Sealaska Heritage Institute: Celebration 2026 | Day 4 - Saturday June 6

Goonishcheesh. We are the Mount Fairweather Dancers of Hoonah.

Okay, the first song that we're going to sing for you guys today is Talyat.

The next song that we're going to sing for you guys is Kenny, um, Catherine Grant.

Okay, our next number is going to be Kei'ihish.

We're making good time, we still got 15 minutes.

I told the dance group we were only going to do 3 songs, but we got plenty of time. And this lady that's standing here with me, me and her been together since Galticon. She surprised me with my beautiful earrings I'm wearing today. Caught me off guard yesterday with the kids' group. Today, in honor of Auntie Carol, we're going to sing her song, "Icy Straits." We love you, Auntie.

If my family could come and stand with me, makes it a wonderful memory. My family, come on, stand up by me. Richard, The song is Icy Straits song composed by Lincoln Gordon and my uncle William Johnson, Onkantin, purchased the song and he was the original owner. When he passed, before he passed, he gave the song to my mother. My mother told me I would be the next song carrier and when it's my turn, I will gift the song to my niece Heidi Jewel.

Come on, come on.

Good luck, Keith. Good luck, Keith. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Love you.

Okay, we want to give our gunasheesh, our thank-yous to everybody who helped get us here, who supported us. We want to say thank you to IC Straight Point, Hoonatotem, with always being there Michelle, I know you're on stage with me. You're my right hand when it comes to stuff like this, when we're getting ready for Celebration, to help prep us for the boat to get us to Celebration and back home. Gunalchéesh to you guys. Braylin, is she dancing with us?

Where's Braylin? She went back home already? Well, Braylin, if you're watching, Gunalchéesh on everybody from Hoonah. You helped pay for that boat to get us over and back. Gunalchéesh Braylon Martin.

And then Gunalchéesh to the Salvation Army. They always open their doors for us whenever we need to practice.

Hoonah Indian Association. Sealaska. They have so many titles. They've all— a lot of them helped us. We performed at the meeting.

They give us financially donations. Gold Belt financially donating to us as well. Hoonah Heritage, Amelia and Yrkrug, the Hoonah Liquor Board, Hoonah City Schools for opening their doors to let us practice before we came. And I forgot to say this yesterday, but not only do our kids kids have awesome teachers. But we had Miss Darcy.

Are you here with us on stage? She's in the stands today. She danced with— she danced with Kao Takahn yesterday. The teachers support the kids so much in school. So whenever they have their hoo-ha Friday, all the teachers, they come and they hoo-ha with the kids in the gym every Friday.

Goodness. Sheesh. Miss Darcy.

Icy Strait Lodge, Breezin', Fisherman's Daughter. So with my group, when we're back home, we start fundraising for a turkey bowl. We throw a basketball tournament every Thanksgiving to get us ready for celebration. We do an annual Easter egg hunt that so many people contribute to this just so we could give back to the community. 'Cause you guys all help us get here every celebration.

And then Phyllis Grant, I don't know if you're here watching, but gunalchéesh to Phyllis Grant and Papa Murphy's. They donated pizzas to the dance group today. And then as you can see, we got a missing speaker here, Heather, Heather Mills. She flew out this morning to go see our niece, Aaliyah. Mazervi graduate down in Oregon today.

So hello, Heather and Levi. Congratulations to our niece Aaliyah. She got to have some family come down and surprise her for graduation today. And then I believe I have my other niece Aaliyah on stage with us. She graduated this year.

I don't know if I got Sun Sun as well. Woo! And then I got Sun Sun Drew down over here with the guys.

He graduated as well.

And then me and my sister back home were the Head Start teachers. I know we got some Head Start graduates on stage with us as well. I know. And one of our very own, I forgot to say it yesterday, Miss Kyan. Miss Kayambo graduated from Hoonah this year.

And when we were talking with the kids yesterday about our kids, Hoonah, again, for the ones that didn't watch our performance yesterday, Hoonah had the youngest canoe crew come out of Hoonah. If you could please raise your hand, Hoonah crew, that was in the canoe journey.

They also had Travis Adams from CAKE that joined them as well. Gunashiiiz, Travis.

And then I really hope he's watching. My little dancing bunny, Tyr Dibdahl. Tyr, yeah. The son of Donald Dibdahl and Melissa Fisher. He had a hard battle that he fought, but he just returned home to Hoonah yesterday with a big welcoming parade.

