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NEWS

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Blog

SHI publishes a blog about programs and events and other items of cultural interest.

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Press Releases

SHI accepting proposals from presenters for 2023 education conference  (2-23-23)

SHI launches new program to cultivate more Indigenous actors, performing artists  (2-21-23)
Application period for March workshop now open

SHI buys downtown building to expand school programming (2-17-23)
Space earmarked for future STEAM activities

Sealaska Heritage digitizes, posts Celebration 1998  (2-15-23)
Video series shows eighth Celebration, more years to follow

Groundbreaking Tlingit school program expands to eighth grade  (2-1-23)
Interim principal hired, program to expand on Lingít lessons

SHI sets dates for Totem Pole Trail, Faces of Alaska ceremony  (1-25-23)
Event to be live streamed, everyone welcome

2023 Traditional Games planned in Juneau, registration open  (1-17-23)
Games to be livestreamed

Multi-year weaving apprenticeship to culminate in intensive, dancing of the robes at SHI  (1-11-23) 
Project part of effort to increase number of Chilkat weavers

Sealaska Heritage digitizes, posts Celebration 1996 (1-9-23)
Video series shows eighth Celebration, more years to follow

Sealaska Heritage digitizes, posts Celebration 1996 (1-4-23)
Video series shows eighth Celebration, more years to follow

SHI releases feature-length film on history, origin of Celebration (12-21-22)
Program explores the origins of Celebration to today

SHI expands support for Native language study and instruction at UAS  (12-21-22)
Scholarship available for the 2023 spring semester

SHI to sponsor lecture on Native leaders’ Hall of Fame  (12-16-22)
Free event to be offered in-person, virtually

Yakutat Tribe, SHI and Sealaska urging cessation of logging of historic site (12-15-22)
Area is ancient homeland of the Kwaashk’iḵwáan clan

SHI accepting applications for college, voc-tech Sealaska scholarships  (12-15-22)
Institute offering cash incentive to early birds

SHI offering museum, art internships in Alaska, New Mexico  (12-14-22)
Candidates will get hands-on experience in museum sciences and art practices

SHI to sponsor lecture by archaeologist detailing discovery of ancient stone fish weir  (12-8-22)
Free event to be offered in-person, virtually

Sealaska Heritage digitizes, posts Celebration 1994  (12-7-22)
Video series shows seventh Celebration, more years to follow

SHI offering scholarships to museum, art studies students  (12-5-22)
Initiative part of vision to make Juneau Northwest Coast arts capital

SHI expands award-winning early literacy program to Anchorage  (12-1-22)
Institute to partner with the Alaska Native Heritage Center

SHI to sponsor lecture on history of the T’akdeintaan clan  (11-17-22)
Free event to be offered in-person, virtually

Sealaska Heritage digitizes, posts Celebration 1992 (11-16-22)
Video series shows sixth Celebration, more years to follow

SHI to sponsor panel discussion on controversial closure of Walter Soboleff church, recent efforts to atone  (11-10-22)
Event held in honor of Walter Soboleff Day

SHI to re-open doors to all second-grade Juneau School District students for arts initiative  (10-31-22)
Program part of partnership with Any Given Child Juneau, local group initiative

SHI to sponsor lecture on co-producing environmental knowledge with communities  (10-24-22)
Free event to be offered in-person, virtuall

SHI to sponsor lecture on Tlingit cultural and ecological knowledge on wolves  (10-20-22)
Free event to be offered in-person, virtually

SHI awarded grant to expand capacity for online digital collections  (10-19-22)

SHI to sponsor lecture on migration stories and crests of the Yanyedí clan  (10-10-22)
Free event to be offered in-person, virtually

SHI to sponsor lecture on historic state practice of banishing “mentally ill” Alaskans to asylum  
Free event to be offered in-person, virtually

SHI to sponsor lecture on historical traumas experienced by Indigenous peoples (9-27-22)
Free event to be offered in-person, virtually

Trio of scholars to reveal analysis, play synthesis of Tlingit singing from first encounter with Spaniards in 18^th century  (9-23-22)
Free event to be offered in-person, virtually

SHI to sponsor lecture by Tlingit leader on recent raising of honor totem pole in Craig (9-22-22)
Free event to be offered in-person, virtually

SHI to sponsor lecture on status of Lingít by Tlingit language professor  (9-19-22)
Free event to be offered in-person, virtually

SHI to sponsor lecture by former Juneau mayor, attorney general on constitutional convention  (9-16-22)
Free event to be offered in-person, virtually

Scientists discover ancient underwater fish weir in Southeast Alaska  (9-14-22)
Stone fish trap could be oldest ever found in the world

SHI to sponsor lecture on story behind clan’s use of crest  (9-8-22)
Free event to be offered in-person, virtually

Sealaska Heritage Institute to sponsor Ernestine Hayes as first speaker in fall lecture series  (9-1-22)
Free event to be offered in-person, virtually

Sealaska Heritage to sponsor fall lecture series  (8-31-22)
Free event to be offered in-person, virtually

Ketchikan educator wins SHI’S “Teacher of Distinction” award  (8-12-22)
Honor given during SHI’s 2022 Culturally Responsive Education Conference

