world sees you as wonderful people, wonderful dancers.

He had a role in fighting for our Alaska Native land rights with the Alaska Native land claims. He knew it was important and it was a Tlingit value to really take the time to think about what you're going to say, and I've lived my life as close to that as, as I can. He was the bridge between Native people and non-Native people. He definitely made an impact on generations of people. I also got married by Dr. Soboleff.

He married my parents, and I think the records show that he married about 400 people. One of the greatest gifts we can give people, I think, is our time. And so he really spent time communicating. He stood across the street and watched them tear his church down, which is very sad. Ripple effect.

You're at that beach and you throw a rock in the water and you see the waves sprinkle out. That, I would say, was his impact. On the state. The people of Alaska were wonderful people. They were strong enough, they were able enough, they had strong willpower, they had a strong spirit, and they survived through the ages, and we are here today As descendants of the people of Alaska.

K'idaax aayaxaaht. Hi, my Tlingit name is Tuka Naaxh. I'm Raven of the Tlingit AD and from the Dawg Salmon House. My English name is Sebastian Nelson, and I'm a 5th grader in Mrs. Wright's class at Auke Bay Elementary School in Dezantsekeheeni, Orduno, Alaska. These are my classmates, and back in the fall, we knew Walter Sobolev Day was coming up and wanted to learn more.

November 14th is Walter Sobolev Day. In the state of Alaska. Miss Wright is our teacher. She's taught for 23 years and is thoughtful, kind, and is always teaching us new things. And there aren't a lot of resources to help teachers teach about Walter Sobolev Day.

We brainstormed about how to learn about this great person, and then she suggested we ask Scott Burton, a Juneau-based filmmaker, to help us make a short documentary. She made another film with Mr. Scott a couple years ago about about the wonderful Tlingit teacher, Kawooda Sayn, Daniel Brown, and said it was a great learning experience. And so this documentary is available to help people all across Alaska understand why we have Walter Sobolev Day. We had a lot to learn, research to do, and questions to ask. We started practicing with cameras and how to respectfully interview people.

Um, what would be your dream job for you if you would be able to have it? I really want to be a vet, and I want to stay in Juneau because—.

Khunay Lance Twitchell and his daughter Kaas Kiana Twitchell taught us his Tlingit name and clan, among other lessons.

Kajakti taught us a lot. And I think about this: everything is alive.

So we have to give everything kindness and love.

And we love it.

No matter where you're from, Wuushcheet'ikii. Give each other kindness. Haawuush'eteedeshe. And help each other out. Kusheeh gudaxaawerku'oo.

It doesn't matter where the other people are from. Wuush'eteeshii'eteen keehagaxatsii. If you help them, we will grow strong. Yee'awayha'ee'auxatu. That's what Kajuqtí taught us.

He was of the Raven moiety. He was Tlin'idi. And he was from Onk'akitan.

He was 102 years old when he left us. Whoa! I'm Clanidi. Or Dog Salmon, the same clan and house as Káadjok'te. He often talked about how we had to take care of the old person we were going to become.

He'd been talking about old age for years. Káadjok'te was like a grandfather to Káadjoo'héin Jaelingkukesh. And I often take that to heart, and I think many should. You know, there are a lot of things you can do to yourself mentally, physically, emotionally that are not good for your body and for your mind and soul. I personally take care of myself.

I exercise regularly. I have chosen not to drink alcohol, not to do drugs. I only drink water and coffee. I eat well because we're going to be old someday, and if we don't take care of the body that we have, We won't grow old very well, I guess. So I always kind of have that in the back of my mind.

Grandpa Walter said, "Take care of the old person you're going to become." He told the story of a couple of mice. Living to be 102 and all of his accomplishments took perseverance. Family friend Jim Walter taught us that Káadjokte often told stories with messages. That fell into a bucket of Milk. Milk.

And so, they are trapped in this bucket, they cannot get out, and they do not know what to do. They are, you know, sort of paddling just to keep afloat and keep their heads up, and you know, one of them, one of the two mice finally gave up and sunk into the the milk and drowned. The other one kept paddling away, paddling away, trying to get to the top, and eventually the milk, because it was being paddled, churned, turned into butter, they say, the story tells, and it got hard, and then the mouse could hop out. I think he told that story as It's just an example of how, you know, we shouldn't give up even when it seems like we're in impossible circumstances. But there's one lesson that I always, you know, take and remember from him.

Dr. Rosita Worl's Tlingit names are Edik Laasák and Kahani. She's president of Sealaska Heritage Institute, an organization Kaadjok Tse helped create. We interviewed her in the Shukuhit, or ancestors' house, in the Walter Sobolev Building.

When somebody, you know, says something negative about you or has a conflict with you, he would say don't respond to them. He said especially if it's an irrational You know, criticism. Constructive criticism, he said, respond to that and try to give, you know, good answers. But if they're critical comments, they're irrational, he said, don't respond to him or to them. Because he would say it would give them credibility.

Another great experience at the Walter Sobolev Building was being able to go down to the archives and see Kajaq-Tia's beloved nax'héin, or Chilkat robe. We'd seen the blanket in pictures, heard about it in stories, and Káadjokte's daughter, Janet, told us about it. His Chilkat robe, I would have loved to have brought it to show you, but it's very, very delicate because it's over 100 years old. It's stored at Sealaska Heritage Institute. What, what better place to have it because it's it's temperature controlled and bug-free and is preserving it wonderfully.

It was woven by a lady by the name of Jennie Klinot, and she was from the Haines and Klukwan area. And it was a gift to my grandmother, my father's mother, for making a pair of moccasins. My grandmother on my dad's mom used to make the leather moccasins with the fur and the beading on it. And she made a pair of moccasins for Jennie, and that was Jennie's thank you. She had woven that Chilkat blanket and given it to my grandma, who subsequently gave it to my father.

The Walter Soboleff Building is beautiful and adorned with art, a great tribute to Qaajokte'. Kahani, Dr. Rosita Worl's story about not responding to irrational criticism reminded us of another story from G'nuuk Anthony Molot. The stories I've heard about, you know, asking to rent a house in Juneau and someone said no I don't rent to natives. And he just shook their hand and said, "Sorry to bother you." He knew that getting angry wouldn't help anybody in that situation. And if he had gotten angry, then the other person would have gotten angry back.

But instead, he knew, if I show respect and honor for myself, then I get respect and honor back from others. Another great resource downtown in Dzantik'ahini, or Juneau, is the State Library Archives and Museum. Archivists Leah and John helped us find all kinds of research on Káadjokotséé.

We also found this video of Káadjakatsé with advice for us, our teachers, and parents. I would say to the students, if you as a student feel you're not doing well in school, speak to your father and mother. Or if they're not at home or if they're not working with you, speak to a friend and the friend may go with you to the teacher to explain some of your problems. There's always somebody willing to help you. There's always somebody willing to help you and talk to the teacher.

And once the teacher understands The teacher will come to your rescue, and that's the way it should be. Made a huge impact on Alaska in a time when there was a lot of racism. In addition to prep, setup, interviews, and research, we also reviewed our footage. Native or non-native? I think that should be self-rated.

Tsi practiced what he preached, and his church was a big part of his life. Although it was called the Native Church, after it was established, white neighbors in the neighborhood asked Dr. Soboleff, "Well, can we join your church?" So he asked the Native congregation, and they said, "Why not?" So it became an integrated church. It was really like my family neighborhood church. Most of the people on 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th Streets went there. And it was a Native church.

It was established in 1942, and Walter was the first and only minister Dr. Soboleff, and we had potluck dinners every month. The whole church came bringing their favorite casseroles or desserts, and we had Sunday school there. My mother was a Sunday school teacher and the church treasurer, and as a teenager, on Sunday afternoons, We went and met with teenagers in our neighborhood, went and met with Dr. Sobleff and just had a kind of a discussion. He wanted to see how we were doing. We had prayers and we roasted hot dogs.

At the time that it closed, it was the USA Presbyterian closed it. It wasn't the wish of the congregation. But that church had more baptisms, more marriages, more new members than the white Presbyterian church. And, um, Dr. Soboleff had just ordered 14 new pews, and then all of a sudden it was just abruptly closed, and the congregation sort of was really upset. It was very, very hurtful and very humbling for him.

The Board of National Missions, which was the— they were the people that ran the church, and they announced to him that they were going to close the church. Didn't particularly give a reason. And there wasn't much you could do. So if you could put yourself in his place, he stood across the street and watched them tear his church down, which is very sad. On his 95th birthday, he said to me, he said, "Just always remember that in life, doors are gonna open and doors are gonna close.

But when those doors open, have the courage to walk through them. And so that was one of my favorite things that he shared with me. So, and it's— and it was a very simple thing, but it was also really, really profound and changed the way I thought about how I do things. From that point on, he was an evangelist, which is a person that goes out into the communities and preaches the word of God. And he was on the Princeton Hall, which at the time was an evangelical vessel.

Many of Kajakuta's sermons and interviews were also broadcast on the radio. And then later on, I went and had lunch at the senior citizen center. And here I heard something very interesting. It is regarding respect. The older people were saying, "We're concerned about respect in this village.

People are not respecting like they used to." And thus it is that one of the values of Tlingit culture is respect. Respect the elders, respect parents, respect property and the world of nature. Also respect yourself so that others may respect you. Dad wasn't home a lot when we were growing up, so my mom is the one that raised us most of the time, but when he would be home, we would be crawling all over him and he would be playing with us. And there were certain things that you had to do and certain things that, that you weren't supposed to do because he was a well-respected man.

And as his children, we were expected to be nice children. Not that, you know, we were perfect because nobody's perfect. Dad lived with us for about 10 years, and he traveled a lot. He did not speak to you and tell you everywhere he was going. That was his work and his business.

But he had a favorite group of toy animals: Elmo and Cookie Monster And Bert. So every time he'd leave, he would hide Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Bert in different locations in the house. And it was a challenge for Janet and I to find them. He'd hide them under our pillows. He'd hide them in the closet.

He'd hide them in the kitchen where If it was food we were going to be getting, you'd find it. Maybe it would take you 2 or 3 days to find it. He would laugh because when he'd get home, he'd say, "Where did you find them this time?" And we would just all laugh. But he loved doing that kind of stuff all of the time. So he spent a lot of his free time writing correspondences or letters to other people.

And as a matter of fact, And now on— in November, the City Museum actually gives out free envelopes and mailers and encourages people on his birthday to write letters to their friends. I used to take approximately 6 letters to the post office every day. He wrote letters to people he met, and he always said things to them, letting them know he thought about them, he prayed for them, and he loved them. That was him. He just cared about everybody he met.

In honor of Kajakhteh, we decided to write letters to people to express our gratitude.

It's now easy to understand why November 14th is Dr. Walter Soboleff Day in Alaska. A lifetime of challenging work, all done with gentleness. And so think about what that looks like in your own life. You know, do you think of people in a good way? Are there people that you maybe don't feel fondly of, that maybe if you treated them gently, they might treat you differently.

Or if you form an opinion, do you have all of the information you need, and are you helping shape a better world? And that's probably the influence that he had with the power of his gentleness. And remember, Aunty Puat speaks metaphor about Kadjokta's ripples. You're at that beach and you throw a rock in the water and you see the waves sprinkle out. That, I would say, was his impact on the state.

They're still echoing through all of us. I would describe my grandfather's personality as funny and caring and very inclusive. No matter what your race is, You should be treated equally by everyone. I'm proud to be his grandson, and I consider myself lucky to have known him, and I miss him. Lots of people pronounce it "Sobeloff," but it's actually pronounced "Sobel-eff" with an "e." So that's what I think everyone should know.

The lesson that I learned from Walter Soboleff is that you should never hold a grudge. I never saw him ever raise his voice or get mad. He had a very calming effect on everybody. I think it's just to give back to the community and take care of the old person you're going to become. It graces our dining room table.

So when we sit down, Walter's always there looking at us. Being kind and Not being mean to other people. At the coffee shop when the waiter said, "Would you like some coffee? The first one is $2 and the second one is free," and he said, "I'll have the second one." He called them Pearls of Wisdom.

A thing of the cheese.

Thank you for coming. We are happy that you are here.

Good afternoon. Good afternoon and gunashteech to Sealaska Heritage Foundation and all the organizers and sponsors of Celebration for this opportunity to make a special presentation. My name is Jesse Keel. I have the great privilege of serving as the Alaska State State Senator for the northeast corner of Southeast Alaska. So, thank you.

I am privileged to represent a great portion of Tlingit Aanii, and it is an honor to do so. I'm joined today by my legislative colleague from from Central Southeast Alaska, Rebecca Himschoot. Her House District includes Sitka, Petersburg, all the way down to, I think, the northern part of Prince of Wales Island. And the southern part. And all of Prince of Wales Island, excuse me.

We are here this afternoon to present a legislative citation honoring the life and the tremendous contributions of Marlene Johnson, whose name, Slāath Dzaklá, adorns this citation along with her name, Lakutii. The legislature takes the occasion every now and then to honor truly remarkable Alaskans, and Marlene Johnson was truly one of those. We're joined on stage by several members of the family. We want to thank you for being here and receiving this citation. We honor Marlene for her contributions to all of our state.

She made a tremendous mark as an Alaska Native leader, as a leader in the world of business, as a woman who led her community and served in public office, and who made countless contributions to her culture, her community, her family, and the Alaska that is the kind of place where we all want to live.

