Prefix — Sealaska Heritage Institute: Celebration 2026 | Day 2 - Thursday June 4

Long distance to come here, and it's really amazing to see all of your faces.

We would like to dedicate our performance today to late elder Margaret Roberts. She is a huge reason why we are here today, and we are so grateful for her and all that she's done as an elder for us.

Olivia. All right. We're doing a comedy show tonight, apparently. Who's introducing? Sakulak, Please come up.

Kushkana, please introduce Sakulak.

My English name is Olivia Robertskanuk is Margaret Roberts granddaughter, and she's been really excited to introduce her songs. But the next one we're going to dance for you is called Sakulak. This song was written by Lauren Anderson, and it speaks of how our ancestors, when they were missing our loved ones, we would send messages to them by talking to the birds that we would see. And the birds would fly far away to the ancestral world and share the messages with our loved ones.

Knocking, knocking.

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Ram.

Koyana. I'm Devin Wolkoff. This is my daughter,.

Louder. McKenna. What are we singing next?

Traveling. Our next song will be Traveling. The song was gifted to us by Tuna McIntyre. And the song will be taking a journey over land and sea. And those of us who cannot travel with us will be traveling in our minds.

The song was gifted to us to revitalize the dance program in Kodiak. Koyana.

Bo.

Yam.

Sam.

Chamay hui ikayu. And the next song we'll be performing for you today is Kabutin. This song was written by.

Stephen Blanchette and the Alaskan Native Heritage center dancers of the time. And it's about a spirit that was fought in the war against the Russians. And it hung above the doorway of.

Lucille Davis. And so while they were out gathering, the spear was stolen. So Michael Livingston recreated the spear and gifted it to Lucille and her family along with the song. Atah.

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Okay. Oh, you coming?

Chmay hui kiyak. The next song we'll be dancing for you today is Nahashta. This song is about a Laos washing and laughing to himself in Abanya. We'd like to give credit Larry Matthay for teaching us a song.

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All right. The next song is going to be in honor of Helen Simeonoff. This song was written for her memorial. And our ancestral tradition is to burn a mask on the anniversary of their death. And so we did a memorial and a mask burning for Helen Semionoff.

She was a woman from Afognac, an elder in our community and a great artist among our community. She traveled across the World and found our ancestors items in France and Finland and far off places, so. So that we could learn from our ancestors the sewing and beading and carving techniques. And we have benefited so much from the work that she did, so we do this to honor her. This song was written by Lauren Anderson.

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Wait.

Okay. Somehow, some way, we are ahead of schedule, so we're gonna add a song. This is our invitational song. If you are ready, able to get on stage, come and join us. Otherwise, you could stand in your seats or you can do the seated.

The song is called Asle Lu Ugot. And this is our Sukhpiq nation unity song. All Sukhpeq people, this is your song. All Sukhberg people can dance this song. We made this song, I don't know, a while ago, but we want all Sukhbayk people to know, Alutik people, that this is your song.

This is our song, but we want to dance it with everybody while we're here.

The direct translation means we are all one. We are all together. Oh, old dancer.

Okay. Very simple dance motions.

Yeah. You could go down there. You want to?

Okay. Join us when you want to. Aya, come.

Okay. Let's just get started.

Ahi.

Can we just do that again,.

Sam?

All right, so we are going to do our last song and then our exit song. I want to talk about our exit song First. We are going to exit to a song we called Yuha, which was taught to us along with four other songs by the Kiksadi of Sitka. They taught us these songs and told us that they belong to our ancestors. They call them the Aleut series.

We call them the Ancestor series. We want to give a special thank you to Herman and Vida Davis and Isabella Brady and Margaret Roberts, who was a. Who couldn't have put that together without her. So, Koyana. Yeah.

You want to give a round of applause for them, Koyana?

All right. And this last song, we'll dance for you before we go. Exit, was written by Hannah Scholl to celebrate our cultural resurgence and our strength as Sukhbat people. We are the original people of the Kodiak Archipelago. Our ancestors have tended the land there for more than 8,000 years.

We're people with a strong sense of community and a connection to our lands and the ocean. Two hundred years ago, our community suffered a tremendous shift in our way of life when Russian colonizers came to our land and massacred our people, enslaved our people, and used our communities for resource extraction. This was followed by a period of forced assimilation and cultural genocide where we had to identify with the American forces. During this time, they did everything they could to take away what brought us pride, our spiritual connection, our dancing, our ways of connecting with land and sea that gave us strength. During this time, we had to put away our culture for our own safety, for our strength and cultural strength and survival.