SHI to sponsor lecture on old travel routes between Alaska, Canada (8-11-22)
Free event to be offered virtually, in-person

SHI publishes book on historic fight to protect Indian Point  (8-9-22)
Site first traditional cultural property in region to be placed on federal register

Doctoral student in Alaska Native studies wins Judson Brown Scholarship  (8-3-22)
Program honors students with academic achievement, leadership skills

SHI to kick off fifth Culturally Responsive Education Conference next week  (8-1-22)
Registration for online participation still open

Sealaska Heritage Board of Trustees announces dates for Celebration 2024 (7-21-22)
Event scheduled for June 5-8, 2024

Sealaska Heritage and city museum to host lecture on Juneau’s "Four Story Pole" (7-5-22)
Free event to be offered virtually, in-person

Sealaska Heritage publishes biography on prolific Chilkat weaver (7-5-22)
Book offers first profile of the Klukwan artist

SHI to bring Marc Brown & The Blues Crew to new arts campus plaza for July 4^th weekend (6-28-22)
Public invited to free inaugural performance at the campus, SHI to livestream

Sealaska Heritage digitizes, posts Celebration 1990
Video series shows fifth Celebration, more years to follow

SHI trustees name lead dance group for Celebration 2024  (6-23-22)
Group hails from Whitehorse, Canada

Native food contest winners announced  (6-9-22)

Sealaska Heritage announces winners of 2022 Juried Art Competition, Youth Art Exhibit  (6-8-22)

SHI to unveil winners Of Juried Art Competition, Youth Art Exhibit  (6-2-22)

Celebration 2022 to kick off next week  (6-1-22)
Event to be broadcast, streamed live

SHI to hold grand opening for Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus  (5-16-22)
Facility to officially open during Celebration in June

SHI releases Baby Raven Reads book about Celebration  (5-12-22)
Biennial event depicted from a child’s point of view

SHI digitizes, posts online treasure trove of radio recordings  (5-10-22)
Collection includes interviews with Native people dating back 37 years

SHI accepting proposals from presenters for 2022 education conference  (5-2-22)

SHI to sponsor seven summer academies for youth in 2022  (4-15-22)
Some academies open to students across the region

Sealaska Heritage to sponsor lecture on Native identity, blood quantum  (4-7-22)
Talk by SHI President Rosita Worl to be livestreamed

Fifth annual 2022 Traditional Games to kick off this weekend in Juneau  (3-20-22)
Public invited to attend, watch livestream

SHI to partner with researchers, tap artificial intelligence to document underwater caves in region  (3-2-22)
Robot, teams to seek evidence of early human occupation

2022 Traditional Games planned in Juneau, registration open  (2-1-22)
Games to be livestreamed

SHI announces winner of Celebration 2022 art contest  (12-28-21)
Three other entries also chosen to visually represent programs 

Pair donates rare copper plates made by Edward Curtis to SHI  (12-21-21)
Plates feature portraits of Alaska Native people, culture from the early 1900s

SHI secures funding to launch Totem Pole Trail  (12-20-21)
Project part of vision to make Juneau the Northwest Coast capital of the world

Application period for Indigenous fashion show now open  (12-17-21)
Event to be held in conjunction with Celebration 2022

SHI trustees support petition to recognize tribes (12-16-21)

SHI accepting applications for college, voc-tech Sealaska scholarships  (12-15-21)
Institute offering cash incentive to early birds

SHI to sponsor lecture on tribes’ attempt to disqualify Native corps from CARES Act funding  (11-24-21)
Free event to be offered virtually on Nov. 30

SHI to sponsor lecture on 200 years of infectious diseases, colonialism in Sitka  (11-22-21)
Free event to be offered virtually on Nov. 24

SHI to sponsor lecture on mystery Native girl who toured nation, met Harriet Tubman  (11-19-21)
Free event to be offered virtually, in-person on Nov. 23

SHI to sponsor lecture on Raven as a literary symbol  (11-18-21)
Free event to be offered virtually, in-person on Nov. 22

SHI to sponsor lecture on civil rights icon Elizabeth Peratrovich  (11-16-21)
Free event to be offered virtually, in-person on Nov. 19

SHI to sponsor lecture about the late Tlingit leader William L. Paul, Sr.  (11-12-21)
Free event to be offered virtually, in-person on Nov. 16

SHI accepting applications for dance groups, associated events for Celebration 2022  (11-9-21)
Event to mark 40^th anniversary of the festival

SHI to sponsor lecture on the literary history of the ANB, ANS  (11-5-21)
Free event to be offered virtually on Nov. 10

SHI to sponsor lecture on Tlingit, Russian battles  (11-4-21)
Free event to be offered virtually on Nov. 8

SHI to sponsor lecture on the history of Alaska Native education  (11-2-21)
Free event to be offered in-person, virtually

SHI to sponsor lecture on Tlingit interactions with Europeans, Americans in the 18^th century  (10-28-21)
Free event to be offered in-person, virtually

SHI to sponsor lecture series for Native American Heritage Month  (10-25-21)
Free event to be offered in-person, virtually

Baby Raven Reads volume to be Alaska’s featured children’s book at national event  (9-13-21)
Shanyáak'utlaax̱: Salmon Boy to represent state at National Book Festival