I'm sorry that my two co-sponsors on this citation, my two representatives, Sarah Hannon and Andy Storey, could not be here today. They were unavoidably called away. But this citation recites some of Marlene Johnson's life, from her birth in Hoonah to her education both in Alaska, Hoonah and then Juneau, and then outside, achieving her higher education, her life in the world of finance, her life as a corporate board member, and the many contributions she made, the hard work the dedication that marked her life and her tremendous accomplishments in overcoming some of the worst of what we as Alaskans once did to one another. Marlene persevered through, but she didn't just survive through. No, she made the world better.

She made life better. She thrived and and raised a family of her children and grandchildren through adversity toward an Alaska that can make us all proud. I want to invite the representative to say a few words in her honor as well. Thank you.

I am Rebecca Himschoot. I represent House District 2. That's the 500-mile span of incredible coastal Communities from Yakutat to Heidelberg. Gunaasheesh for letting me be part of this event today. I just wanted to make one additional comment about Marlene's life.

I did not have the distinct honor of getting to meet Marlene, but what I will say is in learning about her life, I am so astounded and impressed by her choice as a person who was damaged by our school system to come back and then give 26 years to her local school board. That is a tremendous, tremendous gift to her community and to her schools, and for that I am very, very grateful, and I want to say thank you to her family for that gift that she gave to all of Hoonah, but also to her family.

So this legislative citation, I had the privilege of being the prime sponsor but I want you to know a couple of things about it. First, Alaska's Constitution requires that the journal be kept of every action of the House and of the Senate. And so permanently recorded in Alaska's history is not only the fact of this citation, not only the words of this citation honoring the life and the contributions of Marlene Johnson, not only the fact that it is signed by Bryce Edgemon, the Speaker of the House, and Gary Stevens, the President of the Senate. But also recorded forever in Alaska history is that the Alaska State Legislature unanimously passed this citation honoring Marlene Johnson. She is a Tlingit leader, she is a woman leader, she is a leader in education, but above all of that, she is a tremendous Alaskan who made our state a better, a stronger, a fairer place.

So with great gratitude for her life, we honor her and we mourn her passing. Please join me in applauding her as we present the citation to her family.

Hello, my name is Ezra. I work at Sealaska Heritage Institute. I'm pleased to be with you all today and welcome you to Celebration 2026. Please be aware that the songs you will hear and the crests you will see on regalia worn by dancers or owned by clans. We respectfully request that you honor this ownership.

SHI is accepting memorial donations in honor of loved ones. If you are interested in making a donation, you can stop by the info booth at Centennial Hall. We would like to acknowledge the following donation: $20 from Alice Thomas in memory of Paul Thomas Jr. Please see your program for a complete schedule for Celebration 2026. There are a variety of activities to participate in, including a regalia photo shoot tomorrow from 11 to 1 and 3 to 6 PM at the Jack, which is located just outside across the parking lot here at Centennial Hall.

At this time, we would like to introduce and welcome the next dance group. Dancers are a youth cultural dance group of the Sitka Native Education Program, a program founded in 1974 through the efforts of Charlie Joseph, Sr. and Isabella Brady. At a time when clan songs were no longer being taught to children, Charlie Joseph, Sr. recognized the urgency of ensuring this knowledge would continue. He worked closely with elders seeking guidance and approval on how songs from various clans could be shared in a respectful and appropriate way. These efforts led to a large gathering of elders who came together to discuss what young people needed to learn and how cultural knowledge could be passed on responsibly.

Through this collective leadership and community direction, the Sitka Native Education education program was formed, grounded in elder guidance, cultural protocol, and the belief that culture must live through youth. The Qadjaheen dancers were created as part of this version or vision, providing students a space to learn Tlingit dance within an educational setting rooted in respect and responsibility. Through practice and performance, Dancers learned the history, meaning, and care that come with carrying our culture forward. In 2024, SNAP celebrated 50 years with a k'oo'eech in Sitka, honoring the founders and elders whose guidance made the program possible. Today, SNAP continues to run strong, led in part by former Gajahin dancers who now carry forward the work of our elders and ensure these teachings continue for future generations.

The group is made up of dancers in 5th to 12th grade who come from various family lines and clans. Please help me— or without further ado, please help me welcome Qajaheen.

Gnaashiiizh aag-eeet yiisa'akhi. Honorable ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming here. We are your grandchildren. We are the Gau Jahin dancers. Please forgive us for our mistakes.

Thank you all for listening to me.

Ganesha Ji, Jagadguru Ji Ti, thank you for giving us this time tonight to show you our Gau Jahin dance group. Our group is composed of our 50 girls 3rd grade Sikkan Native Education Program students. The SNAP program was formed in 1974 by Charlie Joseph Cowshotk and Isabelle Brady Yedigooka to ensure that our young people learn our way of life, our language, and our songs.

Today you see the fruit of their work and prove that our young people are learning the way of life, language, and songs.

This is our first time performing here at Celebration since 2012. Because Kaax Kaadk met with the leaders of different clans, we have been given permission to use other clans' songs.

Goonasheesh to our sponsors who donated funds for us to come over here from Shiitaka. Hames Corporation, Sika'Albem Club, Sika'Elks Lodge, Advanced Electric Signs, Shiitaka Alaska Managers Association, CERT, Rebecca Hemshue, Rob Allen and Rob in Sherman Sika Tribe of Alaska Tribal Council. Sika School District Culture Department.

Ya yeedat agahtoot eeh, ya naakeshli yeedu asaq, ya shee tuknakadi aye. Now we are going to dance this song called Naakeshli. It is a Tuknakadi song.

A'ii. Now we are going to sing Gitwink. It belongs to the Daciton.

Yasha ye kei gach tushi eeo, gach koanakaaxuxi, Tuktentan noxati. This song, it belongs to the Tuktentan Clan. It was composed composed by Coach Khan.

We're working with our young folks, and we accidentally sang the song that we were going to do for our second men's song there. We ended up doing Gacahin instead of Gitwain 2, Txaadee Khadnaa'yoo. Just wanted to make it known so that way it's on the record. Please forgive us, for we're still learning.

This song we will do next is called "Kadjeheen." It was written by Dostia Ethelmakinan and Káudiké Tsa Vida Davis about Kásh Aik Charlie Joseph Sr. and his love for his Kluutjéheen dancers. The words in the song reflect how the men used to shine up their abalone earrings, real nice, do take care of them, and represent how precious they are. These Kluutjéheen dancers were Charlie's abalone earrings, how he loved them, and now they will dance for you.

So part of what we learn and we put a lot of emphasis on is mistakes, and we've talked about the horror stories of drumsticks flying across the room at Celebration, or someone forgetting the words, stopping in the middle of the song, or starting the wrong song. Song. And so that happens, but we practice just being able to go with the flow. And our students, they have worked really hard on their narration, so they wanted to make sure that we are also introducing Gacéhin, the song, and making sure that the credit is given to, to that song. And part of what we were going to do about right now was invite former Gacéhin to come up and to help these young folks sing.

So So we're going to test— we're going to test your knowledge from your Snap years to see if you can help us sing GateWayne 2. Ganaashcheesh.

I also just want to point out that this drummer here has been practicing Gajaheen and being able to drum that, but because they all practice together, she is fully prepared to be able to start Git Wayne. Goodness, sheesh.

Us. Just as a reminder, we've been around since 1974.

We will now be dancing out using our own Gudjeheen exit song. This song is a gift to future SNAP students made by the 2026 Gudjeheen dancers.

Good!

Hello, my name is Monica Ortiz. Welcome to Celebration. All of Centennial Hall performances are broadcast on public television, KTOO 360. 360 TV. And a live video stream, for the link go to www.sealaskaheritage.org.

We would like to recognize our viewers who are participating in celebration through the livestream. Sealaska Heritage thanks celebration sponsors, especially Alaska Airlines, Royal Caribbean, the Smithsonian Center for Folk Book Life and Cultural Heritage, the City of Borough, the City and Borough of Juneau, Goldbelt Incorporated, University of Alaska Southeast, and Sealaska Corporation. You can see the full list of celebration sponsors in the digital program. Please see your program for the complete schedule for Celebration 2026. There are a variety of activities to participate in, including our Indigenous Science Building open house tomorrow from 12 to 2 PM.

Participate in family craft projects, learn how to beat mix, and enter a contest of heaviest earrings. At this time, we will welcome the dance group to the stage. Ha Diiajin, Take My Hand, is a Seattle-based dance group composed of 25 members from ages 5 to 83. Their cultural roots in Southeast Alaska, including villages of Klawock, Ak Bay, Hyderburg, Cake, Klukwan, and Sitka. While most of the members are Tlingit, many also proudly claim Haida and Tsimshian heritage.

They honor their ancestors who gave them their language and their songs, ensuring their voices continue to be heard. They sing for our children and future generations to keep the culture alive and strong. They live near the Salish Sea, and many of their songs reflect their deep connection to the sea. Most of their dancers participate in the coastal canoe journey and strive to develop cultural leadership opportunities for our young people. They began as the Alaska Native Cultural Heritage Association over 30 years ago.

While their name and membership have changed with time, early members of their families still join them periodically. 11 Years ago, their respected matriarch, Janet Pill, joined retired ANCHA A leader, Jack Strong, to reinvigorate the group and honor her Tlingit heritage through the passing of songs on their children, grandchildren, and members of the Seattle Tlingit community. Please give them a round of applause.

Goonascheesh, goonascheesh, goonascheesh. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, friends and family, relatives and relations. It's good to see you all here. My name, my English name is Brandon, but I also carry the names of Sabaja, Kuyons, and Klain. And if you put those all together, It roughly translates to the big boss that's close to his heart.

I kind of like the way that sounds. The group that you see standing here before you is Hyundai Ijin. Hyundai Ijin. Hyundai Ijin. We're a Seattle-based dance group.

All of us here, we live in the greater Seattle area. The dance group is Hyundai Jin. It was created by Jack Strong, Agnes Ballinger, and others that started it in the late '90s, early, late '90s. And I only recently joined it here in the late 2000s. And recently, recently is like 5, 10 years ago, just became the leader as Jack had to move away.

But I want to make sure we acknowledge him and let him know that we're thinking of him and he's in our hearts.

Those first songs you heard us do, I like to think of it as doing it outside of the house.

And we use those as our warm-ups, kind of get our larynx ready, you know, get our singing voices ready. But also, I like to think of it as knocking on the door. We're letting you know we're coming in, and we're so nice we sang twice.

The song that we entered in on was "Nitchayana Shekooch," "Wolves Running Along the Beach." That song was composed by Harold Jacobs. In the beginning you heard me say, "Nitchayana Shekooch," "Wolves Running Along the Beach," literally what it translates to, and then it just goes on.

The next song that we'd like to do is one that's important to me, one that I enjoy doing.

It's "Suheidei Shukaku-tan," "The Box of Knowledge." This song was also composed by Harold Jacobs, but it's of the words of a different man, George Davis.

The words were spoken in the 1980 Sea Alaska Elders Conference. The words were: We do not want what was said here to only echo in the air.

Yes, you have unwrapped it for us. That is why we once again open this container of wisdom left in our care.

The significance to the song, many of you, I know many of you in the crowd may know, but maybe for those at home that are watching that may not know, that in the not too distant past, we weren't able to practice our culture, speak our language, practice our heritage, gather. And so what happened was this knowledge was tucked away. It was hidden in these boxes of knowledge. So that future generations could get a hold of it and regain that history, regain those protocols, regain that knowledge. So you'll be seeing exactly that.

What my young ones in the group will be depicting over here is exactly that. They'll be digging into the box of knowledge, regaining that culture, regaining that history. And so, without further ado. Suheide Shugakutan.

Goonascheesh, goonasheesh, goonasheesh. At this time, I'd like to invite my Uncle Ron to Duné, to come up and to say a few words about our next song. But before we move on and we do that, I'd just like to acknowledge a couple people. And I want to acknowledge the people of the land, the Occoquan. Thank you for having us here.

You know, we're just passing through, and we're just sharing a little bit of ourselves along the way. So we say a big gunascheesh, thank you. I want to thank All those that put this on, it takes a lot of energy, a lot of people to put something like this on. All those volunteers, all those cooks, everybody that participates in making these things happen. It's a beautiful thing to see, and I'm just so proud to be a part of it.

And let me glance back at my grandma. I'm good? Anything I miss, anything, Grandma? Okay, I'm good. I got the grandma approval.

So with that, I will leave it to my uncle and I'll let him announce the next song.

Nephew, you have no idea how much energy it takes when you're over 80 years old. Woo! Woo! My Uncle Albert, now deceased, East, worked cedar and copper in New Jersey. He's passed on.

About 25 years ago, I came to the Northwest. I had no family. Sadoots, a Haida man, Eagle Frog, took me under his wing. I learned the carve canoes, I learned to pull. I became a skipper.

I sang and danced with Haidee Laas. And then I met the most beautiful lady, Dayqua. And she said, "And you will dance with Haidee Laas?" And I said, "Absolutely." And not only will I get to dance and sing, But I get to be a storyteller. So here comes a story. A long time ago, sometime before and maybe after the Great Flood, all the fishes received a letter, an invitation to come to a party.

And they were all so excited. They danced and swam and loved each other. It was a beautiful opportunity to celebrate, except for one problem. Who sent the invitation?

Oh no! It's the whales!

Woo! Ah-heh!

All right. Hau'a, hau'a. Ganesh ji.