But we had community members who worked to keep our culture alive and they protected our traditions from going completely extinct. We owe a deep debt of gratitude to these community members and want to celebrate their persistence and their bravery as we revitalize our culture and sing pride back into our community.

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Good evening. Hello, my name is Vicki Mata and I'm pleased to be here with you today and welcome to Celebration 2026. All of the Centennial hall performances and special events are broadcast live on Public Television's K2 360 TV and a live video stream. For the link go to www.sealaskaheritage.org.

We'd like to recognize our viewers who are participating in Celebration through the livestream Sealaska Heritage Thanks Celebration sponsors including Alaska Airlines, Royal Caribbean and Smithsonian center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the City and Borough of Juneau, Goldbelt Inc. University of Alaska Southeast and Sea Alaska 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 an open house for your Indigenous science building every day from 12 to 2, where you can even enter for contests for heaviest earrings.

At this time, we will welcome the dance group to the stage. The Chilkat Thunderbird and Sockeye clans originated from Club Klukwan, Yakutat and Haines. They are known as Shanghugi and Suka Adi clans who claim the Thunderbird and Sockeye Salmon as their crest. As opposite clans, they have intermarriages and close relationships. For generations, the Chilkats traded extensively with tribes from the territories that are now part of Canada in the interior of Alaska, where they obtain many of their songs.

They dance with items that were commonly associated with trade, such as furs and snowshoes. Please give them a round of applause.

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A long time ago, one of our ancestors, Yin Dionc, traveled into the interior. While he was up there, he learned that his mother had passed away. Yindy Onk wanted to return to Klukwan, but the weather was really bad and dangerous. An Athabascan man saw how saw much sorrow he had for losing his mother. So the Azkaban ask a Bath.

Man. Sang him this song. He explained to Yin Dion that this song is for you. When you look up, you can see the geese flying in formation. But one of the geese have fallen from the formation.

There is an empty spot. It is the same as what happened to your mother. She has fallen from the formation. This is why this song comes from the Shungu Keri. We also use a song for when we are getting ready to dance or putting our regalia on for Cuih.

It's a time for us to warm up and to make sure our blankets are tied and our hats are on straight.

Shind.

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It's really good to see all of you here today. We are the Chilkat Thunderbirds and Sockeye Clan.

Shanku Kedi Luka Kadi.

Our clans originate from the Haines and Klukwan region, Dicot Kwan. Our clans have been intermarrying and we're close opposites for since time immemorial. And as I was telling our family before we came out tonight, we're not a performing group. We're a family. And we only get to do this once every two years.

So it is a big honor and very exciting for us to be here with everyone tonight. So gunna chees,.

The Sukhaadi are always so honored to be able to be here amongst the Chilkats and the Thunderbirds. I'll never forget when David Katzick was still with us. It was a big deal to have competition between the two of our clans. And so we keep it alive. You'll see by all of our robes here today.

Gunes cheese.

Yeah, not that. Yeah, I need to stand over here. Yeah, you stand. Okay. All right.

I'm bringing the microphone closer to all of our great singers here.

So this next song that we're gonna sing for everyone, this is a love song, and it was a song that was performed at the dedication of the Thunderbird house in the 1970s. And it's a beautiful love song. But I also want to point out that this song, King Este David Katzick also sang this song at a wedding for Jackie and Chris, who are here with us tonight. So it's an appropriate love song that we sing to, you know, all the.

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So I forgot to tell the story of the song that we just sang, the meaning behind it. I was so got carried away about all the love that we have for each other up here on the stage. But the first verse talks about, you know, why is it that I'm looking behind me, looking over my shoulder, you know, for a raven, the beautiful raven. The second verse talks about the love notes that you wrote me. I keep them in my pocket, and for this reason, you know, all is good.

And then the final verse talks about Tlingit. Ani, when we're on Tlingit land, you know, everything is good. I raised my hands up because, you know, things are so good with you. So I just wanted to make sure we shared that. And now we're going to do.

So romantic.

Okay, now we're going to do a Lukakadi song, one of our favorites.