Sealaska Heritage digitizes, posts Celebration 1988  (8-26-21)
Video series shows fourth Celebration, more years to follow

SHI receives grant to document traditional protocols for removal of grief  (8-20-21)
Institute to work with traditional scholars, clan leaders to produce book

Sealaska Heritage to hold homecoming ceremony for at.óow, at.nané  (8-10-21)
Event to be live streamed, media invited to attend

SHI to hold traditional ceremony  (8-9-21)

Anchorage educator wins SHI’s “Teacher Of Distinction” award  (8-9-21)
Honor given during SHI’s 2021 education conference

“Raven Stamp” release ceremony scheduled Friday
Public, media is invited

Juneau data, report show upward trend in scores for Alaska Native students (7-26-21)
Report links higher scores to Baby Raven Reads program

SHI releases video series on how to make traditional halibut hooks  (7-19-21)
Tutorials available for free on YouTube

Virtual education conference keynotes to include nationally-known scholars  (7-15-21)
Registration now open

Seattle man donates old spruce-root basket to Sealaska Heritage  (7-14-21)
Piece dates back more than 100 years

Sealaska Heritage digitizes, posts Celebration 1986  (7-12-21)
Video series shows third Celebration, more years to follow 

SHI to sponsor visiting scholar studying pressures on Southeast Alaska Native art market  (7-8-21)
People interested in participating encouraged to reach out

USPS to hold ceremony for release of Tlingit stamp  (7-6-21)
Raven Story stamp now available through pre-sale

Doctoral candidate in Alaska Native studies wins Judson Brown Scholarship  (7-2-21)
Program honors students with academic achievement, leadership skills

Anchorage traditional games open to be held for first time in two years  (6-16-21)
Event scheduled this weekend

Sealaska Heritage releases first children’s book entirely in Haida language  (6-10-21)
Book part of the institute’s Baby Raven Reads program

Sealaska Heritage to sponsor performing arts program  (6-4-21)
Institute recruiting for summer storytelling intensive

Memorial for Tlingit leader Albert Kookesh to be livestreamed  (6-2-21)
Ceremony slated for Friday in Angoon

Sealaska Heritage to unveil virtual version of exhibit (6-2-21)
Site to go live to the public on Friday during Gallery Walk

Sealaska Heritage digitizes, posts entire Celebration 1984 online  (5-27-21)
Video series shows second Celebration, more years to follow

SHI to hold virtual summer camps on science, technology, engineering, arts and math across region  (5-24-21)
Program open to middle school students in Southeast Alaska in six communities

SHI to hold first-ever contest for Celebration 2022 design  (5-11-21)
2022 to mark 40^th anniversary of event

SHI accepting proposals from presenters for 2021 education conference  (5-5-21)

2021 Traditional Games to stream live in Juneau, Ketchikan games rescheduled  (5-4-21)

SHI receives grant to digitize treasure trove of recordings  (4-30-21)
Collection donated to SHI by KTOO in 2010

SHI ostpones 2021 Traditional Games in Ketchikan due to COVID-19  (4-28-21)

2021 Traditional Games to stream live in Ketchikan, Juneau  (4-26-21)
Nearly 40 athletes to compete in southern event this weekend

Sealaska Heritage sets dates for next Celebration  (4-22-21)
Theme to be “Celebration 2022: Celebrating 10,000 Years of Cultural Survival”

SHI to sponsor fourth cultural education conference  (4-6-21)
Program to be offered virtually

SHI to sponsor lecture on how conservation efforts displace Indigenous people  (3-29-21) 
Free event to be offered virtually

SHI to offer workshop to support performance in Tlingit language  (3-26-21)
SHI to offer training for Indigenous performers next month

SHI to sponsor lecture on how sea otters, people impact subsistence foods  (3-26-21) 
Free event to be offered virtually

Sealaska Heritage, Perseverance Theatre to produce first-ever Tlingit opera  (3-24-21)
SHI to offer training for Indigenous performers next month

SHI to sponsor lecture on state, federal regulations of subsistence  (3-19-21) 
Free event to be offered virtually

SHI to sponsor lecture on traditional salmon fishing on Kuskokwim river  (3-17-21) 
Free event to be offered virtually

Firm donates $15,000 to the Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus  (3-12-21)

SHI to mail second set of 1,300 learning kits to 6 communities in Southeast Alaska  (3-11-21) 
Materials part of its STEAM program

SHI to sponsor lecture on tribal sovereignty during a pandemic  (3-11-21) 
Free event to be offered virtually

SHI to sponsor lecture on subsistence sharing in Alaska  (3-8-21) 
Free event to be offered virtually

SHI to sponsor lecture on Tlingit knowledge of ice-flow seal hunting  (3-4-21) 
Free event to be offered virtually

Sealaska Heritage, Rizal family settle lawsuit against several defendants  (3-3-21)

SHI to sponsor lecture on the history of herring fishery development in Southeast Alaska (3-1-21)
Free event to be offered virtually

SHI to sponsor screening of new film on Alaska's herring fishery  (2-26-21)
Free event to be offered virtually

Foundation donates Chilkat robe to Sealaska Heritage   (2-23-21)
Exquisite piece to be made available for study