Again, just a few things before we move on. I know a lot of people in the audience know these, but people that are watching may not know that we mean no disrespect when we turn our backs to you. What we're really trying to do is show you where we come from, show you who we are. You'll see on a lot of the regalia that they're wearing that has their house, their clan on the back of their tunic or on the front, but that's what we're doing and I just wanted to explain that.

In the beginning, as you said, you know, we all come from the Seattle area. The group was started up by Agnes Ballinger and Jack Strong. And when he moved, as I said, he asked me to carry it forward along with my grandmother, and I could not say no. I'm honored to be up here and to be able to stand in this position that I'm in with these beautiful people in front of all these beautiful people here.

One thing I wanted to say, and I've asked my— the elders in the group, I've already talked to them about it, and I wanted to say it publicly, that yes, we are— when I took it over, it was a Tlingit dance group, but many of our— even myself and a lot of our members are multicultural Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, people of the, uh, the Salish Sea. We have a lot of that in our group. And I asked my grandma and the other leaders, what I want to do under my leadership now that I've taken over the group is open it up and to become a Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian group. And because there's a lot of people down in Seattle, a lot of people, a lot of Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshians, and a lot of them only know just that. And so I feel like transitioning to a group that's inclusive to— we're already inclusive, but I want to say it publicly and out loud that we're inclusive to all those people of the Pacific Northwest, people of the Southeast, because I don't want anybody to fall through the cracks because it's such a beautiful thing to be able to stand up here.

It's such a powerful thing. To be able to stand up here to share, you know, what's in our hearts, what we carry, because, you know, this is our ancestral homeland. We're separated in a way, but we still carry the culture, the tradition, the protocols, the language. We still carry that in our hearts in a good way. So with that, I would just say thank you for your time.

Time really flies when you're having a good time up here. I want to make sure that we're courteous to all those other dance groups that, you know, are coming up. So with that, I'm going to give my grandma one more good glance. Oh, she's smiling. That's good.

But yeah, oh, I'd also like to acknowledge, you know, it's just getting— it's getting harder all around for everybody. It was very difficult for us to get up here this year. We only have about, I would say this is probably about a quarter, maybe a third of our dance group. A lot of our members weren't able to make it due to just work, financial reasons, but I want to acknowledge them if they're watching. Hello, we wish you were here.

No, no, you know, from those that couldn't come from financial reasons or those that for health reasons, you know, my Uncle Steve, Roger Wise, you know, a couple of our members had to leave unfortunately early because there was health issues, but we, like I said, they're in our hearts. We want to acknowledge them and we wish they were here with us, and they are, and we hope they're watching. So we wish them well on their journey and we can't wait till they're with us next time. And, you know, before we go, you know, from what I understand, there is no you know, goodbye in our language. There's only, "I will see you again." So with that, my name is Sebajah Kuyans, Clayne, Brandon, you call me whatever you want to call me, and this is Hunde Ijin.

And with that, we say gunalchéesh for your time, and until we see you next time, gunalchéesh.

Sorry, I'm working on my uncle speeches. You know, as years go on, you know, we were more and more of our elders have been walking into the forest to continue on their next journey. I used to have so many uncles that I would be able to just hand the mic over to let them talk. You know, you hand them the mic and it's a good solid 5 minutes I could rely and let me think for a couple minutes. But now I gotta come up with those uncle stories and, you know, keep it going on the mic.

I've had some great leaders like Jack Strong, Fred Luth, Fred Fulmer, like a lot of leaders that I've looked up over time, you know, David Boxley, like, and many others as well, you know, Tiny from Katia, you know, I've— yes, I've been away from my ancestral homeland, but in no way have I been away from like the culture. And so what I would like to do, and I made sure it was okay with the group, we're gonna sing a song that we know as "Hoo-Ha." And I was just recently, fairly recently, let— known the history of it, and I'm so glad that it was told to me. But from what I understand, it was a song that was gifted from the Tsimshian people to the Tlingit people, Deesh'itán, and it was one of 4 songs that was gifted from what I understand. And I just wanted to say thank you for letting me know that history because that's important, and we want to acknowledge that history by exiting with that song. So.

Nephew, can I ask an 80-year-old's privilege for one moment? Absolutely. Absolutely. Hello! Hello!

Happy! I don't know how many of you out there are married or thinking about getting married or wished you were married, but I left out something when I was talking. This This is the best thing that ever happened to me.

I dedicate that kiss, and Jen will understand this, to Uncle Ernie.

Okay, Uncle. Konnichiwa. Thank you for your time. Like I said, we are Hyundai Agen, and until we see you again.

Oh, it says as brief an introduction as necessary. Hold on. I thought it said say everything that you know in Tlingit, so hold on. My name is Khoné. Welcome everybody, I'm so pleased we are together.

Khonákhik é wuchin xasati. It's very good that we're together today. Welcome to Celebration 2026. Please be aware that songs you will hear and crests you will see, regalia worn by the dancers, are owned by They are owned by clans, and we respectfully request that you honor this ownership. Sealaska Heritage Institute is accepting memorial donations in honor of loved ones.

If you are interested in making a donation, you can stop by the info booth at Centennial Hall. Your donation will be acknowledged on stage and statewide TV and our livestream. Sealaska Heritage thanks celebration sponsors, especially Alaska Airlines, Royal Caribbean, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the City and Borough of Juneau, Goldbelt Incorporated, University of Alaska Southeast, and Sealaska Corporation. You can see a full list of Celebration sponsors in the digital program. Please see your program for a complete schedule for Celebration 2026.

There are a variety of activities to participate in including a regalia photo booth tomorrow, 11 to 1 and 3 to 6 PM at the Jack, which is located just across the parking lot. Stop by and get your photos taken. Gunaasheesh. At this time, we will welcome the dance group to the stage. The Ankich' Kwaan are an Anchorage-based dance group who come together through song, dance, and shared responsibility.

The group name was given them given to them by their elder dance leader, Shukxaniikik Shirley Kendall of the Kaagwaantaan Clan of Hoonah. Aanchiiich is how Anchorage is spoken in the Tlingit language, and they are grateful to carry this name with care and respect. They are guided by their elders. In addition to Shirley, they are deeply thankful for the guidance of Shaddishiiik Gilbert Stokes, who is Luknax. Their leadership and presence grounds our group.

The group came together in 2021 when two smaller groups joined as one. Many of their members are new to dancing and singing, and they approach this work with humility, commitment, and respect. While the group is primarily made up of Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and Tlingitka members, they are honored to welcome dancers from all Alaska Native and American Indian cultures who wish to learn and gather in community. They, they carry their clans with them as they dance. The Tlingit clans represented among them include Tsooktineidi, Yanyeidi, Qanaxadii, Shuknaxadii, Qanaxteidi, and others connected through family and community.

They have permission to sing each of their songs and carry them with respect. They are grateful for the opportunity to dance here at Celebration and to create a space where our children and youth remain connected to their culture, language, songs, and teachings. Gunalchéesh, yeechintaknaytutch hasuujiyes. Give them a round of applause. Yee-awe.

Hadee. Hi there.

From the House of Coho.

Sharashiks is my name in my Tlingit culture and language. Sharashik means coho who lives in the mountain stream. Kacharakwan Eyakut. Wrangell is the place I was born, is still my hometown.

However, Anchorage is now where I live, so you are looking at Excuse me a little bit.

We are the Anchorage Ancheek Dancers. Ancheek in Tlingit means Anchorage. We are from, at this point, dancers and drummers. Of the Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Dena'ina, and Jibwoa. We've performed in such places in the South Central, quite a few places.

Just to give you an idea, in 2020 we performed, we are registered and certified as a nonprofit. We have performed at the Alaska Native Arts, the Naina Center, the Olympic, NYO, that's the Native Youth Olympics, also the Boys and Girls Club, and every major hotel in Anchorage. We have also traveled to Bethel in the cold of the winter, and also with Sealock. We are extremely happy to be with you. I would like to let you know Our dancers are connected greatly to Southeast.

We are either born in Southeast, or we got married there, we live there, we have cousins, and all of you out here are one of us. We are, again, extremely, extremely proud to be with you.

Goodness cheese. Hawa. And I'd like to say to you in Tsimshian, forgive me if I reckon. It's pronounced tooyataht noosem. Thank you.

How did I do? All right. God bless Alaska and the Lord be with every one of you. Every one of you. Bye-bye.

Good afternoon, good evening everyone. My Tlingit name is Gunnaasdii, my English name is Talon. That song we sung before we entered in was owned by the Shungookadee, also known as the Dawg Estenaa. They received that song from the interior known as the Gunnaas. It refers to when a flock of geese is flying in the V formation and one of them falls falls out of formation and there's that missing part of their formation.

Permission was given to us to use that song by William Osley Shaklee of the Dogistana. That song we came dancing in on is our newest entrance song composed by one of our own, Hoots Tlayne of the Yanyedi.

He composed the song when he had a dream, and in that dream he was here in Juneau, and in that dream he saw Kingiste, David Katzeek, also of the Shungookadee, and in his dream Kingiste was being himself. He was being the theme of this year's celebration. He was being strong, joyous, proud to be a Tlingit, and he was singing this melody And he would— for those of you who have met David, who have had the honor to meet him, you know how joyous he was and how humorous he was. After he— after Hoots Clayne woke up, he realized he could remember that melody that Kingiste was singing, and so he recorded that. And we say gunalchéesh to Kawut Gulkān, Harold Jacobs of the Oneillidi, for for providing us with the Tlingit.

Eegee eskaxtuxleex, we will dance for you. Atlaengoonisheesh, the Alaska Heritage, for inviting us for our second celebration.

Atlaengoonisheesh, tangaxkitlaagun.

In the house. Anyway, welcome everybody. Our next song is another original composition by Hoots Tlayne, and it is called Ishukaa, and the words translate, your ancestors are calling you. Do you hear them? What Will You Do?

And he had some assistance with the Tlingit words from Kūwakán. Gunalchéesh.

Filipino Dutch Kun Ayahet. The next song we're performing is the Kaagwantan Yutki Daak Ishiiya. It was written by Austin Hammond's father, Nitskruwa, and it was Rachel Johnson and Matilda Lewis from Kanoshklaw from Haines who taught the song to others during a regalia symposium in Ketchikan. We sing this song to honor our Kaagwantan dance members. And our Kaagwaantaan Yed Kee dancers.

Shirley Kendall and other dance group members met with the Sikka Kaagwaantaan to validate our use of the song. Gunashiiish.

At this time, we'd like to honor our children and have one of our own introduce our next song.

Thank you. Thank you.

My name is Tink. My English name is Adeline. I'm from the Raven moiety and belong to the Dog Salmon Clan. My family is originally from Cake, Alaska, and I live in Anchorage. My father is half white and half Japanese, and my grandfather is Tlingit and belongs to the Eagle Bear Clan.

The next song we will perform for you is The Butterfly Song, was composed by Sha Kla, a member of our dance group. This song celebrates life and young children. It has a Tlingit and Haida verse honoring our Tlingit and Haida dance members. We say gunash cheesh to Mr. Rob Yates for translating the Haida verse.

Gunash cheesh, howa.

Aanupiak Dutchkhon. Shishmaref Kwan.

Atlein, gunalcheesh for being here this evening and watching and listening to us and helping us celebrate all our littles, our children and our teenagers growing up in our group. We so appreciate your attention and your support and encouragement. You might notice we have a couple dance members that aren't dancing, and that's because they've experienced a recent death in their family, and they're here supporting us, but you know, that takes a lot of energy away from us when we're grieving a loved one. The next song we're doing is a Kogwanton song called T'awi. It's named after the man who composed it.

He was a Kogwanton man from the village of Klukwan, and he loved his culture. And at the time that he was living, it's when the missionaries were coming in and sharing about their religion, and he was curious about that, so he followed them to where they were preaching. And during that time, his father's clan house burned down. And in our culture, he was supposed to go back to his village and help to rebuild that clan house. And he felt torn about it.

And while he was torn, someone recognized him in the community he was in and scolded him for not returning home. And he felt torn between these two worlds, his culture, his way of life, all that he had known, and this new religion that was being preached and he was learning about. And so he wrote this song about how he was feeling. And in the first verse, he describes how his world is turning upside down. And he asks that his opposites, his father's people, the Ravens, pray for him, their Wolf.

Again, and we hope you enjoy our songs, and we'll be inviting, you know, in the song we'll be inviting Kagwantan Yetki, the children and grandchildren, to stand up as we honor you.

Wasineidi dashkhan ayahat. My name is Allison Aiken. I am from the Raven Moiety and belong to the Dog Salmon Clan. My family originates from Kake, Alaska, and I live in Anchorage. My father is half white and half Japanese, and my grandfather is Tlingit and belongs to the Eagle Bear Clan.

Our next song we will perform for you is the Loon Song, and it belongs to the Tsimshian. Kunakshish.

Waygi Khunay said I could use all the Tlingit I know, so I just did.

Ang aijux. Welcome to Celebration 2026. All of the Centennial Hall performances are broadcast live on public television KTOO 360 TV and a live video stream. For the link, go to sealaskaheritage.org. We'd like to recognize our viewers who are participating in Celebration through the live livestream.

Wish you were here.

SealaskaHeritage thanks celebration sponsors, especially Alaska Airlines, Royal Caribbean, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the City and Borough of Juneau, Goldbelt Incorporated, University of Alaska Southeast, who has an outstanding language program. If you haven't taken our class classes yet, please do. Waiwaa. Especially those Somali classes. Eh, I hear they're really good.