And then I know my auntie's watching in San Francisco. She's been waiting for her shout out. All my family in San Francisco, hello from Hoonah, from Juneau, from all the Mount Fairweather dancers.

I wanted to talk about our performance this year. We chose, me and Heather Wynn Weirs and the dancers that were at practice prior, you know, we wanted to know how we were going to do our performance for everybody this year. Kuna had a lot of loss this year since last celebration. I mean, as you notice, we're missing a couple wheelchairs up here. If I could get the ones with the pictures come to the front, please.

Um, we lost Grandma Harriet since last celebration. We lost Kenny Grant. We lost James Jack Sr. And my Aunt Leona Santiago, my mother Ruth Hotch. There's a lot of names to name from Hoona, but we just wanted to let the families know that we dedicated this celebration performance to every clan house out of Hoona, to let you know that we're up here dancing for you guys.

Our Elizabeth Pradovich performance, we sing a Wichitaan song over there to honor James and Harriet. We also, you know, Grace Villareal. There is a lot of names to name, but those are some of them. I know I had a lot of people comment, but we did the ducktail. We just wanted you to know that we're here for you guys and gunalchéesh.

And I wanted to say gunalchéesh to our elders that are here with us. They come with us every celebration and we appreciate it very much because it helps us to keep going. Auntie Carol, Auntie Jerriann, Chris Jack, Grandma Jen, and we got Herman Davis. He gave some really good words to us when we were done dancing with the kids yesterday and we appreciate him every time we perform. He's sleeping.

But gunasheesh. We are going to exit, but gunasheesh on behalf of Mount Fairweather, and I appreciate all you dancers coming out for Huna Kauwuu every celebration. Gunasheesh.

Sorry, I forgot to mention, she was on the other side of the stage from me, but we wanted to mention Richard Dick and Ruth Dick as well. Kunishtishe.

Takh erat setiya yakusikhan. Yeweh hasukinaho'a. Yeh tushatjoweweh k'eraka. Ochoweyahi datatwasugu. Dukh eda eya isa'ahi.

Charles Edwardson, kitxhkan eya adakh eyahu. Duhu oeydu twasugu yewi nyoukh ewatani. Love is a really precious thing. Our culture is a really precious thing. Have courage, folks.

The end is in sight. But a relative here from Ketchikan is going to speak to you.

Goodish.

Charles Edwardson from Ketchikan. Alaska Natives and American Indians serve in the United States military at the highest per capita rate of any demographic in the country.

Often serving 5 times the national average. The Department of Defense and the Defense and Veterans Affairs report that tens of thousands of Native individuals are active duty service members or veterans.

Alaska Natives have a rich history of military participation stemming from their tribal warrior traditions. And the specific need to defend their homelands. Today, it's our family's great honor and my great honor to acknowledge my nephew Nathan Mitchell.

For 28 years of active duty service as a Navy SEAL.

And retiring as a Command Master Chief, he deployed 17 times fighting for our people and our country. A true warrior for us. We are so happy he has returned home to us to continue fighting for our people and for our homelands. Please welcome our nephew, Nathan.

I'm not really used to the spotlight. Never really liked being in the spotlight. Lived my life in the shadows.

But there's a lot of, like, books out there now and movies and, you know, TV shows and stuff. But originally the teams were, you know, we were silent professionals. So never I never really liked being in the spotlight. Never was that much. Had a job to do and we did it.

But I've been gone for 28 years.

Was in Virginia. I lived in Virginia, lived in California for those 28 years. And I say I lived, I lived there. But home was always here amongst you all.

And my son and I just completed the journey, the canoe journey here, and I can't tell you how special that was. The warm welcome that we received and then continue on into celebration has just been super special for us to be welcomed back here again amongst family. And it's just something that I needed badly, being gone for so long. I missed this. I really did.

Hurt a lot of times, but I had a duty and responsibility to this nation, to protect this land. And I think it's something that goes back a millennia, right? Us, you know, combat arms, not in a modern sense, but, you know, an ancient, we have that duty to protect these lands, what we have. It's very special. I've been all over the world, but there's nothing like Southeast Alaska.

It's just beautiful.

I'd also like to acknowledge all the other vets. Please stand if you're out there. I know they're lined up in the back here, but if there's vets out here, please go ahead and stand up. Acknowledge you as well. Thank you for your service.

Thank you for your service.

And we— there's something else I'd like to say about PTSD. We've lost some friends in the past.

A lot of guys come home, but they'll still carry it with them.