SHI to sponsor lecture series on Alaska Native subsistence  (2-23-21)
Free events to be offered virtually

SHI to sponsor lecture on historical interactions among Haida, Tlingit and Tsimshian societies  (2-8-21)
Free event to be offered virtually

SHI to sponsor lecture on the origins of the X̱aad Kíl (Haida) language  (2-5-21)
Free event to be offered virtually

Sealaska Heritage digitizes, posts entire Celebration 1982 online (2-4-21)
Video series shows first Celebration, more years to follow

SHI to sponsor lecture on the ancestry of the Tsimshianic language family  (2-1-21)
Free event to be offered virtually

SHI to sponsor lecture on the Dene Languages and the Place of Tlingit in Na-Dene  (1-28-21)
Free event to be offered virtually

SHI to sponsor lecture on the Dene languages  (1-25-21)
Free event to be offered virtually

SHI to sponsor lecture on historical significance of alpine cairns in Southeast Alaska  (1-22-21)
Free event to be offered virtually

SHI cancels tentatively scheduled Celebration 2021  (1-20-21)
Trustees to meet later to weigh options for Celebration 2022

SHI to sponsor lecture on the evolution of Northwest Coast art   (1-14-21)
Free event to be offered virtually

SHI to sponsor lecture on rapidly growing field of paleogenomics  (1-11-21)
Free event to be offered virtually

SHI expands cultural training for educators to five communities in Southeast Alaska  (1-8-21)
Program aims to promote cross-cultural understanding, cultural education

SHI to sponsor lecture on Ice Age migration and settlement in Southeast Alaska  (1-8-21)
Free event to be offered virtually

SHI to sponsor lecture series on earliest presence of Indigenous populations in region  
Free events to be offered virtually

SHI offering cultural training for teachers, support staff, admins   (1-5-21)
Program aims to promote cross-cultural understanding, cultural education

SHI publishes original Raven story written by children, language books  (12-22-20)
New series part of the institute’s Baby Raven Reads program

SHI accepting applications for college, voc-tech Sealaska scholarships  (12-16-20)
Institute offering cash incentive to early birds

Artists studying old spruce-root hat discover lost weaving technique  (12-15-20)
Find made by mentor and apprentice through SHI’s spruce-root weaving program

Sealaska Heritage sends 1,300 learning kits to six communities  (12-9-20)
Materials part of its STEAM program

Sealaska Heritage to unveil first virtual 3-D exhibit  (12-2-20)
Site to go live during Gallery Walk

Sealaska Heritage to sponsor lecture on Indigenous human rights  (11-25-20)
Free virtual event part of Native American Heritage Month celebration

SHI releases video series on how to prepare materials for Chilkat, Ravenstail weaving  (11-24-20)
Institute hopes to spark cottage industry with free tutorials

SHI to sponsor lecture on racial crises and equity  (11-20-20)
Free virtual event part of Native American Heritage Month celebration

Tlingit artist chosen to create stamp for U.S. Postal Service  (11-19-20)
SHI to hold unveiling ceremony in 2021

SHI to sponsor lecture on what it means to be Native  (11-18-20)
Free virtual event part of Native American Heritage Month celebration

SHI to sponsor lecture on blood quantum rules for tribal membership  (11-17-20)
Free virtual event part of Native American Heritage Month celebration

SHI to sponsor lecture on federal Indian law in the Lower 48  (11-16-20)
Free virtual event part of Native American Heritage Month celebration

SHI to sponsor lecture on tribal governments, sovereignty  (11-10-20)
Free virtual event part of Native American Heritage Month celebration

SHI to sponsor lecture on sustainable development in Indigenous Southeast Alaska  (11-9-20)
Free virtual event part of Native American Heritage Month celebration

SHI to sponsor lecture on tribes’ constitutional relationships with Congress  (11-6-20)
Free virtual event part of Native American Heritage Month celebration

Virtual memorial ceremony scheduled for David Katzeek  (11-3-20)
YouTube event to be streamed live, open to the public

Murdock trust pledges $400 thousand toward arts campus  (10-28-20)
Gift contingent on SHI reaching fundraising goal

SHI to sponsor lectures, event for Native American Heritage Month  (10-22-20)
Free events to be offered virtually

SHI and HIA epigenetics research collaboration continues; community discussion postponed due to covid-19 pandemic  (10-15-20)

Washington man donates old Frog button blanket to Sealaska Heritage  (10-8-20)
Piece thought to date to the late 1800s

SHI’s Baby Raven Reads program receives award for excellence in early childhood literacy  (10-8-20)
Sealaska Heritage one of five given 2020 Contributions to Literacy in Alaska award

SHI receives grant to expand Baby Raven Reads program to five additional communities  (10-1-20)
Award-winning program to expand to Kake, Klukwan, Haines, Metlakatla and Ketchikan

SHI to sponsor lecture series focused on Northwest Coast art  (9-28-20)

SHI to sponsor lecture on crafting social justice change through writing  (9-22-20)
Talk last of a series focused on educational inequities, injustices

SHI to sponsor lecture on culturally-responsive curriculum  (9-17-20)
Talk part of series focused on educational inequities, injustices