Ee aaya. Sealaska Corporation. And you can see a full list of Celebration sponsors in the digital program. Please see your program for a complete schedule for Celebration 2026. There are a variety of activities to participate in, including Tomorrow, the panoramic photo.

Tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM. I understand you have to bring your own coffee at the CSHI Arts Campus. And the parade begins right after at 10:00 AM. At this time, we will welcome the dance group to the stage. The Yauteyi were formed in 2000 and with more than 40 dance members led by Andy Ibuna.

The Yautee Herring Rock Dancers are a traditional Tlingit Haida cultural group from Juneau whose mission is to teach and promote Tlingit Haida song and dance. Deriving their name from the legends of the Kiks'ádi Frog Clan from Sitka, Alaska, the group performs traditional songs belonging to the Kiks'ádi, Káagwaantaan, and other clans which are sung with the clan's permission. Yaw Ti Ye has traveled widely, including Washington, D.C., Seattle, Honolulu, San Francisco, San Diego, New Zealand, London, and Paris. And when I first started learning to dance, I watched them a lot and learned a lot from these folks. And I'm just impressed constantly by the amount of woven blanket robes that they dance Please join me in giving a warm welcome to Yao Te Yi.

We are the Yautee dancers, and we want to thank you for allowing us to spend some time with you this afternoon to show you a little bit of our culture the way that we have learned it and the way that our mother and the rest of our ancestors have taught us.

The song that they just finished is known as the outside song. That song is sung when we are waiting, awaiting outside the longhouse to be invited in. The song that we are coming in on is known as Kawutk. It belongs to the Kiksádi people. Kawutkayakha.

Kawutkayakha. Look.

Gunaaxiiizh. Gunaaxiiizh. The next song that we'd like to do is called Nakeechli. It belongs to the Kooskaydee of Sitka.

The next song we'd like to do belongs to the Dukhtin Thon people. Kanak at ish.

Gonaakchiiish. The next song we'd like to do is called Sakuyeh. It belongs to the Ganaakhtedi people. We thank them for allowing us to use this song.

Ganakchiiish. The next song we'd like to do is called Kaath Gaaas. It belongs to the Kaguantaan people, and we thank them for allowing us to use this song.

Have to consult with my advisors up here before we get started. We're going to slow it down just a wee bit, allow you to catch your breath and us. We're going to do the Kiksádi love song Next. And we'd like to acknowledge the presence of our Kiksádi clan leader, Anyanakh.

Otherwise known as Dr. Ray Wilson.

We'd like to acknowledge our lead drummer. She's been with us for the last 26 years, and she said this may be her last celebration, but we're going to try to keep her going. The lead drummer, Andrea Ibuna-Michael.

No, I didn't. She said, "Did you tell them my age?" I said, "No." She said, "Oh, good. I guess I'm okay." We only got 5 minutes left, so we're gonna, we're gonna do our last song unless you want us to do an encore, then we may do another one after that. The next song we'd like to do is called "Keetuk." It belongs to the Kaguantan people, and we thank them for allowing us to use this song. Gràcies.

Well, the sign says we got 1 minute left to go. So I don't know if we got any decision makers around here, do we? Rosita used to be here. Can we do one more?

No? Oh, she said no. What do you think? They said we got to wrap it up.

What do you think?

Okay, our last song is called Kayé Kiiish, belongs to the Chuukanedi people. We thank them for allowing us to use this song.

Thank you for allowing us to spend the afternoon with you. We're going to do our exit song. It's known as Giiakwan. It belongs to the Kiksádi, okay? We've heard other people saying that it did not, but this song definitely is a Kiksádi song.

Ah, hey, hey, are you ready? Ah!

Hello, my name is Angela Michaud, and I am pleased to be with you today. Welcome to Celebration 2026. Please be aware that the songs you will you see and the regalia worn by the dancers are owned by the clans. We respectfully request that you honor this ownership. SHI is accepting memorial donations in honor of loved ones.

If you are interested in making a donation, you can stop by the info booth at Centennial Hall. Your donation will be acknowledged on stage, on statewide TV, and our livestream. Sealaska Heritage thanks celebration sponsors, especially Alaska Airlines, Royal Caribbean, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural History, the City and Borough of Juneau, Goldbelt Incorporated, University of Alaska Southeast, and Sealaska Corporation. You can see a full list of the celebration sponsors in the digital program. Please see your program for the complete schedule for Celebration 2026.

There are a variety of activities to participate in, including a regalia photo booth tomorrow, 11 to 1 and 3 to 6 PM at JACC, which is located across— just outside, across the parking lot. At this time, we would like to welcome the dance group to the stage, the Gotik Con dancers The Sisters of Hoonah Youth Dance Group was formed in 1988. They sing the traditional songs and also members have created new songs. The original coordinator was Carol Williams. Today they are led by Christina Smith, Kim Campbell, and Heather Powell-Meals.

They have learned their traditional cultural ways from A.V. Marvin, Mamie Williams, Lily White, Ida Kateshon, Jenny Lindoff, Mary Johnson, Harry Marvin, Jim Marks, and Doug James. Gatakon was the first name for Hoonah, meaning in the lee of the north wind. Please welcome Hoonah's beautiful children, the Gatakon Dancers. Please give them a round of applause.

Now that's jazz. We want to— first of all, we would like to express our sincere thank you to the Sealaska Heritage Institute. Gratitude for paving the way for this momentous occasion. Rosita, we so much appreciate you for everything that you do for us.

I also want to thank the Akwesasne people for allowing us to come to your land. My entire life I have heard the beauty of Akwesasne. My mother often said, "The Akwesasne people walk on gold." But it did not make them arrogant or separate them from other people. Their kindness was very well known. I heard this my entire life and it has always made me proud.

I am your grandchild. I am Akwesasne, and it gives me such pleasure to hear this incredible legacy.

Goonakchii. Okay, and I want to acknowledge Herman Davis, such a rich man, and thanking him for being with us today and allowing us to use the Kiksá Klugsnakadi entrance song.

Klugsnakadi, excuse me. And the first song is a Kaugwantan song, Tawyat. It was written for Katherine Brown Mills. We treasure this song because Katherine paid paved the way being the first Tlingit teacher at Hoonah City Schools. And this is one of her products.

This is what she worked hard to develop. So please enjoy with us. Gunaaxiish. Gunaaxiish. My name is Kate Took and it's Katherine Brownwell behind me.

Her Tlingit name— K'etuk. The name of the song is K'etuk, and Katherine Brown Mills is 111 years old.

The beginning of the song talks about her. Now this is the way a baby should be. And the second verse is talking about his wife and he'll— I'll only see you in my dreams. It's such a beautiful love song. It's one of my top 10 favorites.

Gonaagchiiizh.

The next song we will be doing is Geyoohish. It is a Chukenedi song. The caretakers are me and my twin sister. Shkote.

Ganapchish, are you having fun so far?

I'm having lots of fun, especially that Hawaiian set. One guy on there, oh boy, he's cute.

Our next song is Shawot Gwakan, and we hope you— we hope you enjoy it.

Good night. The next song belongs to Veronica Dalton and want to thank her for allowing us to sing this song.

Okay, the song belongs to the Dakhne'ntahn.

On behalf of Galticon with Hoonah City Schools, Christina Smith. She couldn't be with us today or at celebration. But the Gau Tskon dancers, we definitely want to give her a shout out. She helped us get here to Celebration, and I'm pretty sure the kids miss her not being here with us. But shout out, Christina, if you're watching.

They're dancing pretty hard for you today.

And I just wanted to make note, um, our Gautikan kids have not been part of celebration since pre-COVID, and this year they came to us and they said that they wanted to showcase themselves, which we made it happen. And Carmelita, thank you for giving us our kids the chance because we were like right there last minute asking to get the kids in, and we didn't know how many kids were going to make it with us because of housing. So we opened up our door to, as you can see, the Gautikan alumni that's standing here with our kids supporting them. Goodness, cheese to our Gautikan alumni as well.

Um, but on behalf of our Hoonah City School kids as well to get us over here. We want to say thank you to Icy Straight Point Hoonah Totem for supplying their catamaran to us every year. And then Braylin Martin, if you're in the house, gunalchéesh to you as well, because she helped pay for that catamaran for us to get all the Hoonah people over here for celebration this year. Gunalchéesh, Braylin.

Oh, another thing too, like our Huna— we haven't had a Huna canoe come to Celebration. We had some of our Huna people jump on a canoe with other communities. But this year with Braylin, we got Captain Levi down here. We had probably the youngest canoe group coming over to Celebration this year. Any of the kids that canoed, if you could please raise your hand if you're here.

We even had little Mr. Mills on there with them too, so they had a good crew. But we just wanted to say gunalchéesh. If you watched us at A and B Hall, we ran over here. We made it, Carmelita, though. We came running.

We ran from one hall to the other, and we're here, and we're ready to exit for you guys. Did you want to say anything?

Many things cannot be done single-handedly. It takes many hands to work together, and there were a lot of people that helped because they saw how wonderful our children are. And yes, Hoonah is blessed. Our children are future leaders. They do so, so well.

We could not have done this without all the support from Christina Smith, Heather Powell, Kim Campbell. One person showed shines above the rest. She has to be the hardest working person in Hoonah, and let me tell you, a lot of us work hard. So I wanted to take a moment to thank her for her strong dedication toward the Tlingit culture, song and dance for her people. Kim Campbell, haakú.

This is a small gift for Kim. She is dead fast, all her whole family involved. Every day there's practice, 3 o'clock, you better be there. Bake sale, 1 o'clock, bring your food. She never stops.

I know about it. So this is Tena, our wealth. Kim, you are our wealth.

Oh dear, we're past time, so it's time for the exit.

The next song we'll be doing— the next song we'll be doing is Catherine Grant. Duke.

Before we get swooped.

Oh, before we get started with the food contest, we just need to announce that a Chevy Silverado license plate JDX826 is double parked by the jack, so please move that immediately. Again, Chevy Silverado license plate JDX826 is double parked and needs to be moved immediately. Thank you.

Can we give another round of applause for Gaudicon Hoonah? Come on! Okay, we're, we're in the thick of it now, folks. We're gonna switch gears a little bit to very— another very important topic. We love our dancing, we love our singing, but we love our subsistence foods.

And so we've had a competition.

I need to switch to my reading glasses from my seeing glasses.

I don't want to make any mistakes. So my name is Maria Williams, Maria Chantal Williams, Yuhut Dusoc. I'm very honored to be able to serve as a trustee for the Sealaska Heritage Institute. I also want to acknowledge all of the amazing staff and the volunteers. They're keeping us safe.

Can we give them a round of applause? Thank you, staff. Thank you, volunteers. Um, also, um, yeah, the staff rock. Um, also, if it looks like you might have an empty seat, keep your hand raised.

The staff are looking. We're going to be at— we are at capacity. We want to try and let as many folks in as possible. I might be making that announcement. But I'm pleased today here to serve as your emcee.

This year we had applicants submit entries in the following categories: dry fish, seaweed, and seal oil. The entries for seal oil and dry fish were evaluated and scored by the judges prior to the evening's event, and we're going to announce the winner soon. But today, at now, we're going to have a live judging of seaweed. I'm going to mention the judges, and if the judges want to come up and say a few words, I would welcome that. But as the judges are doing that, we do have samples of the seaweed for our esteemed elders.

So some of the staff are going to come out and provide you some seaweed. But I want to mention our judges. We have Sealaska Corporate Secretary Nicole Anderson. Yes, now, Joe Zuboff, housekeeper of the Raven House of Angoon, and Sealaska Board Vice Chair Jody Mitchell. You guys want to come up and say hello?

Hoo-ha! Hey, I just want to say one thing, and that's please everybody vote. In this coming up election, it's so important that our people show up in big numbers. Everybody here has to vote, please. I'm not talking about Sealaska, I'm talking about the national elections.

It's so important. You know, we're so underrepresented, so many of us don't vote. So please, please, please, please make all your kids vote, make all of your Elders vote. Help everybody vote. We've got to make a difference.

The pendulum swings, right? Right now it's way to the wrong way, I think. We need to put it somewhere back in the middle. So let's do that, okay? Thank you all for being here.

Gunalchéesh. Gunalchéesh.

It's so good to be in front of you all. I'm getting a little nervous eating seaweed in front of you all, so if I have any in my teeth, please let me know. Wave or do a sign or something. But it is so good to always be with community and family members, and I just feel the love and the excitement. So I won't talk any longer because I know we're a little bit behind schedule, but it's just wonderful to look upon your faces today.

It really warms my heart. So gunalchéesh for being here today.

Akwédi Tsuokanyan Kogwantan. I'm honored to be a judge on tasting seaweed. Where in the world would there be another seaweed contest? This is proof that we've been here since time immemorial. Nishish.

Mishkii shohoh. Now the judges are going to be taking their seat and they're going to be doing the sampling. And so now that we've gotten to know the judges a bit, I want to briefly describe the process we went through when judging the entries. We all met at the shiny new kitchen within the Indigenous Science Building, which of course is right next to the Walter Soboleff upbuilding prior to today's event, um, and to allow each of the judges to taste each of the entry, score the food, and provide comments. Before the judges' arrival, the Sealaska Heritage Institute food contest organizers assigned a letter to each submission to ensure that each entry was anonymous.