And it's in there. It's something you can never get rid of totally. So they carry it. And they signed up knowing that they're going to have to carry that for the rest of their lives. But so if you are— hurtin' on the inside, there's people out there, there's fellow veterans, please just come up and talk.

We'll talk about it.

But gunalchéesh, hawa. Thank you so much.

This is how things are going to begin to wrap up. We have one dance group left. It's about 5 minutes past time immemorial. Good asheesh for hanging in there. I think about these things all the time.

Even though this celebration is going to reach its conclusion, I once heard Cyril George say, "Chakle khokah kaskeeshingit." Let Tlingit exist forever, and let Haida exist forever, and let Tsimshian exist forever. Our people have been here since the beginning, and we will always be here. Yeewey achtundetáane yeeyéti. Yeewey kunaxiish. You can find the schedule of events in your program.

There's only a few left. The photo booth is from 3 to 6 at the Jack. The panoramic photo is available in the retail area here in Centennial Hall. Stop by to place your order now. We have some memorial donations that have also come in.

$50 By the Siitkakwan Dance Group out of Petersburg in memory of Marsha Hanson. The Siitkakwan Dance Group from Petersburg, $50 in memory of Nan McNutt. $50 In memory of Edward J. Gamble, Grandpa. Love your grandchildren: Girl, Lady, Bugaboo, Guy, and Precious.

$20 In memory of Great Grandpa Senior Edward Gamble Senior. In memory of Henry Sam Jr., $15 from Vivian H. $1,000 in memory of— oja dekhadnu— John I can't read it. From Lee and Winona Wallace, in memory of Mason Joseph Ramey, $50. From Grandma and Grandpa Doris and Roger Nathan Bernhardt, $20, in memory of Aline Wagner. Ye'ohwé.

We hold our veterans up. We're so thankful for the thing that they have done. We ask you to always reach out if you need help. We ask our young people, we ask all of our people, don't ever harm yourself. Don't ever think a thought about ending the time that you have with us.

Instead, reach out and a hand will grab yours.

At this time, we'll welcome the Southeast Alaska Native Veterans Group. They are comprised of veterans from all Southeast Alaska communities. Their mission is to support their fellow veterans while promoting sobriety and fighting substance abuse and suicide. Hastegee yis jintak nai touch. Put your hands together for the Native Veterans Group.

Yugo ayakwad.

What's up, Clan Gunalchéeshayá?

Yedasheatea, Jardikenu, Hakankian, Kagoonton, Tineide, Ikuaka, Hoss, Hadetkika are standing in the back, our children. They are DIA singers and dancers. They come to support the veterans, to sing for them, and in turn we will dance for them and for all our father's people, all our grandparents, all our dakonuku, our outer shell, all our aunties, We will dance for you because we love our relatives. We love those that are on our father's side, whether they're Eagle or whether they're Raven. Each and every one of us are of a different moitié, but we want to honor all clans tonight.

Aatxáwe, Ijiiis, Dakutu, Aatxáwe. That is why we came out tonight. Dennis.

Dennis.

To every one of you that are here. To aunties and uncles, to parents, to grandparents, great-grandparents, family members, Sealaska Heritage, thank you for having us.

Here are the different armed forces of the United States.

United States Marine Corps.

United States Army.

United States Air Force.

United States Navy.

U.S. Coast Guard.

Army National Guard.

U.S. Merchant Marine And finally, United States Space Force.

And thank you to all my brothers and sisters that I have served. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your sacrifice.

Thank you, Dennis. And we will read another sheet that is very important to us all. Ken.

I would like to thank each and every one of you for coming out. My name is Ken Jackson. I am Eagle Moiti, and I am Saugweedi from Keek. I will be reading names of people that have gone on before us And I would ask if you let me finish a list of names before you clap. If you can do that, I would appreciate it.

But thank you all for coming. There is one set of names that isn't on here that I would like to mention, and it is each one of you. That have sacrificed, suffered, and given time for the veterans that are gone and for the veterans that are up here, because we caused a lot of grief for you. We ask and we thank you and let you know that we appreciate everything that you have done. And a lot of you, your names should be mentioned because if it wasn't for you, a lot of us would not be here.

But the names I read today are not all the names that are on here because these names are written and somebody gave them to us, but there's so many more that sacrifice and hurt and are still sick and they're still dying, 22 per day, and we ask that you respect and honor them. I will begin the names now.

Tlingit Code Talkers. Robert Jeff David, Sr., Haines, Alaska. Richard Bean, Sr., Hoonah, Alaska. George Lewis, Jr., Sitka, Alaska. Mark Jacobs, Jr., Sitka, Alaska.