SHI to sponsor lecture on the history of Alaska Native education  (9-10-20)
Talk part of series that will focus on educational inequities, injustices

SHI to sponsor lecture on the history and healing of Douglas, Alaska  (9-8-20)
Talk part of series that will focus on educational inequities, injustices

SHI wins federal grant to process, make available archives from Dauenhauer estate  (8-31-20)
Part of collection to be digitized, posted online

SHI to sponsor lecture series for community on culturally-responsive education  (8-28-20)
Series to focus on educational inequities, injustices

Angoon family donates vast photo collection spanning 75 years to Sealaska Heritage  (8-24-20)
Gift thought to be largest collection of photos made by a Tlingit

SHI recruits 18 scholars for Native language program  (8-19-20)
Initiative to offer full scholarship to UAS for Native language students

SHI offering cultural training for teachers, support staff, admins  (8-17-20)
Program aims to promote cross-cultural understanding, cultural education

Sealaska Heritage begins construction of arts campus  (8-5-20)
Project part of vision to make Juneau the Northwest Coast arts capital

SHI, UAS debut new associate degree program with Northwest Coast arts emphasis  (7-28-20)
Program part of effort to establish four-year arts degree

SHI’s first ever virtual education conference to offer nearly 40 breakout sessions, distinguished keynotes speakers  (7-27-20)
Registration now open

Sealaska Heritage’s library grows with donation of Northwest Coast art books  (7-21-20)
Collection gifted to SHI by Washington state resident

SHI acquires important collection of books, research materials  (7-2-20)
Collection includes entire research library of retired academic

Virtual education conference keynotes to include big names in education  (7-1-20)
Registration now open

Weaver donates Chilkat mask to Sealaska Heritage  (6-26-20)
Piece to be part of institute’s permanent collection

Two graduate students chosen for Judson Brown Scholarship awards  (6-18-20)
Program honors students with academic achievement, leadership skills

Retiring Juneau assemblyman given Award for Public Service  (6-13-20)
Honor given during SHI’s virtual Celebration 2020

Longtime Tlingit educator wins Teacher of Distinction award  (6-12-20)
Honor given during SHI’s virtual Celebration 2020

Longtime Juneau photojournalist wins Person of Distinction award  (6-11-20)
Honor given during SHI’s virtual Celebration 2020

SHI unveils winners of 2020 Juried Art Competition  (6-10-20)
Show on display in online exhibit

SHI to kick off first-ever virtual Celebration this week  (6-8-20)
Broadcast to start on Wednesday on SHI’s YouTube, 360North

SHI to unveil winners of 2020 Juried Art Show and Competition  (6-8-20)
Art to be showcased in broadcast, online exhibit

Native groups push alternatives to eliminating UAS as separate entity (6-2-20)
Native leaders propose centralization, tribal college partnership

Educators, SHI honor retiring Tlingit teacher​  (5-21-20)

SHI acquires bentwood box that challenges Native blood quantum rules  (5-18-20)
Piece made by thought-provoking artist Nicholas Galanin

SHI to hold virtual summer camp on science, technology, engineering, arts and math  (5-14-20)
Program open to middle school students in Southeast Alaska

SHI accepting proposals from presenters for virtual education conference  (5-6-20)
Conference to include nationally-known keynote speakers

Photojournalist donates large collection of historical photos to SHI  (5-4-20)
Collection documents Tlingit ceremonies, ANB/ANS and other activities

Sealaska Heritage to hold virtual Celebration 2020 (4-22-20)
Institute asking participants to submit selfies, videos

Sealaska Heritage sues Neiman Marcus alleging unlawful use of term “Ravenstail,” copyright infringement  (4-20-20)
Institute seeks injunction, compensation for damages

Sealaska Heritage to offer first virtual art class  (4-15-20)
Pilot program expected to be the new normal

SHI extends Sealaska scholarship deadline due to coronavirus  (3-30-20) 

SHI Board of Trustees moves to postpone Celebration 2020 (3-27-20)
SHI to explore ways to host virtual events

SHI’S archives, ethnographic collections go virtual  (3-25-20)
Institute unveils new state-of-the-art platform

SHI, UAS ink new agreement to offer Native language instruction (3-11-2020)
Initiative to offer full scholarship to UAS for language students

SHI to host panel discussion, screening of new film on the state of Alaska herring fishery  (3-9-20)
Free event open to the public, everyone welcome

SHI, UAS to offer associate degree with Northwest Coast arts emphasis  (3-2-20)
Program part of effort to establish four-year arts degree

SHI to sponsor third cultural education conference  (2-25-20) 
Conference to include nationally-known keynote speakers

2020 Traditional Games to feature TV’s “Eskimo Ninja,” athletes from Alaska, Canada  (2-24-20)
Event to welcome participants from new competing communities, colleges

SHI to sponsor lecture series focused on Northwest Coast art  (2-20-20)
Program to feature prominent artists, museum visionary

Native artists, art historian chosen as jurors for art shows (2-13-20)
Shows to be on display during Celebration 2020

SHI to sponsor lecture on supporting language learning through schools, community  (2-7-20)
Talk is second in a series of Native language lectures

Tribal members, military hold historic meeting on bombardments (2-6-20)
Angoon, Kake, Wrangell seeking reconciliation, healing

Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus gets largest private donation to date  (2-4-20)
Campus to be public space for perpetuating, experiencing Alaska Native art

New species discovered in Southeast Alaska given Tlingit name  (2-4-20)
Designation thought to be first time Tlingit name given to a fossil

SHI to sponsor lecture on Hawaiian approach to language revitalization  (1-30-20)
Talk is third in a series of Native language lectures

SHI releases new language podcast, Roots & Stems  (1-29-20)
Podcast to focus on language revitalization

Baby Raven Reads book wins American Indian Library Association award  (1-27-20)
National awards honor “best of the best” in youth literature

SHI to sponsor lecture on best practices, insights on Indigenous language revitalization  (1-24-20)
Talk is second in a series of Native language lectures

Sealaska Heritage to expand cultural education program (1-21-20)
Program for the first time to focus on primary schools

Traditional games athlete named champion for kids  (1-14-20)
State awards ceremony scheduled next week

SHI to sponsor first language lecture of a series on Wednesday  (1-13-20)
Program to feature scholars, professionals working in the field

SHI to sponsor lecture series focused on revitalization efforts  (1-8-20)
Program to feature scholars, professionals working in the field

SHI offering cultural training for teachers, support staff, admins  (12-19-19)
Program aims to promote cross-cultural understanding, cultural education

SHI offering new language scholarship program (12-11-19)
Program held in partnership with the University of Alaska Southeast

SHI to accept applications for college, voc-tech Sealaska scholarships  (12-11-19)
Institute offering cash incentive to early birds

Scholarship period opens for art, museum studies  (12-9-19)
Preference given to students enrolled at UAS, IAIA

SHI to unveil new exhibit on Tlingit war and peace  (11-27-19)
Exhibit to open during Gallery Walk, everyone welcome

SHI to release first trilingual book, volumes on colors  (11-26-19) 
Institute to unveil three new books during Gallery Walk​

SHI to sponsor weaver, apprentice, as artists-in-residence  (11-22-19)
Team to work on rare transition tunic, an endangered art practice

SHI to sponsor lecture on herring egg distribution in Alaska  (11-22-19)
Event free, open to the public

New study shows social, cultural, ecological benefits of herring subsistence economy are at risk  (11-19-19)
Study calls on state to reform management of Sitka Sound roe fishery

SHI to sponsor lecture on case that revolutionized education system in rural Alaska  (11-18-19)
Event free, open to the public

SHI to sponsor lecture on inclusion of Southeast Alaska in Native land claims  (11-15-19)
Event free, open to the public

SHI to sponsor lecture on Juneau Indian Village, protecting aboriginal rights, Native identity  (11-14-19)
Event free, open to the public

SHI to sponsor Tsimshian David R. Boxley as artist-in-residence  (11-14-19)
Award-winning artist, Northwest Coast art teacher to carve piece

SHI to sponsor event, recollections of Dr. Walter Soboleff  (11-7-19)
Event free, open to the public

SHI to sponsor lecture on Alaska’s father of Native land claims, William L. Paul, Sr., other activists  (11-8-19)
Event free, open to the public

SHI to sponsor lecture on Tlingit legal battle to keep slaves  (11-7-19)
Event free, open to the public

SHI to sponsor lecture on Metlakatla reservation’s thriving salmon economy  (10-31-19)
Event free, open to the public

SHI to sponsor lecture on Tee-Hit-Ton decision, miscarriage of justice  (10-31-19)
Event free, open to the public

SHI to sponsor lecture on pivotal lawsuit that affected Tlingit and Haida, land claims  (10-28-19)
Event free, open to the public

SHI accepting applications for Juried Youth Art Exhibit, Native Artist Market  (10-23-19)
Events to be held during Celebration 2020

SHI to sponsor lectures, events for Native American Heritage Month  (10-21-19)
Events free, open to the public

SHI to sponsor free lecture on George Davidson and the Kohklux maps   (10-17-19)

SHI to open doors to all second-grade JSD students for fifth annual arts excursion  (10-10-19)
Program part of partnership with Any Given Child Juneau, local group initiative

SHI accepting applications For Juried Art Show and Competition, Indigenous Fashion Show  (10-4-19)
Events to be held during Celebration 2020

SHI to sponsor celebration of national civil rights hero Elizabeth Peratrovich  (10-4-19)
Free, public event to be held in recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day

SHI, HIA begin second phase of epigenetics study in Hoonah (9-24-19)

SHI launches campaign to build arts campus, receives $5.6 million grant  (9-18-19)
Campus to be public space for perpetuating, experiencing Alaska Native art

SHI to offer free lecture on practical, scientific use of photogrammetry  (9-6-19)
Lecture to focus on its use in cultural heritage

Sealaska Heritage to sponsor artists-in-residence from Savoonga  (8-21-19)
Couple to perform dances on Wednesday, public invited

SHI to sponsor visiting scholar studying effect of subsistence diets on oral health  (8-19-19)

Sealaska Heritage’s Walter Soboleff Building wins LEED Gold certification  (7-30-19)
Rating is second highest level attainable under national green program

SHI to sponsor lecture on Tlingit relationships with sea otters  (7-26-19)
Community event is free, open to the public