For each of those entries, the judges rated the food on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. Partial points were encouraged to avoid ties. We looked at a few different criteria when considering each score. So for example, seal oil criteria was taste, color, smell, and freshness. For seaweed, the criteria was taste, color, texture, and freshness.

Which of course is being— seaweed's being judged right now. Once judged, the Sealaska Heritage Institute food contest organizers then tallied the sum of all 3 scores to determine the winners, giving them a total score out of 30. So I— we're going to jump into the live judging, which is happening right now. But what I would like to do is I do want to announce the winner winners of the Seal Oil contest. So the third-place winner for the Seal Oil contest is David Hotch.

David Hotch, if you're in the house, can you stand up and wave your arms? David Hotch, third-place winner, Seal Oil. Second-place winner, Joni Roberts. Joni Robert Roberts, Seal Oil, second place winner. There she is in the back.

I see some hands waving. Can I have a drum roll for the first place? A drum out there? Someone can do a drum roll? Okay, I like it.

Tlingit drumming, stomping of the feet. Dr. Wendy Todd is the first place winner for the Seal Oil. Dr. Wendy Todd, where are you? There.

So there's some certificates here.

If the winners want to come up and grab their certificate, I would— that would be awesome. Also, the W-9 forms are in the information booth. So our seaweed judging is still going on, but I want to announce the winners of the dry fish. As our seal oil contestants are coming up to get their certificates. So for the dry fish, the third place is Mike Allard.

Third place, Mike Allard, are you in the house? Third place for dry fish. If you are, come on up to the stage. We have a certificate for you as well. The second place for dry fish is Kenneth Willard.

Kenneth Willard, are you here? Please come up to the stage. And thank you for applauding. The first place is Sally Joseph for the dry fish competition. Come on up to the stage.

So as folks are coming up to the stage, if you want to walk up the ramp, you can get your certificate, and then also the winners can pick up their W-9 form at the information booth. So as the live judging is happening and our wonderful winners are up here getting their photos taken— congratulations, Wendy, Joni. We have another person up here winning with their certificate.

Ken Willard is here, and we're getting him a certificate as well. So they're getting a photo. While the judges are deliberating and our winners are getting photos, I want to talk a little bit about the health benefits from eating and gathering our traditional foods. We're very fortunate that we still live at a time when we can do that. All 3 foods are high in omega-3 Omega-3s for heart health and brain function, known to decrease diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, and improve mental health.

Here's some info on dry fish, for example. Per 100 grams, there are 371 calories, 57 grams protein, 14 grams of fat, 136 micrograms of calcium. Dry fish is high in omega-3s, vitamin B2, and protein. So power food, right? Um, black seaweed, per 100 grams there are 235 calories, 22 grams of protein, 1 gram of fat, 44 grams of carbs, 5 of fiber, 434 micrograms calcium, 450 of phosphorus, 28.3 micrograms of iron, and also very high in potassium.

One of the most nutrient-dense foods, black seaweed is high in vitamins such as vitamin A, as well as fiber and minerals. Okay.

So I'm going to just give a brief rundown on, um, seal oil. So seal oil is high in vitamin A, which is good for vision and immune system, and omega-3 fatty acids. Not only is seal oil a great source of nutrients in and of itself, but the use of seal oil to preserve other foods such as greens helps our bodies to fully absorb those fat-soluble nutrients. So again, while the judges— the scores are being tallied, we are passing out some of the black seaweed to our elders. And again, thank you, the staff, for that.

And thank you, the judges are looking very serious over there. And they have their water and their papers and their pens and papers. Now remember, everything's been anonymized. While the scores are being tallied, I want to thank all of the food contestant participants who submitted food from around Southeast, from as far south as Metlakatla to Pelican to Juneau and all in between, as well as all of our indigenous people continuing— continually practicing the traditions around subsistence food. We are pleased to announce that samples of food submitted to the contest will be available in the elders room.

So elders, if when you want to take a break, you're going to be able to have samples of some of those very, very delicious foods there as well. I'm going to take a moment and check and see how the tallying is going.

I think they might be doing doing some arm wrestling over there. And they're now requesting even more samples. So, I know that it's going to be very close, the scoring. And again, as they're— I want to just make a few safety announcements. So, again, we're to capacity.

So folks, if you do have an empty seat next to you, raise your hand. Let the staff know. And again, I want to thank the staff working very hard. They're probably working 20-hour days through Celebration. So we do— I see some hands up, so I know that we do have some empty seats, and the staff is going to be looking.

So if you see a volunteer coming by with a staff t-shirt, then you can raise your hand really quick and let them know you've got an empty seat. I also want to mention that Sealaska Heritage Institute is a nonprofit I myself do donate monthly to Sealaska Heritage Institute as I firmly support all of the events, not only Celebration, but they also do a lot of language work, a lot of community partnerships. The work that they're doing is foundational to the continuation of our Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian culture. And I want to say with our food contest, of course, this is promoting encoding our subsistence food. And they do have in that Indigenous Science Building a kitchen in which they're actually having classes and they're teaching our youth and our younger people on how to preserve food, how to make the food, and again, the science behind that so that food can continue to be made.

So, we will be starting an evening performance performance once this judging is done. And I'm just going to touch base again with our judges to see how it is going.

Well, they're informing me that all the samples are really delicious and they have to— they're deliberating over there. We need like some of that music that gives us a tense you know, tension as they make decisions.

So I do believe that they have finished scoring, correct? Okay, they're done, and now we're waiting for the tallying, which is happening behind the red curtain. So they're looking at all the scores out there, and we will be announcing the winners here in a brief moment.

Okay, thank you.

All right.

So they're also looking at the dry fish. So there might have been some calculation errors in that previous one. But in the meantime, we're just waiting for the final, for the dry fish, I mean, excuse me, the seaweed. And what about from the audience? You guys had samples?

How was it? How was it, esteemed elders? Okay, do I see thumbs up on that? Okay, very good. Yuck-ay.

Excellent.

To the audience. Some of the judges are going to be sharing the samples. So come on up and grab a little cup of dry seaweed for those folks that didn't get a chance to sample that.

Yeah, but it's power food, right?

They all got a 10 in my book. I ate all of it. Joey was making fun of me because I didn't share because I ate all mine.

Okay, the third place winner is Naomi Leesk.

Would you please come up, Naomi, if you're here?

Do you have any for sale?

Oh yeah, pardon me, trade.

Second place winner is Sally Joseph. Come on up.

And we need a drum roll for the first-place winner of the seaweed contest.

I feel like I'm at the Academy Awards. Where's the envelope? It's right here. Christina Weber, first place for the seaweed. Come on up, get your photo taken.

So Sally Joseph isn't present, and Christina Weber, I'm not sure if she's present, but she was the first-place winner Again, all the winners, claim your— get your W-9 form from the information booth. Thank you all very much, and they're going to clear this away, and they'll be starting the transition now to the first performer of the evening, which I believe is Giton. Gunalchéesh, everyone.

Greetings everyone.

Guna shaa duwasaaq. Luk Nahati ayaat. My name is Karen Tog, and I'm the lucky one. I get to introduce the next dance group, Gitxwn, the people of the salmon.

Not very many people know that my, um, I'm going to pay homage to my grandmother, Lena Forney Brown. Her father was full-blooded Tsimshian from Metlakatla, so I feel really special being able to introduce Gitxwn. Welcome to Celebration 2026. We currently are at capacity, so if you have an empty seat next to you, could you please raise your hand so that the staff who are working the lines out front can send people in. Um, Carmelita, there's one over here in the front row.

So, yeah, they're watching. They're watching people raise their hands so we can get a couple more people in to watch these great dancers. All of the Centennial Hall performances are all recorded live on KTOO 360 TV and a live video stream. For the link, you can go to sealaskaheritage.org and find the link. We want to make sure and thank our sponsors: Alaska Airlines, Royal Caribbean, the Smithsonian Alaskan Center for Folk Life and Cultural Heritage, City and Borough of Juneau, Goldbelt, University of Alaska Southeast, and Sealaska Corporation.

Please see your program for a complete schedule of Celebration 2026 and when the dancers are performing either here at Centennial Hall or over at our Elizabeth Pratt Okay, what everybody's been waiting for. At this time, I'd like to welcome the Gitxwn dancers, People of the Salmon.

They represent the culture of Alaska Native people, the Tsimshian tribe from Metlakatla, based in Seattle. In the Seattle area, the group was formed by David Boxley, renowned carver and cultural bearer, in his efforts to revive, practice, and share the Tsimshian way of life that was once forbidden. The Gitxun dancers share legends and stories through song and dance while showcasing the magnificence and creativity of Tsimshian art. Resurrect the practice of culture and educate throughout the world that Native culture is diverse and a living art and culture. Enjoy everybody.

Git'hon!

Luam go goarad wul nise, hani snusum dumil Very happy to see all of you gathered to see us. Thank you very much. We're honored and just so happy to be part of celebration again.

That was thank you to everybody. God will hound Hookbeel.

Thank you all so very much. That's my— I I think that's going to be my favorite part of the whole evening is all those children.

Just so you guys can see a little bit more over here.

Or look at the screen.

Okay, so. The next song we're going to do for you is our oldest song.

I was taught this— oh, I just want to— I was taught this looking at a silent movie from 1915 from the Skeena River. I saw a chief dancing this dance, and a year or two later, Bill Holm at the University of Washington played me a wax reel tape of that song, and I put them together and made this, what you're about to see.

Aaah!

Every 2 years, we get to come to a place where we belong. We get to come to a place where our people get together and share songs in our language and love the culture that we should love, you know, and we're very, very, very humbled and very proud to be a small part of this, this weekend. Thank you all so very much. Thank you to SHI. Also, I need to say thank you to Alaska Marine Line.

Little, little thank you for helping us get our all of our masks. We don't travel lightly. If you look behind the screen, you'd be, wow, you guys got a lot of stuff. So we thank AML for helping us there.

The next song we're going to do for you, our women are going to dance and our girls, little ones, and in this dance they are teaching the next generation not only to walk down the path of our culture, but eventually to run, which means they'll be all a part of it and be teachers themselves.

Sa'ay Tsimshianim. To all the great Tlingit Nation, the Haida Nation, and our fellow Tsimshian: Apsim lukkulu am amgagawdam will hawkskum dakwassum. We're so happy to be here with you tonight. This next song was written by Christine Martin about her Uncle Murray Smith, Smith, Semoiget Alvemkha from Lachgweelams and his brothers. Murray just recently had his— called it his last feast as chief and announced his successor.

So this is for Alvemkha and all of you Ravens out there tonight.

What about that little guy?

The next song we're going to do for you is a story called "The Shaman and the Land Otters." There will be— you will see in the middle of the stage 3 men digging clams. Kind of a hard state— it's hard beach today.

They are visited by 3 young women who are not what they seem. They are the evil land otter in our language.

They are a monster that changes their shape and takes you away if you stay too long at the beach, or if your canoe tips over. Lots of different ways to be lost.

A shaman comes to rescue these young men after they're taken, but he is defeated by their evil power, and he goes back to his cave, and he fasts and sings his power song and dances. And I can't tell you the rest, you have to stay tuned to this channel.

For all the Gen Zs and Gen Alpha, we used to have to change channels.

Before we came out here, before we came out here, we watched the group, the tremendous group right before us, and somebody said, "Excuse me, elders coming through." Elders coming through, and they were lining up to come out here, and we were in awe, there were so many of them. And my grandson, who was the raven dancer a minute ago, said, "We just have one." "Yeah, yeah, just you, you old man." Friday night in Juneau.

Waiwa.

Be very quiet. I am hunting deer. This is how we hunt deer in California.

That's called the gift of the little doe.

Diik'aa, diik'aaanooro. When I was a little boy, this next story song we're going to do for you was my favorite. There was a young man walking on the beach near his village, and he heard a rustling in the bushes near the shoreline. And he walked over and he saw there was this big eagle caught in a fishnet. And he very gently took his knife and he cut the net open and the big eagle and flew away.

Years later, that young man grew up and had become the head chief of his village. And he was walking on that same beach while his village was suffering a famine. They didn't have enough food to last but a few days. And he was wondering, "How do— what am I going to do? How do I help my people?" Just then, a live salmon dropped from the sky at his feet.

You could see that big eagle flying away. Every day, that eagle brought more and more food to feed to the village and repay that young man his kindness. What he didn't know is that eagle was a nakhnoch, a supernatural being who had come back to thank him for that kindness. And the moral of this story is what you do comes back to you. And I think that's something we should all remember, especially in the days and times we're living in.

What we do comes back to us. So this is the eagle and young chief. This mask represents that moment of that Nakh-Nakh revealing itself to the people.

Thank you all very much. We're about to do our exit. We're performing tomorrow at 1 at the Elizabeth Paradovich Hall. We were told very strictly 30 minutes We love you too.

I want to say, and we— Kehoe and itself dropped the ball on this a little bit, but tell you a quick story before we wrap up, that 30 years ago to this month, my dad and I and a very small group of dancers went to the Canadian— it was called the Canadian Museum of Civilization at the time in Hull, Quebec. It's kind of their Smithsonian in Canada. And we did a summer-long performance in the grand hall of that museum and told stories about the Northwest Coast and created some of the songs that we still use today. And that show was called People of the Salmon. And that was the beginning of Gidhawn.

And for a while it became a larger group, Simsiyan Hayuk, and when my gram got sick, my dad pulled away, and we decided to restart Gidhawn. So it's 30 years ago this month that this dance group has technically been in existence. And yeah. So I want to say a big thank you to my my dad for bringing us through all of this. He, at least until Michelle, uh, he carves all the masks, he arranges all the travel, he's done every bit of logistics for this group the entire time.