So now we're going to do Yakanagudi, the raven courtship song. We're excited about always being able to share our love with all of you, but always there's someone seeking that one special person. So. Diya Kanagudi, the raven courtship song.

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You.

And this was.

This was always a favorite song because we would always have Nathan's mom come up and dance this song, Nancy Jackson, and she was a favorite of the audience. And then Nancy, I mean, and then Nathan started dancing it. And now Nathan and Brandon. And Nathan is now told Brandon he can wear the mask. Brandon, can you come out?

So here you go, Brandon. We're gonna have our raven come back out. He went to go change. But I just want to share that when I was a kid and dancing with Nathan and watching him do the raven dances, always inspiration. The song talks about, see how he walks.

You know, see how he talks. And he really did resemble the raven. And his mother, Nancy, also was a raven dancer. So as you know, grandchildren and grandparents of the fluqahadi, we are just very proud of Brandon to see this transition, you know, in handoff, so to speak, from Nathan to Brandon. It's a pretty significant event for us.

And the Shungu Keiti people are just so proud of Brandon and everything he's doing. And we have this special print of Nathan, who is featured on a U.S. postage stamp.

That's him. And we're going to gift this to Brandon in memory of all the things to come with our new raven.

So the Chilkat people, we were traders. We traveled. Our ancestors traveled into the interior extensively. We controlled the passes that went into the interior. And that's why you see some of Our dancers carrying furs or carrying jaji, the snowshoes, as symbols of this trade.

But we also traded songs with the Gununna, the Athabaskan people from the interior. So we're going to do a series of songs that we received from the interior. In addition to one of our favorite songs that. Hey, Natsutsuya. I know a lot of you have heard of this one before.

And Anna Katzik, this was one of her favorites. She explained that, you know, the translation is, you know, hey, family, aren't we having fun? Aren't we having fun as we're, you know, hanging fish in the smokehouse? So I'm going to ask all the women to step forward because we've had the men up front. I gotta sing.

Oh, you can. Okay, you can sing and dance, Auntie.

So all the women, if you could come forward and dance really hard.

Don't be shy.

You know, they're not shy. Okay,.

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One more before mom's knees give out. Here we go.

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Okay, we can have clanade. If you could step forward.

Rosie. Is Rosie here? Rosie, please come forward. The Thunderbirds, you know, are. Are known for innovation.

We were one of the first that build a, what you call a cottage style house instead of a clan house up in Klakawan. I don't know if you guys have seen our house. And one time we introduced computers into counting money. And we had everybody's name listed. And Aida kept saying, did you give money to so and so.

And we pulled out the list. Yeah, it's there printed on the list. So the Shangokere are known for innovation. And one of the things that we did was since we had a grandson. A grandson right there.

There he is. Come. Uh huh.

Married a Navajo. And so now you've seen closer relationship between the Tlingit and the Navajo. And here is the mother, the aunt to Rico's wife, Rosie, Rosie Taylor. And we asked, Rosie, do you think you could weave a Navajo style chilkat tunic? And so there you see, Ricardo is wearing the chilkat tunic.

And Rico is wearing the Navajo style Navajo woven tunic. So I wanted to introduce you.

And if all of the other Navajos. With us would please come forward. And I saw lots of Navajos dancing with us in this celebration. But if our Navajo family would also step forward. This is our Navajo family.

And this is the weaver. This is the weaver, rosie. Rosie,.

It is my honor to come here. And this is really emotional for me. And I'm thankful that I was asked to do a tonic and it took me two years to complete it. I did all the weaving. I mean the, the wool, carding, dyeing, handspun and it's.

And it's a merino sheep which is very soft.

I'm a Kiaani clan, a tiring house born for bitter water. I mean big water. So those are my relation. And I do have other grandparents also which are Hanagahnee and Senju Kina. The one that goes around you are my grandfather.

Senju kine is honeycomb. They build things. So that's who I am. And I come from Indian Wells, Arizona.

And I thank all of you for showing up and coming and supporting. And I really appreciate my son in law here for wearing it. And it will take him far away and wherever he wants to be. And you know, just being in that rug is like having a raising a child. For me, when I weave, I.

When I'm finished, I talk to it, I sing for it, I pray for it. And when they go far away into different homes, they come with me and they know that they are my child. So when I come back and see the weaving, they see as I'm their mother. So that's how I was raised by my mother. And I'm a seventh generation weaver.