Sitka, Alaska. Harvey Jacobs, Sitka, Alaska. William A. Thompson, Alaska. Arthur J. Whitney Jr., Ketchikan, Alaska. Those are the names of the Tlingit talkers, code talkers.

And the killed in action, from the many communities, and a lot of you knew these people. The names that I have here are Clinton A. Cook, United States Army, from Heidelberg, Alaska. Charles Gamble Jr., U.S. Army, Juneau, Alaska. He was originally from Angoon. Donald H. Keto, U.S. Marine, Petersburg, Alaska.

Norman L. Lingley, U.S. Army, Craig, Alaska. Norman F. Ridley, U.S. Navy, Metlakatla, Alaska. Ronald G. Greenwald, Specialist Fourth Class from Hoonah, Alaska. Charles E. Brown, U.S. Army, Thorn Bay. David D. Brown, U.S. Army, Juneau, Alaska.

William A. Spurl, U.S. Army, Ketchikan, Alaska. But I think he's originally from Petersburg. Arthur A.J. Whitney Jr., U.S. Army, Ketchikan. Leslie D. Williams, U.S. Air Force, Juneau.

And missing in action, Charlie Johnny, U.S. Army, World War II, Hoonah, Alaska.

The wars fought were World War I, World War II, Korean War, the Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War, Iraq War, Afghanistan War, and the medals: Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Hearts.

Thank you very much for your attention, and we appreciate all of you. Thank you.

I know there's others that would love to have brought their photographs of their loved one. These two here had just passed on recently. Clarence Butch Leidy served in Vietnam. Passed on not too long ago, and Sergius Shakely passed on not too long ago either. We just want the family to know that we're thinking of you, thinking of you at this time.

Okay. Okay.

The song that we're going to sing is Shuntli Haash.

If you could stand.

He can hunt a spinoff.

The second one will be "Jaa'deenaatiiga," which was composed by Auntie Ethelie. Austin Hammond's father and Auntie Ethelie were arrested and put in jail for— they were accused of murdering a family. I don't know how long they stayed in jail, but they were exonerated. And Auntie Yetly, while he was home, previous before he got arrested, he would go outside his door and he'd look probably throughout the street and he could see a lot of people running around and working. And at this particular time when he came out of jail and he walked and came outside, there weren't that many people left anymore.

So this— so his emotions got the best of him, so he composed this song, "Ah, day nee tigah, lest my land lay desolate, you will always hear our voice on it." This is the way we feel as veterans, that the emotions get the best of us. And we want to let you know that we care for you and that we love you. And through you being here tonight, That lets us know that it is also reciprocated, that your love towards us.

Well, we were singing, there's a name that came to mind, and a good friend of mine from Kake, Russ James. I just remember. Okay, we're going to sing a Victor's response. Okay, we need a— you can just come up and do it.

Good guys.

Could you all stand, please?

You have not—.

Thank you to the warriors. Aha. Inaka. Gook. All together, veterans.

One more time, everybody.

Goonas-cheesh. That had to be done. All our songs are sacred songs. These songs are cry songs, but the Kogwam towns came up to balance our songs, so now it's— list our words and our songs are drifting out up in the air. They have been received so they're okay now.

But we would like to sing a song for our veterans to get down.

Okay.

You guys can dance, veterans.

Oh, I knew you guys could do it.

They all reserved their strength for this.

If you're a veteran, if you want to come up here, and we're going to sing a song, one more song, as we're getting ready to leave. Veterans? How good?

Can all line up in front of the stage. Show them what you got.

Years ago when we started the celebrations in 1982 and '84, I remember Austin suggesting that he use a song for the entrance song, but we will use it for our exit because he said that this song was composed or sung after the war with the Tsimshians, and when, that's when they're touching their wounds from the battle. So this is a song we will sing, but I would like to have the veterans dance first before we start exiting.

We have a few more donations. In memory of Richard L. Dick Jr. and Ruth Dick. In memory of Hoots Johnny Wallace $100. In memory of Dustin G. Willard, $100. Chris Hill, sister, $10.

Trish McKaylee Hill, dancer and song leader. From Chris Hill, auntie Agnes Bellinger, founder of the Eagle Raven Dancer in the Seattle group, $15. In memory of Thomas Jack Jr. and Curt Berry, Donor Lee and Louise Kadinger, $100. Gunalchéesh. Háasooííeet Kookwaa.