Thankfully, Michelle came into his life and has helped out on that. But, um, so we're very proud to be here. And as you can see, the group is multiplying, uh, so we should be at this for for a while longer.

This last song we're going to do that leads into our exit is our traveling song. I want everybody to be thinking about this. I'm not going to get political, but we're living in some tough times. And the words of this song say, "I'll follow this road wherever it leads, through good or bad, till I reach its end." We all need each other. We all need to support each other.

And when the outside world isn't going to be kind to us, we need to be kind to to each other amongst our people here.

And we'll go after that into our Cindy James memorial exit song, Sip sip ntut Nwesim. We love you all. Oyehaya, oyehay, hey, hiya.

We are the Gidhun. Thank you all so very much. Thank you.

We'll see you tomorrow at 1 o'clock at the AMV. 1 O'clock.

1 O'clock at the AMV. Different show. Different show. Please come if you can fit in the place.

Good evening, everyone.

That's a really awesome way to start our evening tonight. My name is Ben Mlott. I have the honor of introducing our next group. I am from Juneau. My father's from Yakutat, mother's from Rampart.

I had the honor of serving as the president of AFN, and I've also the honor of introducing our next group, which came very, very far away. Before that, I have a couple of announcements to make. These are your general celebration announcements. Again, welcome to Celebration 2026. Please be aware that the songs you will hear and the crests that you see, the regalia worn by the dancers, are owned by clans.

We respectfully ask that you honor the ownership. SHI is accepting memorial donations in honor of loved ones. If you're interested in making donations, you can stop by the info booth at Centennial Hall, which I think is over here. Your donation will be acknowledged on stage and on statewide TV and also on the livestream. Uh, CES cares to also thank celebration sponsors, especially Alaska Airlines, Royal Caribbean, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and the City and Borough of Juneau, Goldbelt, Universe Alaska, Southeast, and Sea Alaska Corporation.

You can see the full list of sponsors in the digital program. Also, please be aware that the program for a complete schedule for celebration is on the website. Also, a variety of activities to participate, including the juried art show exhibited at the Walter Soto Center, and those celebration wristbands will also get you in for free. Again, at this time, it is a really amazing honor to welcome welcome our brothers and sisters from very, very far away. They're coming from their winter to our summer, so winter to winter maybe.

But, um, also, I also apologize to the group. I'm, um, gonna do my best at, at saying this. Uh, Te Ara Kuaka is a small group of Māori from across Aotearoa who have come together to share their love of naga Tawanka Takaura, traditional games and cultural expression. Together they unite the genealogies of Ti'ika, of Maui, the North Island of Aotearoa, and humbly represent their ancestors who have traversed time and space to bring us here today. So at this time, I'd like to welcome brothers and sisters from very, very far away.

Let's give them a really good applause. Kanakshish.

Tēnā koutou katoa, e te iwi e tau nei, ki rāri tēnei whare.

We have just finished singing what we refer to as a choral. It was written by Tata Henare, and it speaks about the many mountains that come— where we come from, in the beautiful place we call home called Ngāpuhi. It also speaks about our journey to reclaim our language. It speaks of how beautiful The language feels to the ears, to the heart, and to the spirit.

Now we are going to go into our entrance song.

Wai wai!

Tena koutou!

Tena koutou! Tena koutou katoa!

Kia koutou. Ngā kānuki ora. Ku atai mai iti nei wā whakataitai. Tēnā koutou katoa. Ki te iwi, ki ngā iwi takitaki o tēnei whenua, ko Haera raua ko Trinkets.

Tēnā koutou.

Kei te haritaku ngā kōrui te kiti Ea koutou ano. First and foremost, we give thanks to the Creator, Creator of all things from the beginning to the end. Secondly, we give thanks to this building and to the earth that sits outside. To all of those who have passed on and who are no longer with us, may they go safely to our homeland, Hawai'i Nui, Hawai'i Wai Kīroa, Wai Kī Pā Māmāu. To everybody who gathered here, people of the world, thank you.

To the, to the Tlingits, to the Haida, for having us back.

We celebrate you. Thank you so much for having us. It warms my heart to to see your faces again. Thank you so much from myself, from Aus Maorōpu Te Ara Kuaka, from the other side of the world. Thank you.

And I forgot one more friend, to our old friend, um, Te Moana Nui-a-Kiwa, the Great Pacific Ocean, the thing that connects us all, from our brothers and sisters in Hawai'i to our whānau up here in Alaska, all the way down to my people down in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Torei rā tēnā koutou katoa.

Long ago, before Māori people arrived in Aotearoa, they lived in the land of Hawaiki Nui, Hawaiki Roa, Hawaiki Pauma, Hawaiki Tawhiti. Mau Mau, the place of our ancestors. But soon the tohu came from our atua that it was time to depart across the mighty sea. Te moana nui a kiwa. We gathered our waka carved from the mightiest trees.

We carved them and we made waka to grow across the mighty ocean. Te moana nui a kiwa. We grabbed our hoi, our paddle, pedals and we began to row.

Open!

Aka mate! I don't know if you got all that, but in my culture, that's how we say hello.

Kia ora! Kia ora!

Have we heard of a thing called the haka?

Does anyone know what the haka means? Any takers? All right, I'll tell you what it is. So, ha— can everyone say ha? Ka!

Ha! Ka! Haka! Haka! Oh, me!

You already got the first half of it. So the word 'ha' translates to your breath.

'Ka' translates into the spark. So what you're doing is you're igniting your breath, your life force, into fire. Haka! And so when you see the haka, you will see the handshake. No, we're not cold.

This represents the shimmering heat on a hot tarmac on a hot day. Usually see that around this time in Alaska, depending on what part of Alaska you're from. You may see it on snow, but usually we see it on a hot day. So you see this. The shima.

In our culture, our movements represent growth. So when you're seeing movement with our voices, with our ihi, you are seeing the growth of our fire bringing us all together. So this particular haka we're about to perform for you is called Kamate. Some people say kamate was made famous by the All Blacks, but I disagree.

I believe the haka made the All Blacks famous.

Now, this haka kamate, we selected this particular haka because it represents Survival. Now, as tangata whenua, as people of the land, we know about this survival. We know about life and death, bringing our culture back from the absolute brink. That's what this haka represents. When you hear the words, 'Kammati, kammati,' translates into, 'Will I die?

Will I die?' Question mark.

'Kaura, kaura,' 'Will I live? Will I live?' And at the end of this haka, we will stand triumphant, we will stand strong, And we will continue to pass down our knowledge, to pass down our songs, to pass down our whakapapa. Whakapapa translates to the earth that you stand upon, from all the ancestors that walked the land before you did.

So if you think the men are scary when it comes to doing the haka, It's actually the women that are scarier.

You're not gonna hoo-ha? Hoo-ha! Hoo-ha! Hoo-ha! Hoo-ha!

How about y'all?

Thank you all so much for looking after us, for housing us, and for sharing your whenua, your land.

That was incredible. That was inspiring and incredible. One more hand for the people from across the world.

I know we are running behind and I've been told to keep it brief. I've got some remarks here, but I was also told by my grandmother, my Nana, when you address people, you properly introduce yourself. So we can't have both brief and an introduction. So bear with me for one moment. Haralá is Gusunudungheidung.

Yathhwan'sin hinudikiyang. Gailas gust udi kwelagan. Ketchikanst udi ijin. Good people, my Haida name is One Raven. I'm from the Raven Moiety, and Ketchikan is my home.

My English name is Charles Edwardson. I'm Yak'lanas, double fin killer whale from the Shark House.

Welcome to Celebration 2026. All of the Centennial Hall performances are broadcast live on Public Television's KTOO 360 TV. And the live video stream for the link, go to www.sealaskaheritage.org.

We would like to recognize our viewers who are participating in the celebration through livestream. SealaskaHeritage thanks celebration sponsors, especially Alaska Airlines, Royal Caribbean, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the City and Borough of Juneau, Gold Belt Inc., University of Alaska Southeast, and Sealaska Corporation.

You can see a full list of the celebration sponsors in the digital program. Please see your program for a complete schedule for Celebration 2026. There are a variety of activities to participate in, including our panoramic photo, The panoramic photo will be held tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM at the SHI Arts Campus Plaza. At this time, we would love to welcome the dance group to the stage, Lepkwinnem Gamilgit Gagoadem. I hope I did that properly.

Our Own Dance in Our Hearts is a multi-generational Tsimshian group based in Anchorage area. Their youngest member was born January 2026, and the eldest member is 78 years old. Dance group leader, Siiga Limi, Marcela Asiksik and Elder Leader Theo Bayo, both of Metlakatla, established LGG in May 2005. Since LGG was established, they have performed in Anchorage, Palmer, Bethel, Fairbanks, Juneau and Metlakatla, Alaska, Puyallup, Washington, the National Museum of the American Indian Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. They took first place in the WEIO dance competition in 2007 and have the honor and the privilege of being SHI's host dance group for Celebration 2026.

LGG dancers are known for their large bentwood box drum theatrical presentation with masks and humor. LGG thrives to teach about the Tsimshian culture, language, songs, and dances, expressing how their culture is a living, breathing entity. They promote Smalgak, the language of the Tsimshian through their songs that have been left in their care by their ancestors who have walked in the forest before them. Please give a round of applause for LGG Dancers.

Shimaagigam naadashluu daa shagatlimi laa shidalkit. Wee'kay dii nooyoo adaa weenats dii naagwaadu. Kaanhala dii pteegoo soo maashlikashluu dii oowaku niigootsiwoolzagu. Lopgenimigamookagorum hakwilgungwaa. Good evening, how's everyone doing tonight?

What I said in our beautiful language of Shimaalgiit was, "Matriarchs, chiefs, councils of the chiefs, prince and princesses, everyone in the community and all the children, I'm very happy to see you here today. I'm very happy that you have come." My Shimaalgiit name is Shagayatlimi Datsumkshien. My Shimaalgiit family calls me Shagayatlimi for short. I am Simshian from the Raven Clan. My family comes from Matlakatla, Alaska, and today I live in Nigyok, so a place to anchor, Anchored Alaska.

And we are Lopkennem Gwemakwagorum Simshian Dancers. The first song that we sang for you was our outside song that our dance group wrote back in 2024 as we wanted to create our own Outside song, and I know we've been gifted many beautiful songs from our friends and relatives, but we work really hard to make new songs to show our culture is a living, breathing thing. Our outside song, our dance group translated into English, and then I had the honor of working with Shagulita, one of the elder speakers I work with once a week from the village of Kitsumkaylum, and he helped translate our words into Sm'algyax. The song that brought us onto the stage was our entrance song that our dance group— that I wrote for our dance group 21 years ago, and I had the help of our late elder Frank Haldane, who walked into the forest back in 2021, and also Maititza, who I still work with today, Shugayna, and I'm really grateful for both of their knowledge and help in writing our entrance song in Sm'algyax. The next song that we'll share with you is the Fire Welcome Song.

Back in 2010, David Boxley was at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. He was carving a house post along with 3 other house posts that were being carved. The Eyak and the Tlingit house posts were being carved by the late Israel Shotridge. The Haida house post was being carved by the Young Brothers, and David Boxley was carving the Tsimshian house post. Houseposts, and each of the culture regions from our area of Southeast Alaska had a day to honor and installation of their houseposts in the longhouse at the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

And David Boxley worked with us all summer in teaching us new songs to honor our day, and he gifted us this welcome song that we'll share with you. This is our fire welcome song.

Now we're going to share our first mask dance with you. We have some honored guests that we're going to be pulling from the audience. This mask dance was written back in 1994. David Boxley hosted a 4-day memorial potlatch. In the years prior, the planning for it was to be celebrating his grandfather's 100th birthday.

And even though he walked into the forest during the planning, everything still was being put together as a memorial, and each clan had a day to celebrate, bring out new regalia, new names, new names are put on people, and a lot of memorial and a lot of celebration amongst our people, and it was a very monumental occasion. And on the Raven Clan day, David Boxley wanted to write a knock-knock song, a mass dance for my mother. Who out there knows Theo Bayou? Well, this mass dance honors the characteristics of Theo. It's called the Gaboxshkaboo.

This is our first mass dance.

We are giving LGG shirts to our honored guests. Gbokshkaboo means cockle Squirt. Back when David Boxley and Theo were starting the Fourth Generation Dancers back in 1987, all the dance members were learning how to say their clan outside and Theo wasn't paying attention. And David said, Theo, and she went, what? And he said, it's your turn.

And she said, oh, Gbok, Gbok, I come from the Gbok clan. And David was rolling around laughing and he said, You're a cockle? And she said, oh no, I'm not a cockle. And he gave her that nickname since that started. And in the verses of the song, we're saying, did you see the crab?

Did you see the cockle walking along the beach? And Thea's the type of person who you never know what's going to come out of her mouth, so it's always fitting. Our next mass dance is the story of Bear Marries Woman. This is one of our older Adows that I put into song. A long time ago, when Woman became of age, her mother told her to look at the eligible men's hands in their community, and then if she found a man's hand hardened callus, that she should choose him for her husband.