I didn't know that I was going to do a little speech here, but thank you so much.

Okay, so we are out of time. But before we do our exit song, I just have one thing to say. Now that we have a chilkat tunic that's woven in Navajo fashion, guess what's next? We need to see a Navajo blanket that's woven by a chilkat weaver. So we'll see when that day comes.

Next celebration.

Okay, so we're going to do our exit song. But to be courteous of everyone's time in the next group, we're going to sing our song. But we're going to have everybody walk off and exit as quickly and as orderly and as coolly as we can.

Sa.

Sam harry ra.

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While we are exiting, I watch you. To know that we haven't forgotten that. We are chil cats. Even though we had a Navajo weave, a blanket, I want you to know that we had one of our chilkat weavers, Skin George, weave a nachen for Ricky boy.

Skin george. Skin george just finished today. Thank you. Skin george.

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Thank you everybody for being here. We are getting at capacity and so we need everyone to have a seat. We have to clear the aisles for safety. If you're seated in the aisles, please find a seat and Also, if you are saving seats, we ask you to please remove your items so others can find a spot as well and enjoy the rest of the evening.

Good evening.

Good evening.

So nice to be in front of all of you all. While the next artists are preparing for their performance, I'll be introducing them. My name is Rebecca Fenton. I am from the Smithsonian center for Folk Life and Cultural Heritage in Washington dc. Thank you.

Why I am here this year year, my organization, instead of putting on a cultural festival as we usually do in Washington D.C. which we've been doing since 1967, this year as part of a big suite of programs that the Smithsonian Institution is doing around the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we, the center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, are going across the United States, States and territories and working in collaboration with a number of different festivals and gatherings. And so for me and my team, it's been a huge honor that we've been working with Sealaska Heritage Institute this year. I want to acknowledge the Sealaska Heritage Institute staff for all their hard work and I thank them for this opportunity. Yeah.

So now I'll introduce the artists. Aloha Kaku. It's with deep honor and humility that I'm introducing the Kamehameha Hawaiian Ensemble students as they gather here for celebration. They come from Hawaii representing not only their school, Kamehameha Schools Kapalama, but the broader lahui and the enduring traditions of their kupuna. Their delegation here is small in number.

It's 14 students. But it stands as a reflection of a much larger program, nearly 200 Haumana who participate annually in their Hawaiian ensemble. Each of these students is a graduating senior.

They have been selected not only for their skill and dedication, but for their character, their commitment to the well being of their communities. They are emerging cultural leaders from across the Hawaiian Islands. And many of them have trained in hula and Hawaiian cultural practices since early childhood. It's a joy for us to be here with all of you. Please join me in giving a very warm welcome to Kamehameha Hawaiian Ensemble.

Ensemble.

Aloha.

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Allah.

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In 1990, when I was at the age of 15, Hawaii was gifted the treasure of two logs. Two trees, two spirits. I had the opportunity to come here to celebrate the gift. Today, 35 years later, I am here again with my students from Kamehameha Schools.

The logs were gifts from all of you. NC Alaska. Those gifts were transformational for Hawaii and native peoples of the Pacific. For the first time in hundreds of years, we together gave birth to our ancient deep sea sailing wa. Made entirely out of traditional materials, This last set of hula of dances did depict the making of this va, the provisioning of materials and food animals and the birth of this shared dream of Hawaii and Alaska.

So to all of you and the people of Huna who gifted the logs, Alohanui.

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Matabaiki.

Yahoo.

My malu.

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Weren't they awesome? Awesome. They are so awesome. Yeah. And so graceful.

Here we are danced like that. And they're so beautiful how they dance. I want you to know that we. Have to thank the Smithsonian, the folklife. People, if they would stand.

Thank them for giving us the funds to bring them over.

Thank you so much. And thank you to our Hawaiian brothers and sisters. They are our brothers and sisters and. Can we bring them back again next celebration?

Yeah, they're wonderful. And I just wanted you to know. That we are so very fortunate that. We do have the support of the. Smithsonian and bringing our guests over.

And we also want to to acknowledge that we were able to bring the Mai here too. Not all of them, but enough of them. And. But next time we'll bring more. So have fun, guys.