SHI to sponsor lectures on historical trauma (7-18-19)
Community event is free, open to the public

SHI to sponsor lecture on early work of Tlingit artist Nathan Jackson  (7-3-19)
Community event is free, open to the public

SHI to sponsor lecture the American Flag in ANB Halls before 1960  (6-19-19)
Community event is free, open to the public

SHI to sponsor genetics study on how historical trauma may have altered DNA of Native people  (6-12-19)
Research to focus on Hoonah residents and Hoonah people living in Juneau

Ph.D. candidate, Tlingit language teacher receives language scholarship  (6-7-19)

SHI acquires Raven hat made by master Tlingit artist (6-6-19)
Hat to be unveiled to the public this week during First Friday

Artist-in-residence, apprentice to give presentation on Chilkat weaving (5-27-19)
Event free and open to the public

Masters student, social justice advocate chosen for Judson Brown scholarship  (5-21-19)

SHI to sponsor Latseen Hoop Camp for middle, high school students  (4-3-19)

SHI to unveil new exhibit on celebrated Tlingit artist Nathan Jackson  (4-1-19)
Exhibit shows breadth of work from early days to present

All SHI 2018 Baby Raven Reads books chosen for annual best-of-the-year list  (3-28-19)
Honor given by nationally-known literacy group

SHI to sponsor Math And Culture Academy for students region wide  (3-20-19)
Institute accepting applications through April 19

SHI to sponsor performing arts program  (3-18-19)
Institute recruiting for summer arts intensives in Juneau

SHI to sponsor Latseen Northwest Coast Art & Leadership Academy  (3-14-19)
Institute accepting applications from students across region through May 15

State to honor Tlingit code talkers at Gold Medal  (3-14-19)
Lieutenant Governor to present Alaska flags to family members

2019 Traditional Games to kick off this week  (3-11-19)
Event marks first time region to hold statewide indigenous sports event

Alaska Legislature passes proclamation honoring Tlingit code talkers  (3-6-19)
Men helped end World War II by using Tlingit as a code

2019 Traditional Games to draw athletes from across state, Canada  (2-12-19)
Event marks first time region to hold statewide indigenous sports event

SHI condemns Facebook ban on sale of products with animal parts, fur  (2-1-19)
Institute working with Alaska Congressional delegation to advocate for remedy

SHI releases most comprehensive book on halibut hooks ever published  (1-29-19)
Book explores indigenous genius, effectiveness of traditional fishing gear

Study finds Sealaska Heritage is $10 million force in state  (1-24-19)
Research marks first time institute’s total economic impact quantified

SHI to host children’s event, give away free Baby Raven Books  (1-22-19)
Event open to all families in Juneau with young children

Kindred Post makes donation to Sealaska Heritage  (1-18-19)
Gift part of Kindred Post’s Social Justice Hustle program

SHI to sponsor Tlingit flautist to perform at Juneau Symphony event   (1-14-19)
Second performance to be free and open to public

SHI, UAS launch new scholarships,  opportunities for aspiring teachers, administrators  (1-14-19)
Initiative to fund Native language and culture programming for PITAAS students under new MOA

SHI to donate interactive exhibit to schools in Southeast Alaska  (1-9-19)

Juneau Symphony to perform in clan house in joint fundraiser  (1-2-19)
Performance marks first time clan house will feature orchestral music

SHI to accept applications for college, voc-tech Sealaska scholarships  (12-23-18)
Institute offering cash incentive to early birds

Sealaska shareholder donates authentic fire bowl to Sealaska Heritage  (12-11-18)
Bowl dates to circa late 1800s

Sealaska Heritage releases how-to videos for endangered art practices  (12-10-18)
Project effort to perpetuate spruce-root weaving, horn carving

SHI to open doors to all second-grade JSD students for arts initiative  (11-27-18)
Program part of partnership with Kennedy Center, local groups

SHI to sponsor lecture on Indigenous knowledge of Yakutat people  (11-26-18)
Talk part of Native American Heritage Month

SHI to sponsor lecture on Raven stories (11-21-18)
Talk part of Native American Heritage Month

SHI to release new Baby Raven Reads books this week  (11-20-18)
Books to be unveiled at the Juneau Public Market, signing scheduled next month

SHI to sponsor lecture on the power of Native names  (11-19-18)
Talk part of Native American Heritage Month

Historic landmark language summit to kick off next week  (11-8-18)
Event thought to be first time remaining fluent speakers brought together in Southeast Alaska

SHI to sponsor lecture on revival of ancient sea basketry  (11-5-18)
Lecture part of Native American Heritage Month

SHI to sponsor lecture on DNA studies of Native ancestors  (11-5-18)
Talk to focus on ancient Native remains found on Prince of Wales Island in 1990s

SHI To sponsor lecture on the first cannery in Alaska  (11-1-18)
Talk to delve into how the Klawock Tlingit kept control of their salmon resources

SHI to sponsor lecture on origin, migration of Tlingit Kaagwaantaan  (10-29-18)
Lecture part of Native American Heritage Month

SHI to sponsor lectures, events for Native American Heritage Month  (10-15-18)

SHI Lauds return of Tlingit manager as head of Sitka National Park  (10-10-18)