So you'll see the eligible men go to the longhouse without showing their face, and they'll each ask her, "Yes?" And then she'll give them their answer. As nighttime came upon the village, Woman still did not choose a husband. And her mother told her to get some rest and that tomorrow was a new day. And as Bear was passing through in the night, he decided to take a chance and put his paw in the entry reeway, and Mother and Woman both studied his paw, and Woman chose him, and they were married. Bear never showed himself to his family during the daytime because he was afraid of his appearance, but every morning they would wake up outside their longhouse, there would be salmon and seals, and even one time he left a whole whale, and he was providing for them to make sure that they were fed.

His mother-in-law was very proud of all the food that he was providing that she decided to go out and search for him one day, and as Bear heard his mother-in-law calling for him in the woods, he was afraid of showing his appearance that he turned himself into stone and he was never seen again. And we know this adao to be true because the stone shape of a bear is still in our community in Canada. This is the story of Bear Mary's Woman.

No leaks! I— no leaks? No leaks?! Oh yeah... Ahhh!

Yes! Nice one! Yeah boy! Good job man! Yay for you guys!

You did it again! We're so proud of ya all right now! Haha.

We're really grateful for our young people wanting to jump in and learn the different parts of our songs and dances. That was their first time dancing that on their own. So proud of them.

We're gonna showcase our young people one more time, and while they're getting ready for their next song, we just wanted to insert our thank yous We would like to thank the University of Alaska Anchorage. They have us perform for their December graduates every December and honoring them. We'd like to thank the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program. They have supported our dance group from the very first year that we started in 2005. We'd like to thank Sandy Haldane and her family.

We'd like to thank Cook Inlet Native Head Start. They let us use their gym to practice practice once a week, except for April and May, we practiced twice a week until we were ready to come here to Juneau, and then we squeezed in one more practice when we all landed here in Juneau, and we want to thank Hoonah Totem Corporation for letting us use their lobby to squeeze in one more dance practice while we're all here together. And we'd like to thank all the other individuals and organizations that have invited us to perform at their conferences and share our culture and our fundraising needs I'd really like to express many thanks to LGG. We were able to bring 43 dancers here as the host group at Celebration 2026. And they fundraised really hard at our Indian taco sale.

At one of them, we sold 87 Indian tacos in 2.5 hours. They're amazing.

And one last thing that I forgot to mention when we performed at the Peradovich Hall is at the parade tomorrow, when you see LGG in the parade, and if we hear you yell "Wai Wah," we're going to throw free LGG t-shirts to you. So what do you got to say? What do you got to say? All right. So if you see us in the parade tomorrow, be sure to look for our banner and shout out, and we'll make sure we get a t-shirt to you.

I forgot to mention the young people that were holding the sticks with the flies on them. Those were the original 3 frogs, and I wrote the song for them. That's Jeffrey, Aubriel, and Mariah. So I'm really grateful that they participated in that one more time, not as the frogs but as the flies. The next mass dance that we'd like to share with you is my knock knock.

When I was 5 years old, the Chemise name that was put on me was Watsimoo, which is no ears or one who never listens. I listen now because I'm 46. And when I was 16 years old, I had gone out berry picking in my Uncle Ed's boat with my Auntie Toni and my mom. And this was before we had the road to Annette Bay where our ferry lands today in Matlakatla. And we were going up these different roads, and I was the youngest one in our group, and I was able to get down to this this creek, and there were a lot of berries that I was able to pick down there.

And with the water running beside me and so excited to pick all these berries, my mom was shouting at me from the road, and she said, "There's a fork up the road. When you get to the fork, go to the right." And I continued picking berries, and I said, "Okay, okay," and I kept picking berries. And so I picked all that I could reach by the creek, and I went up to the road, I went up, got to the fork, and I went to the left. I didn't see any of my family for the longest time. I climbed up on this big boulder, and I had to have fallen asleep for about an hour.

And I was woken up by this blue jay. It was squawking at me. It kept flying around me, and it kept flying back down the road. And I remembered my dad telling me if you ever got lost that you should stay put. Well, while I was staying put, I was taking a nap, which is not a good idea.

And so once this blue jay woke me up, I decided to follow it. And while I was sleeping and all this was happening, my uncle went back down to the boat to see if I was there, my aunt was looking on different parts of the road, and my mom was shouting like crazy. And I don't know if you shouted in the woods, your voice doesn't carry very well. And so this is the story of how I got my guardian spirit, the blue jay. This is Watsemoosong, and I don't hold this this name anymore.

It was put on my son David when he was just a little baby, so he's the holder of that name now. So this is one of my stories. Su'adaw Watsimoo.

Before we share our last two songs with you, on behalf of Lopganim Gomukkagodam Singsheen Dancers, we just like to say doiqsim taatneezhuzim to the Alaska Heritage Institute for hosting this every two years. I know it's a lot of work, and I'm really grateful for all the staff's time and all the volunteers that come and help for these three days. It's such an honor for to be here with you today, and it's a huge honor for us to be selected to be your host and lead dance group. We'd also like to say doyikshishim to Fourth Generation and Gitxuan for drumming with us during Grand Entry and helping save us and giving us more energy to keep going and bringing all the dance groups across the stage for Grand Entry. And I hope you guys are available for Grand Exit as well.

Our doyikshishim Our last two songs that we'll be sharing with you are Nuum Intahabo Lak Shimaalgik and our exit song. During the pandemic, I participated in Shimaalgik every day of the week. There is so many different people hosting Shimaalgik nights over Zoom, and I was really grateful for all the friends and family connections that I was making that I wanted to gift all those individuals who were putting the time for being Shimaalgik. Usually for being Smalgic learners and for being Smalgic teachers, because I was one of them and I felt really bonded and close to them for all of their time and their effort. That was my silver lining during the pandemic, and this was my gift to them.

Nuum ishobo lak Smalgic means we are the keepers of the fire. After we do the song, we'll go right into our exit song.

Hello, hello! How about one more round of applause for our host?

We're looking forward to tomorrow night. Uh, we're going to do one more round of applause. This has been a well-oiled machine. This building, the other building, has all been at capacity most of the day. And who pulls us off with like a well-oiled machine?

It's the Sealaska Heritage staff. So how about the staff? How about a round of applause for all the CELAS Canada staff?

So one more, one more favor, one more favor. Look to somebody next to you and say this. Look to somebody near you and say, "Ik sachan." Ik sachan.

That's— I love you. And that's the lead for this next group. This next group was formed in 2004. They got a little help on the name from Norma Marks Downour. And since 2006, they've been performing at Sealaska Heritage and Celebration since 2006.

And this group leads from the heart. They lead with love, not just on Celebration Day. They do this every day of the year, leading with love. So help me one more time. Help me one more time.

Say this: Woo'shjeen! Woo'shjeen! A little louder. Woo'shjeen! Woo'shjeen!

One more time. Woo'shjeen! Gook!

Ooh, that's a hard group to follow. LDG, they were so incredible. Yeah, let's scream for LDG! Wow. Good night, everybody.

My Tlingit name is Dakhkiz'ach. It comes from the head of the Nass River. I am on my Tlingit side, I'm Gonaqhadi. On my Tsimshian side, I am Gunhada. And then I am a raven starfish.

You'll see a lot of starfish coming out tonight. I am also the child of the Tsimshian and the proud wife of the Caguantan Hawaiian and Filipino community. So if there are any in-laws here, goodness cheese. Goodness cheese. Mahalo nui loa.

Salamat. Okay. And then for my grandfather's people, it's the Haida, the Tsimshian, and also the Caguantan. So if I could get a round of applause for my grandfather's people.

Oh God, this timer, it's so intimidating. Okay, shake it out. Okay, so thank you folks. I know we're running behind, so I'm going to speed this up. Tonight we are coming out on an ancestor song or a spirit song that my husband and I composed for one of my aunties back in Ketchikan.

This is a gift to all of you. It's not a ye'kwiti song. It's not a cry song, I promise. But this song, you're going to see our dancers coming in as ancestors. They're going to come in as their crest.

Please pay attention. They're going to come in from all around. We're surrounding you with our love. This has been a tough administration.

Thank you. I feel your love. Thank you. My auntie called. She said she was getting ready for a spinal surgery, and she was scared, and she asked Lyle and I over the phone if we could compose a song for her, and that if we could share it out with everybody.

She felt alone, and we were reminding her that she's never alone. We have our ancestors with us always. This is a gift to all of you. Everybody who's watching us online, watching us on TV, this is a gift for you as well.

My dancers, the prints, let's go ahead and start getting ready to hand those out.

This is 22 years for this dance group.

To all our relatives here who identify in the LGBTQ+ community, we see you, we hear you, We love you. You are precious.

To all our veterans and those who are still serving our country today, we say kunashcheesh for all your sacrifices.

We know your service doesn't end when you leave the service, and we know you don't ever leave. It stays with you forever. So, gunalchéesh to all our language warriors for the Tlingit, Haudenosaunee, and Sami'ak. We say gunalchéesh, toh'oh'oh. T'oya'ak sam nuusam.

Thank you all so much for holding on to that gift that our grandparents left for us so that we can hand it to our children and our grandchildren. Kinaa'chiiizh.

This next song, I'm going to turn over to my daughter and her partner to talk about what you folks are about to receive.

My Tlingit name is Kinnik, and my English name is Corinne James. I'm Gana Kadii and Gitlang Ganhada from Ketchikan and Matlikatla, and you folks are about to receive a print that Natanya and I worked on together for a celebration to gift out to you folks. And in the image you'll see it's a pair of hands holding a tená, and within the tená there's a humanoid figure with a couple of our medicinal plants. And to me it represents just the wealth of knowledge that has been passed down to us by our ancestors and how precious that is. So I hope you will I hope you like it.

I'll pass it off to Natani.

My name is Natan Mayo. I come from Stevens Village, but I live in Fairbanks, Alaska. And I'm Bitterwater Clan, born for the Arctic people.

And I'm very honored to have collaborated with this piece alongside my love. And, you know, I really want to say how grateful I am for her and her family for inviting me down here for Celebration. Not only they cared, they housed me, they cared for me, and it's just love all around. I witnessed their love. And, you know, for this print, my part, I added the Labrador tea within the tinaa, and in my dad's dialect, we call it jaloogwe, jaloogwe.

And I included the hands. And for the hands, I want to really emphasize that they're clean. Ch'ondai injet sun lee, didril shrop medicine for it. My hand dirty, it shouldn't. My hand shouldn't be dirty for the medicine.

And, you know, when you give off food or fish, you know, you give some fish, you have slime on your hands. You give meat, You have blood on your hands. You give firewood, you got splinters in your hand. But for medicine, clean hands. So I just want to, you know, thank you guys for hosting this celebration.

And how my mom says it is, we all have our light within us. And how she— what she told me before I left down here is, it's like I'm going into a great bonfire. Bonfire of all our lights and all of our love. So I hope with this piece I'm able to give it peace of mind. So, um, Jagwasi Kujri, la emasi.

On the ladies, you'll see large chinás, and what you— what these represent, and the idea that they came from, was an old image of this elderly lady, and she was wearing her cedar hat, and over her ears were these big abalone, and for us When we see things like that there, it's what we're doing is we're showing appreciation. We see the appreciation, the love for the woman. And for us, that's what we wanted to share with our dance group, the women of our dance group. We want them to know how much we appreciate them because a while back, he said to me, You call the women kaakwusi shaawu. When you say that, you're saying it's the women who get our feet moving.

Because of them, we have the strength to stand up, to be able to say that when harm is coming their direction, we as the men can step forward and say enough is enough.

So that's why you see these tenaz on the women today in our dance group. This next song that we're going to sing, we call the Gift Song, and we have I have my niece here. I'm going to have her stand next to me. Margaret Katyk. She is Kanakteidi, child of the Xangu Keidi.

Her father, Kingiste David Katyk, anytime he would enter into a place and you saw him on this stage, he lets you know how precious you are. This is how we feel about all of you here today. So, gnaashiiizh for your presence here this evening. And then for my niece, we wanted to make sure she received one. That way she knows we are always thinking about her no matter where we are as a dance group.

So, gnaashiiizh.

This is also a gift to you folks, this song. My brother, my little grandpa here, Khuné, Tsuka Khadi, helped compose this song along with my wife, Taakheetlach, Anna Khadi, myself, Kaagwaantaan. It's a collaboration of 4 different clans so that nobody can claim this song, but everybody can have fun and use this song no matter where you're at. When you're handing a gift to somebody, you're not just tossing it to them because you're disconnecting that love to that individual. But when you hand it to that individual, you're telling them how much you appreciate and love them.

So this is how we feel tonight, and I'm going to have you folks repeat after me. Eh, kha, duh.

That way we can see everybody who receives one.

Dancers, I need you to find all the elders. Okay, I don't know how we're going to do this, but maybe the audience could help us. When the dancers start coming out, could you point— oh, I don't want to raise my arm, I've been sweating. Could you point at the elder, like way up high? Thank you.

And then once all of our elders have been taken care of, then you can share out with everybody else.

We're gonna sing higher now.

Ich hatte Plätzchen!

Good job!

Koyaanisqatsiipokomaak. If anybody knows my dad, you know he would be telling me that I have to go and say something, so here I am. Gunaasheesh, hawaadoiksit noosim. For doing this, it's been bittersweet every time celebration comes up since he's passed, and so this is always— And this is a song that I use anytime I have the moment to talk and share something, because again, my dad is always there pushing me still to do these kinds of things, so. Gnaasheesh hawa, Dweexet Newsom.

One minute to say hello, okay? Okay, really quick. We only have 7 minutes. Dad, we only have 7 minutes. Okay, I just want to take a moment to acknowledge my dad.