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Gunas cheese hat yi ade sikht yuhan yaq ewushkanakhutu ta' adi yak ei ataya gustehinaya aksayi shuk anakh. We have some announcements. Welcome to Celebration 2026. Please be aware that the songs you will hear and the crest you see on 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 donating, you can stop at the info booth. Your donation will be acknowledged on stage, statewide TV and our livestream.

Alaska Airlines, Royal Caribbean Hue, Smithsonian center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and the city and borough of Juneau, Goldbelt Incorporated, University of Alaska Southeast and Sealaska Corporations. You can see a full list of celebration sponsors in the digital program. You see your program. Please see your program for a complete schedule for Celebration 2026. There are a variety of activities to participate in, including photos for elders in the elders room tomorrow from 2:30 to 4:30pm Yidataya Eagle Raven Dancers Kagihas Pukas at Yezk Ayaka Eagle Raven Dancers was established in Juneau in 1980 by Yan Xiao Teh Agnes Bellinger, who was the instructor and director until her passing on Valentine's Day 2026.

Bellinger previously had dance groups in Seattle, Portland, Deshau and Chuk An. She was proud to teach many others who have gone on to different groups or created their own dance groups. The Eagle Raven Dancers comprise a wide range of relatives, mainly from the DJPAT and Jishput areas and members of the Dancers of Desh. Their songs are all from the JPAT area and Agnes Bellinger taught them to them. Rachel Johnson taught them Quezon songs.

Leona Santiago led the Eagle Raven dancers from February 2006 to 2004. Our dearly loved Auntie Leona returned to her ancestors on November 17, 2024. Kauke ka yanwa tla yudu sagan in June 2024. 2024, She assigned leadership to Cass Cropley, Jackie Paida and Tasia Rebels.

Their language attractors are Barbara searles and and Dr. Lance Twitchell.

Eagle raven dancers.

Jesus.

Sa.

Hello.

Good evening.

My Tlingit name is Naksha. My English name is Cast Cropley. This celebration we have to decided to bring a new song to celebration. Honey and I had composed a song earlier this year and that is going to be our entrance song. And this song we wanted to do to honor our ancestors and know that we are here to walk on our lands.

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Good. Johnny kashi.

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This is our love song series and we're just wanting to make sure that we make sure that you feel all the love from our great big group that is here with you today.

And we're giving our dancers like 5 Seconds to Breathe. Niche Cool.

Ra.

J. Sa.

Or Eagle and a Raven. It's Dion Kanaguti time. We can't let this greatest hit go. Dion Kanaguti go.

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We too like the Chilkats want to thank our elder Nathan Jackson for dancing here with us. Most of us from our group.

And I want you to know that our group we get together regularly like every week we practice and Nathan joins us via Zoom so he's modernized. He joins us via Zoom so he's always been there with us and we really appreciate that. Most of us originate from the Chilkat area. From the. From the Haines Klukwan area.

And so you'll notice that most of our Eagle Raven songs come from that area. So just all of our friends and neighbors in the audience just want to say, give you a great shout out that we're here representing you. Thank you. Gunas cheese.

We have one last love song for you before we exit today.

Jam.

Sam.

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We're gonna do our accent song now. Tao Yacht. Oh, Sutan. Sorry, we just did that.

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As they're still making their way off stage. Let's give one more hand. A round of applause for the Eagle Raven Dancers.

What a group. That was exciting. How are you guys all doing this evening?

My name is Morgan Howard. I'm a Te Kwedi from Yakutat. Which group are you guys ready for next?

There we go.

Okay, just have a request. If you have an empty seat next to you, can you please raise your hand? We're trying to get a few more folks and I see some over here in the back. Oh, there's quite a few actually here in the middle. Keep your hands up a little bit longer.

You got a couple over here. Thank you. This is a popular group. We want everyone to have a standard seat. Who wants to come in?

Okay, great. Thank you. We got a few housekeeping things before the next group comes here.

All of the Centennial hall performances and special events are broadcast live. Sealaska Heritage Institute is sponsoring a live statewide broadcast On Public Television's KTOO 360 TV and a live video stream. I was actually watching it earlier on YouTube, so I know you can find it there. But if you can't, go to sealaskaheritage.org and you can find a link there.

We would like to recognize, in fact, all of those people from around the world. All the people who couldn't make it here. Welcome. They're on the live stream right now. Please see your program for complete schedule.

For a complete schedule of Celebration 2026.