Háasooííeet Kookwaa. Lekpa kinnim, gmiilgit gagooodum, Tsimshian dancers. It's time for our host group to prepare for the grand exit. I'll teach you one last Tlingit phrase before we wrap, but you can't use it until about 2 hours. So wait maybe 2, 3 hours, then you can use this phrase.

The phrase is Hát widdihwét. Everybody say, hátt widdihwét. Hát widdihwét. Hát widdihwét. Hát widdihwét.

Hardly anybody said it. It means I'm tired. So you're not tired yet because I didn't hear anybody say it. Góonizh chiiishkleen. It's been amazing.

Before we turn things over to the host group, I want to just take a moment to acknowledge all the staff of the Sealaska Heritage Institute and all the volunteers for Celebration to put this together. Gunalchéesh clay niiyei jineeyi.

I want to also acknowledge the Sealaska Heritage Institute Board of Trustees and the Sealaska Corporation Board of Directors for all of their work to help ensure that this continues And for everybody who put their heart into this. Ye'ohweh k'nish'chii'sh. We will begin the grand exit momentarily. Ye'go'ayeh khwan. Ye'go'ayeh khwan.

We are in Southeast Alaska right now because we want to use an autonomous underwater vehicle, basically an underwater robot, to explore and map and help archaeologists search for caves that might have been used by humans a long time ago when sea level was much lower. New discoveries are fueling fierce debates among archaeologists about when and how humans first arrived in the Americas. Textbook descriptions of hunters stalking animals across a land bridge connecting Asia to America and passing through a gap between two massive ice sheets during the last ice age and traversing an ice-free corridor through modern Canada have been upended by mounting evidence indicating humans were in the Americas thousands of years before that migration route was possible. When people get to Southeast Alaska, we know that they settled here and that they've been here since at least 10,200 years ago, thanks to an approximately 21-year-old male found in Chucacá Cave. Other archaeological sites in North and South America are more than 20,000 years old.

As most people think that people got up one day and decided to walk to America, and that's not really what would've happened. People would've settled and expanded their home range in a small area. Many archaeologists now think America's first people were maritime hunters and fishers who arrived by walking or paddling via a coastal route called the Kelp Highway.

Direct evidence for the Kelp Highway remains scarce because it occurred when continental ice sheets lowered sea level by at least 400 feet, putting key archaeological evidence underwater when the ice melted. But a team of archaeologists, cave divers, and robotics engineers spent 2 summers on a pioneering quest called "Our Submerged Past Expedition." Their goal: find and map caves in Southeast Alaska that would have been dry, and potentially used as shelters, when the Americas' first people journeyed along the Kelp Highway. Gotta love Southeast Alaska, wait 5 minutes, weather'll change. It's a temperate rainforest here, with warm ocean currents, high rainfall, and mild temperatures which produce a rich, diverse, and rare biome.

Most people, when they think about Alaska, think about the snow. But I equate Southeast Alaska much more to the coastline of British Columbia. It's much more like a cold Vancouver. It's also the traditional homeland of the Tlingit and Haida, and scientists like Dr. Kelly Monteleone aim to use archaeology to help local communities learn about their ancestors.

Dr. Monteleone is an underwater archaeologist Advances in diving equipment and underwater robotics have opened vast areas of the sea floor that were inaccessible to archaeologists just a few decades ago.

I'm gonna look for something called microdebitage, little itsy-bitsy flakes that flake off whenever a stone tool is used or sharpened. First year we came out and we ran something called side-scan sonar from a small boat. Fishing vessel, and that let us see what the seafloor looked like. I picked out a number of places based on that to look with more sophisticated tools, and that's why I've partnered with Sunfish. Just outside of Austin, Texas, at the headquarters of Sunfish Inc., Dr. Christoph Richmann and his team of robotics engineers and technicians test and prepare Sunfish before sending it out into the field.

I've taken Sunfish, you know, kind of all around the world. Antarctica, explored the world's largest underground lake in Namibia, sea caves in the Channel Islands, springs in northern Florida. We like to go places where there's some sort of three-dimensional feature that we can map with the robot and help scientists understand that environment better. Work here in Alaska with our submerged past It's really kind of been the first time we've done underwater archaeology, possibly helping to explore the origins of the human colonization of this whole half of the world. Vicki Siegel is a field operations manager for Sunfish Inc. Vicki's job is to figure out how to get her team and their robot into some of the world's most remote and inaccessible places.