Recently we lost my mom.

¡Viva la paz! ¡Viva la paz! And my reason for bringing it up is not to make people feel bad, but I wanted you to know where the generosity comes from. It comes from my parents. I just want to introduce my dad, Francis Dunn.

He just moved home, and I'm so thankful.

Thank you for everyone being here, and I want to especially thank all of the veterans, regardless of what service you were in. I love you. Welcome home to all of you.

I know we're crunch on time, but I want to invite our auntie Well, I can say one thing that last few days, of course starting off with the canoe landing, that was awesome. The ancestors were very, very happy because it was a beautiful, beautiful day and everybody was having fun and it was fantastic. What I've been observing with this celebration, I like what I see because of the fact that you have everybody together and everybody is enjoying themselves, and I feel the love that is in this big room. In this room.

From the Yak-Tah-It, child of Chuukuneidi. So you know what, I'm ready for next 2 years. I'm going to look forward to it, and I won't have this crazy boot on my foot, and I'm going to dance. Like the rest of you.

I just want to make sure that we acknowledged also my mother who is up here. Nakaste, Betsy Pratt. And then also our Auntie Andrea. So gunalchéesh for being here today. Tomorrow on Sunday there's a film that's going to be showing at the A&B Hall, or EP Hall.

Trying to get used to calling it EP Hall. At 3:00 PM, it's called "Dear Alaska," and one of our dancers, Mariah, has created a film, and we would like to invite you.

She is Aakwaa'n Wooshkitaan, and she would like to invite all of you This is our exit song. Gunalchéesh for your time here today. Your presence here is such a gift to us, so gunalchéesh. How are you?

Okay, dancers, you're going to have to run off the floor. We have 3 minutes. Okay.

You'll see us holding our hands up to acknowledge all those who didn't make it back home for serving our country, and then also holding our hands up for all the relatives who didn't make it back from boarding schools. So if you wanted to hold your hands up with us, acknowledge our relatives who aren't here today, send them our love, send them the respect.

We love you all. Vinashkis.

Hello. How about we give them another round of applause, right guys?

I just have to say, for these last couple of days, my heart and spirit has been filled with love for our culture. And I have to say, thanks to all who support and watch these dancers, whether you're from a livestream or you're here today, because you guys are the support that needs to sustain the culture we hold dear to our hearts. So please stand up and enjoy yourselves and be proud that you're here and supporting our culture.

My name is Caleb Lee. I'm Sealaska's current Board Youth Advisor.

Welcome to Celebration 2026. All the Centennial Hall performances are broadcast live on Public Television's K2O 360 TV and a live video stream. For the link, go to www.sealaskaheritage.org. We would like to recognize our viewers who are participating in Celebration through the livestream. SealaskaHeritage thanks Celebration sponsors, especially Alaska Airlines, Royal Caribbean, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and the City and Borough of Juneau, Goldbelt Incorporated, University of Alaska Southeast, and Sealaska Corporation.

You can see a full list of Celebration sponsors in the digital program. Please see your program for a complete schedule for Celebration 2026. There are a variety of activities to participate, including our panoramic photo tomorrow morning at 9 AM at the SHI Art Campus, at the parade beginning right after 10 AM. At this time, we will welcome the dance group to the stage. The Fourth Generation Tsimshian Traditional Dancers have been organized since 1987 during Metlakatla's 100-year celebration.

They are a family group ranging in age from newborn to senior citizen, currently led by group leader Matthew Berthold. It was the elders of the community who gave them the name. The Fourth Generation Tsimshian Traditional Dancers because they were the children of the fourth generation and they were dancing and singing their Tsimshian songs. Their dance group has and will continue to be dignitaries for our community of Metlakatla, Alaska. They do so with pride and they share and display the culture, traditions, and regalia of the Tsimshian peoples of Alaska.

Since their inception, they've been given more songs by other dance members too numerous to mention,, and would like to thank them. So without further ado, please welcome Tz'mey! Emma Hoopalsam, Khatni Shnursam, good evening everybody, Indela Walsum! Woo! Jennifer McCarty, Ligee, Intkakaagodam, Kabetgoosk, Dwi.

My name is Jennifer McCarty. We are here with the Fourth Generation Dancers. We got our name Fourth Generation because 4 generations had passed since the last time we did our cultural dancing. And the elders in our community, when we started dancing, gave us that name because 4 generations had passed. So what you're seeing is the 5th and 6th and maybe the 7th generations who are dancing here tonight.

We would like to start off with our Chief's Headdress Dance. This was taught to our group by the late Wayne Hewson and David Boxley. This is our Chief's Headdress.

Enjoy. Next, we're going to do our poor song. Get our voices ready to come on out. This song was written by David Boxley and David Robert Boxley, and it's a victory song, Tsimshian victory song, and then we're going to come in with our Tsimshian entrance. Ndoyeksisim.

Woo!

Woo!

Woo!

Sorry, I'm getting too old to dance that one dance. I keep telling myself that every year, but I still do it. I love it. Our honored guests, we are so happy to be here. It does our heart so well.

My name is Ndeh'kitashp'agiwa Dabayo, or as it translates, those who lead them out of the wolf's den. My name, English name, is Matthew Berchtold. I am of the Gunhuta Clan. The raven is my crest. I am from Matlakala.

I live in New Matlakala, and we are Tzame, the fourth generation dancers.

I want to say real quick, Ntowaxsm Zuno, Ntowaxsm Sealaska Heritage Institute, and to its board members that are here, thank you for allowing us to be here. Thank you to all of you for staying So late, it's Friday night.

I have to admit it's a tough act following all of those dancers, dance groups that were here earlier, especially those Tsimshians.

We're honored to be here with them. We're honored to be here with the Tlingit and the Haida Our next song we're going to do for you is in honor of the eagles. This song was written by Sagaylimi and her mother Theobayo. As they were home years ago, they used to go out onto our rocks to breakwater and collect eagle feathers. And when they'd find one, they'd look up to the sky, "Kum goth waan." Bless you, eagles.

This is our eagle dance.

Our next song we want to sing for you is our Ganahada, or Raven Song.

This song was gifted to us by Kevin Clevenger. He wrote it in honor of his nephew, and unfortunately his little nephew walked too far too soon into the forest at a very young age, but before he had passed on, he would reminisce about how his nephew would come over to his house his uncle's family, and as soon as he walked into the house, his coat would come off, his shoes would come off, his shirt would come off, his pants and his socks, and he would walk around like he owned the place. And so this is the strutting raven. This is our gunhada.

Our next song we want to do for you is a song that belongs to my mom, Myronell Bricktold. Back in 1994, our community held a 4-day potlatch, and each clan was holding the feast for 4 days. So the Eagles, the Ravens, the Killer Whales, the Wolves, The different clans of wolves each held a feast. And everybody was singing songs. And our clan didn't have a song.

Unfortunately, a lot of our music and language was left behind when we moved to Alaska. And so a lot of our songs that we sing are new to this day and age. So we don't have a lot of old songs. But my mom had asked my grandfather, Father Solomon Guthrie, "Pop, do you know any songs, old songs?" And he said, "Oh, I have one. I have it here.

It was written by your great-grandfather, Chief Nee Shlute." His name was Sidney Campbell and he wrote this song. It's a warrior song. And he gave it to my mom and said she could use it. Whenever she's here, we can sing it. And we always I just want to acknowledge her as my mom on stage.

And she has 15 of her 16 kids on the stage today. Grandkids. 15 Of 16 grandkids up here dancing with her today. And one great-grandchild.

She let us use this song, and Sydney Campbell was a warrior in a sense. After we moved to— our people moved to Metlakatla, we left a lot of our culture behind. My mom doesn't even speak our language because my grandfather and grandmother didn't teach her because they were afraid of the consequences that came with younger children speaking our language. And so unfortunately, she doesn't speak it. But fortunately, I'm learning, my brother's learning, his family's learning, many of us are learning our language today.

Sidney Campbell was a warrior in a sense because even though we moved to Matlākātlaŋ, we were supposed to leave our language and culture behind, he continued to carve. He was a master carver. Chief Nishlute's name means the grandfather of carving tools, and we sing this in honor of him. We sing this in honor of our warriors who are still, still perpetuating our culture, language, or indigenous ways. I want to acknowledge my cousin Clifton.

Clifton Guthrie is in this house, and he's a master carver. I want to call him a master carver. An artist, there he is right there.

Yes, carrying on the tradition of our great-great-great-grandfather Sidney Campbell. He also has a show down at the Ann Hitt Gallery, so stop by and see his beautiful work. This is our warrior song in Clipton. It would be an honor if you danced with us.

Woo!

Let's give Clifton a big round of applause.

Our next song we're going to do for you is in honor of our Wolf Clan. This song was written by Tim Lannett and Milgam Sumtee. Wave for me. Milgam Sumtee's here on stage with us along with his family. We're happy to have him here with us.

They wrote this song for one of our weks, our brothers, Suwakatakunsimaus, or Terrence Booth Jr. After they were dancing at practice, a long practice, they were having a great time and they realized that when they got home that they didn't have a wolf song. And so they sat down and about 20 minutes to half hour later they had this song written out and they called him up and said, "Come over, we want you to listen to this." He was so honored and just so happy to be able to have a song named after him. Suakadagunksemaus, his name translates, "He who comes from two places," for his mom comes from Phoenix, Arizona, where the dry sand is, and his father, Terrence Woo Sr., is from Metlakatla.

Words of the song. First verse is, "The wolves are howling, the wolves are howling." Second verse is, "The wolves are hungry, the wolves are hungry." And then the third verse is, "He who comes from the dry sand." How we got this song, and this I think goes without saying, if you leave something behind and we find it you have to come back and dance for it. So this is fair warning for everybody, don't leave anything behind. It may be at the lost and found, but I'm going to give them a note saying they need to dance for it.

This is Swakota Guncimas.

This next song we're going to do for you is in honor of our Kiilawels.

I had the opportunity to write this song after a couple years ago as we were getting ready for a feast at home. My cousin Clifton was carving on a totem pole and I would stop by to visit him And as we were talking, he told me a dream that he had. The totem pole that he was carving was in honor of our grandfather, Solomon Guthrie Sr. In the dream, he told me he was with his best friend at our local market at the time named Lee's Market. As they came out of the market, he saw our grandfather walking away from the store and he yelled out, "Pop!

Hey, Pop!" As him and his best friend stood there, our grandfather turned to him and waved.

Just as he was getting ready to rush or run down to him, he heard this noise coming from the beach. As he turned to look, He saw this pod of killer whales rushing the beach.

This happened a few times as he went to yell to Pop, "Hey, look, Pop!" As he looked, our grandfather disappeared.

This got me excited, and so I said, "Would you mind if I wrote a song and did some dance for this?" And he said, "Of course." I would love to. Less than 2 weeks I was able to come up with this. I didn't tell my mother. I surprised her at our feast and kind of surprised Clifton too. This is in honor of our killer whales.

I'm going to ignore that. Who wants to dance?

Let's do an invitational. When you hear your clan called out, please come and join us. The song we're going to do is written by one of our dance group members, Melody Booth-Lease. Those that are watching at home, please join us as dancing from home. Our brothers and sisters in Canada, we love you.

This song's called Wai Wai. Wai Wai in our language means let's go. And if you remember LGG's, you yell out Wai Wai tomorrow, you get the prize. What are we going to yell out? All right.

Let's go!

Lushkeek, people of the eagle!

Hello, the Raven!

Lucky boo, people on the wolf!

Gishbudwada, people of the Killawale.

Dawaxism and Dawaxism, thank you all so much.

As we get prepared to do our last two songs, again, I want to say, toya'ax̱s̱im, thank you all. Toya'ax̱s̱im Juneau for allowing us to be here in your community. Toya'ax̱s̱im Sea Alaska Heritage Institute for allowing and always putting this on. It means so much to be able to come here every two years. It's a lot of work, as a few of my friends and family have said throughout the night, throughout the day.

Thank you all for all the hard work, the workers, the volunteers that come through and do all of this.

Our dance group had the opportunity this year to go over to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, back in February. We got to be the host dance group for our All-Native Basketball Tournament over there, and we had a blast. We got to dance with our relatives from Old Matlakatla as well as Luck-o'-Lambs. I want to extend another thank you to Gibaam Lahaa for speaking on our behalf over there. Those words meant a lot to me and our community.

Thank you so much.

This next song we're going to do for you was written by David Albert Boxxey. As you can see, our dancers are going to show off their beautiful Kwisnabalas. Several of these new Kwisnabalas blankets were sewn in like the past 2 months. My wife was burning her machine away because she was doing a lot of the snowing. There's a lot of late nights, but she got a lot of it done and a lot of hard work along with the others as artists that were having on the designs.

I want to say this out loud.

I want to acknowledge my nauth, my mother.

As well as Theo.

Without you all back in 1987, we would not be here today. Without the help of David as well.

As you can see, we transformed from an adult dance group into a family group. Our youngest member is 4 months old. Our oldest is 74 years young.

And we're continuing to grow. Again, thank you all so much. As we do this, we'll go right into our exit.

One more for Metlakala. One more. Good night. Thank you.

Waiowa, it's time to go. Waiowa, time to go. We have, um, got him. Let me go.

Just a reminder to get your beauty sleep tonight. Photos at 9 AM. Get home safely, get your beauty sleep tonight. Photos at 9 AM. Have a good night, everybody.