There are a variety of activities that are going on this weekend. One of them is House of Rock. And that's tomorrow, 6 to 8pm at the Walter Sobolov Center. It will feature a variety of indigenous performers.

One more housekeeping item is water is okay to bring into the hall, but please, no other food or drink, I hear at this time. I'm going to welcome the next group to the dance floor. They are the senior Mount St. Elias dancers.

They are here from Yaktot. They are the children and grandchildren of the clans of Yaktot area. The group you will see performing today learned these songs in childhood in the A and B Hall Camp 13. Each dancer grew up practicing the words and movements, telling the stories of their ancestors. This group invests in teaching the junior dancers the continual mentorship to preserve the history and movements of their young Tlingit leaders has allowed the group to thrive forever.

70 Years. In the early 1950s, the elders of Yakutat preserved the collective history and songs of their local clans. They named the group after the K' Naikh Khuan. At u was Itusha Mount St. Elias, the 18,008 foot mountain that stand straight out of the icy waves of Yakutat. The Regalia are a distinctive Tlingit style and show the influence of their ancient trading partners and neighbors, the Athabascan and the Eyak.

Some of the Regalia you'll see dancing today has been dancing for more than seven generations.

Several of the songs that the group sings are ancient trade songs or have been won by the Akita Tlingit from the Athabascan, Tsimshian and Aleut. Many of the songs you'll see tonight are more than 1000 years old. Without further ado, let's give one big round of applause to let them know that we're ready for them. The amount St. Elias dancers.

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Jam.

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Jesus.

Hold on to your paddles. Hold on to your paddle.

Hello. We're here and we're doing it.

We are the Mount St. Elias dancers. We come from Yakutat, I want to say the Alaska Heritage Foundation Institute. That is for hosting us, for bringing us all together once again.

I've been coming to celebration since around 1996 and I haven't missed one yet.

It makes us so happy to see all of you here. It fills our hearts with love for coming and being here with us.

We're going to do the paddle song next. We'd like to honor everybody that paddled the celebration and everybody that traveled from far away to be here with us. This is our paddle song.

If you paddle the celebration this year, we ask, we invite you to stand up and dance with us.

Sa.

Happy.

The next song we're going to do for you is called Yah Yi Na. It's a happy song that we would sing in a party, a time of celebration. Yah Yi Na.

J. Ram.

This. This next song was composed by a man in the Dry Bay area who fell in love and was in love. And when he came home, he composed this Song he was searching for his love it's our honey song. And oftentimes when we do this dance, we have a little baby doll that we pass around. It's just something that we've done for a long time.

And I just wanted to take this opportunity to bring up.

We had one of our dance leaders who was very important to all of us long ago. She helped all of us young ones in the dance group, took care of us, made us regalia. And she was very special to us, Ramona Anderstrom. And.

She was dearly loved to us. And we're all sad that she's gone. And I wanted to say goodnut to my sister Sasha and her husband Matt. They brought Ramona Anderstrom back to us on Valentine's Day of this year.

So that's her. My niece is over here there. And I love her very much. This is our honey song.

We're so proud of our young children who keep the fire going. At this time, we're going to ask the seniors to come down below and support the juniors as they do their dance for you.

This is one of our newer songs that was composed to honor our dance leader, George Ramosh.

And when we were at dance practice, he would tell us, yinde wu nu yende wu nu. I want you to dance as low as you can.

And that's why we got the young guys doing it.

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Sam.

Okay, come back on stage now. Haku Juniors, go to the back. We're gonna. We're gonna let the seniors do their song. Now.

This one we're gonna do is one of our favorites. It's another happy song that we used to bring out for parties and for dance competitions. Sam,.

This is our jumping song.

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Sat again. You can do it again.

Okay, we'll do it again.

Sam.

Ra.

Okay, that's enough.

I once heard somebody ask the question, what is culture? And what they came up with is, it's who you are, it's what you are, it's what you do, and it's how you do it. We are the Mount St. Elias dancers. We are Tlingit.

We're here to share our culture with you. So tonight we're showing you how we do it.

This song, sunny do, comes from the interior. It came came down to us when our people migrated from the Copper river area. Sonny, We'd like to invite Tony Christensen to come up and dance with us.

I've been asking all week to be on this dance group.

Sam, It.

Okay. I'm going to do the next part, before I say too many words, I just want to uplift Nishka for studying the ways of our songs and single stepping forward and showing leadership, which is so important for our young men to see. Healthy men in leadership like Nish.