This kind of work is something that cave divers could do. But by using a robot, we're able to make a very detailed 3-dimensional map of the cave that we're taking samples from. It can move in all 6 degrees of freedom, we call it, so it can translate forward, backward, side to side, up, down. The most unique aspect of Sunfish: it can work without any remote pilot, entirely autonomously. And then Sunfish decides within that, you know, view that it's seen where is it safe to go, where's an empty space that, you know, I can move into.

It's built up a map and we can tell it like, "Hey, go to this spot that you saw before," and it can use its map to navigate its way back. We are working on developing a sampling behavior with Sunfish. We added a little sediment sampler. You know, having an underwater vehicle actually be able to interact with its environment and try to get a sample from a spot is a pretty new capability. Sunfish is able to expand the range of human exploration underwater because it doesn't get tired, it doesn't get cold.

Cave divers up here in Alaska, I think the water is something like 48 degrees. All of this research is made possible because underwater environments can have higher preservation rates for organic materials, and caves protect archaeological sites and the artifacts they contain from erosion. What I love about being an underwater archaeologist is I get to learn about the past and how people lived in the past. And with underwater archaeology, I get to see it in a place that few people ever get to see or experience. The frontier of research in underwater archaeology has been expanding through North America.

Alaska especially has just started to scratch the surface. Projects like Studies like this have the potential to rewrite our understanding of how and when people came to the Americas.

Goodness, she's hot here. The toy exit newsome will got goydexism agwap. Dilong ist as ekh it gure nai laagam. Thank you for coming. We are happy that you are here.

I love you.

Thank you, Sealaska Heritage staff. Thank you so much. Great job. And where is our captain? Our captain, Carmelita.

Thank you, Carmelita. We still love you.

She is such a tough general, but she makes this celebration coordinated and run really smooth. And so we thank Carmelita, and we, we, we hope we're all We're all still friends with you, Carmelita. We love you. Thank you. Well, what was this, our theme?

Enduring strength. What? Enduring strength. Enduring strength. Say it with me.

Feel it with me. Enduring strength. That's what we have demonstrated to ourselves. And to the world that we, we here from this land, here in our homeland, homeland for 12,000 or 11,400 years that we know from our last work, Kelly, yes. We have been here for thousands and thousands of years, and we are saying to the world that with our enduring strength We intend to be here for at least another 20 or 30,000 years.

Yes. All that dancing, all that dancing on the ground, that reaffirmed this is our land. Ha'ani, our land. Enduring strength, and we will always, always remember that. And I want to thank everyone, everyone, our dancers, our elders who never moved and were there, and I could look at them and smile and say, "Oh, there's my friend Janie, yes, and there's Duffy, Duffy, or Daphne, oh, I forgot." We're grown up now.

Anyway, I want to thank you all. Our donors, our elders, our dancers, our artists, all of you who have made Celebration successful. And we're going to have another celebration in 2 more years. And—.

And the chair of our board of trustees, Vicky Soboloff is going to tell us who is going to be the lead dance group in that next celebration.

Good evening, everyone. Everybody have a great time? Yeah. Awesome. Okay.

Okay, so the announcement, the lead dance group for Celebration 2028 will be Kii Kwan.

Announcing that and ending Celebration reminds me of the second Celebration here at Centennial Hall and Tommy Jack. Jackson closed down the night and he said, "And now we've had our fun." Good night, everybody. Gutes Tschüss, haua, and doitsit nudsam. See you in 2 years.

Thank you everyone, that was wonderful. Thank you to all of the people that helped. All of you saw them dance, they could have had their own dance group over here. Thank you to every community who came and helped us. I want to thank my fellow trustee where we serve on the SHI Board of Trustees, and I want to thank her because Marcella not only is a trustee, she led this year's amazing lead group.

So give her please, and all the good people that helped her, can you please— we know she's a, she's kind of a good tired right now. And, um, let's, let's end this, let's end this in a good way. Everybody leave here with the love and the joy and the the raising of our spirits, the— what did we call it? Hataas, hatlang, the— it's not the raising of your spirit, but the uplifting of your spirit. Thank you, honey girl, you did an absolutely amazing job, and I'm proud of you.

Danas di kwaagedank.

Just a couple more quick thank-yous. These waterways connect us in our villages for thousands of years, but they've also connected us to our Maori relatives who showed up and our Hawaiians. How about a thank you for our—. And the last couple days we've had our own special guest who is Anshiwotki, I believe, from Angoon, but Senator Murkowski is here with us, so lots of gratitude to Senator Murkowski. Thank you for being here.

Okay, good night everyone. Good night everyone. I hope you had a wonderful time just making it wonderful for us. Thank you so much. Good luck.

Tschüss. Good night.