We just came back from a canoe journey. We. We were out for 12 days, and, yes, a bunch of paddlers.

And I wanted to bring some good news to everybody. I wanted to let you know that our ancestors are still out there.

And I wanted to invite everybody to start, if you haven't already, on your healing journey. Because when we're healthy and we're on our own land and we're eating our own food and we're singing our own songs and we're living our own way of life, we're our best. We are our best, and we feel our best and we act our best, and we love each other in a different way. And so I want to invite everybody to step into their healing journey so that our kids can inherit less than what we've inherited, and their grandkids could inherit more of our culture and less of the trauma.

Something that's really important to our cultures, as you all know, is our aunties and our uncles, our aunties and our uncles tell us about who we are. They're harder on us because our parents can be too soft.

Some people can agree by the laughter.

So I have the distinct honor of uplifting one of our aunties who has been here for us.

And I want to ask Auntie Kathy to come forward.

And can we get all the. To come stand with her?

Can we get the folks who are tlik Nakhedi to come stand by Auntie Cathy?

I'm really grateful for you, Auntie, for always being there with us, for the way that you just. You know, sometimes when I don't know how to keep going, I think about Dostiya Gramma Nellie, Lord, and how she endured all the things, and she was a strong woman. And when I feel weak, I think about how Grandma Nellie never gave up on us. And I think about that with you, too, Auntie Kathy, that even when it gets really hard in leadership, you never gave up on us. And you just.

Just stand by us. And we always need you so much. And we're so grateful for you. And we have something for you.

Jeremiah James made this.

I'm grateful for your aunties for teaching you how to be a really good auntie. To us and to my babies.

Thank you. My future, the future that I looked forward to, that all the kids in Yakutat would be dance and further. And they are. And they are. I was just reminiscing about 1982.

There was probably 15 of us on the stage. Look at us now. Look at your own dance group.

1982. This was the only audience in this room.

That's what it was in 1982. November, a cold winter day. Thank you, everybody.

I also wanted to upload uplift Martha's mom, Kathy Wassily, who is fighting a really important fight right now for her life.

And the two Kathy's are best friends. So we wanted to honor them today. And so as we're singing this song, Kathy Wassily, we're singing our power to you. And I want to invite everybody in this room to sing with us and dance with us and give our energy and our power and our love to Kathy Wassily while she's fighting her fight to stay with us as long as she can every single day.

Okay, Mishka, did you want to introduce before, Before I turn it back over to Nishka, I just wanted to say goodness cheese to our elders who watched us grow up on stage. All of you who've been sitting and slowly moved your way to the front over the years.

Gunas cheese for your love. And to everybody who shows us so much love. We're always overwhelmed by you because we're just doing the same thing over and over. And you guys just make us know that what we're doing is maybe okay. Maybe we're doing an okay thing in Gunfish.

To those who put up with the storm in preparation for celebration. I know it's not easy in gnoccheesh. To everybody who's here and to those of us, those of you who love us. And I'll turn it back over to Nishka, who I'm so proud of, who's speaking for our group.

And before we leave, I just want to reiterate how happy we are to be here with all of you and to sing and dance with you. We love you. This next song was composed for the people of the Coho from the Alsac area. This is Ekwe.

It.

Ra.

Ra.

Ra.

Ram.

It.

Ra.

Ram.

Ha.

Sa.

Ra.

Ra.

Ra.

Ra.

Ra.

Ram.

Good night, everyone. Come back tomorrow. We'll have a whole heck of a lot more fun. Gunna. Sheesh.

Everybody. Ra.

Ram.

It's.

It.

We would like to dedicate our performance today to late elder Margaret Roberts. She is a huge reason why we are here today. And we are so grateful for her and all that she's done as an elder for us.

We're doing a comedy show tonight, apparently. Who's introducing? Sakulak, please come up. Kushkana, please introduce.

My english name is olivia roberts.

Kushkanuk is Margaret Roberts, granddaughter, and she's been really excited to introduce her songs. But the next one we're going to dance for you is called Sakoolak. This song was written by Lauren Anderson and it speaks of how our ancestors, when they were missing our loved ones, we would send messages to them by talking to the birds that we would see. And the birds would fly far away to the ancestral world and share the message messages with our loved ones.

Shelley, I.