SHI to sponsor skin-sewing workshops region wide  (9-26-18)
Classes part of institute’s sustainable arts program

SHI to sponsor lecture on ancient Alaska Native voyages to Hawaii  (9-19-18)
Lecture to explore question of whether Alaska Natives were first Polynesians

City names Front and Seward intersection Heritage Square  (9-18-18)
Resolution part of SHI’s quest to designate Northwest Coast art capital 

SHI to sponsor cultural orientation series for educators  (9-6-18)

SHI to open new exhibit featuring traditional armor  (9-5-18)
Rotating lobby display to be unveiled free of charge to public during this week’s First Friday

SHI kicks off first horn-spoon carving class in Juneau  (8-31-18)
Program effort to perpetuate endangered Northwest Coast art form

SHI acquires last Chilkat robe made by master weaver Jennie Thlunaut  (8-27-18)
Seller slashes asking price to bring acquisition to fruition

SHI planning retrospective exhibit on Nathan Jackson  (8-10-18)
Institute seeking pieces from collectors to exhibit

SHI to offer residencies, support to Alaska Native artists  (8-10-18)
Program open to students studying Alaska Native art practices

SHI to offer new scholarship program for Native arts, museum studies  (8-9-18)
Awards to be given to students enrolled at UAS and IAIA

Infrared scans, other techniques reveal details on old box drum  (8-8-18)
SHI uses infrared technology for the first time to expose old designs

​SHI to unveil exquisite bronze house posts at public ceremony  (8-2-18)
Posts to stand in front of Walter Soboleff Building

Cultural education conference to kick off next week  (7-26-18)
Conference to serve hundreds of educators across Alaska, Lower 48

Sealaska Heritage sets dates for regional Native language summit  (7-24-18)
Remaining fluent speakers, language students invited to landmark event

New program to document how to make spruce-root basketry through master weaver  (7-16-18)

Yakutat undergraduate, mental-health advocate chosen for Judson Brown scholarship  (7-2-18)

Sealaska Heritage to hold regional Native language summit  (6-28-18)
Remaining fluent speakers, language students invited to landmark event

Family donates exquisite Northwest Coast collection to Sealaska Heritage  (6-25-18)
Pieces to be made available to artists, researchers, for study

Border family separations open old wounds (6-18-18) 
US practice recalls horrific policies used to eradicate Native cultures

Seaweed, seal oil, contest winners announced  (6-7-18)

Sealaska Heritage announces winners of Juried Art Competition, Youth Art Exhibit   (6-6-18)

Celebration 2018 to kick off next week  (5-30-18)
Event to be broadcast, streamed, live

What’s New: Celebration to include new food contest, poetry gathering, regalia and designer workshops, more  (5-30-18)

SHI to unveil winners of Juried Art Competition, Juried Youth Art Exhibit  (5-30-18)

SHI to unveil pieces accepted into Juried Youth Art Exhibit next week  (5-24-18)
Competition part of Celebration 2018

SHI to unveil pieces chosen for Juried Art Show  (5-10-18)

Team to represent Juneau in Native Olympics for first time in 30 years  (4-25-18)
Games open Thursday in Anchorage

SHI’S new interactive exhibit to be unveiled next week  (4-24-18)
Exhibit explores ancient place names, Native inventions used to catch fish

SHI to sponsor math and culture academy for students across region  (4-4-18)
Institute accepting applications through May 1

SHI accepting proposals for Culturally Responsive Education Conference  (4-3-18)
Deadline to submit proposals is April 16

Couple donates basket by master weaver to SHI  (3-27-18)
Piece to be made available to students, researchers

SHI to sponsor second cultural education conference  (3-19-18)
Conference to include nationally-known keynote speakers

SHI to sponsor Latseen Northwest Coast Art & Leadership Academy  (3-14-18)
Institute accepting applications through May 15

Sitka tribe donates canoe replica to Sealaska Heritage (3-12-18)
Canoe modeled after full-size dugout completed last year

Young halibut-hook fisherman, grandfather, to accept award at Innovators Hall of Fame  (2-20-18)
Ceremony scheduled Wednesday afternoon in Juneau

Northern Northwest Coast halibut hook inducted into 2018 Alaska Innovators Hall Of Fame  (

2-16-18)

Baby Raven book wins top award from American Indian Library Association  (2-12-18)
Book singled out for illustrations by Tlingit artist

Statement on Etsy banning certain Alaska Native products  (2-7-18)

SHI acquires spruce-root hat made by master Haida weaver  (1-29-18)
Piece based on ancient hat found in melting glacier

Eminent artist, art historian, chosen as jurors for art show  (1-9-18)
Master weaver Delores Churchill to serve as juror consultant

SHI to commission replica of old fish trap stake  (1-2-18)
Stake to be carved by David A. Boxley at Burke Museum and featured in SHI’s next exhibit 

SHI, Klawock School District, sign agreement to expand art program  (12-22-17)

SHI to accept applications for college, voc-tech Sealaska scholarships  (12-13-17)
Institute offering cash incentive to early birds

SHI to release new Baby Raven book about Devil’s Club,  a sacred plant  (11-30-17)

SHI to sponsor cultural orientation series for educators  (11-29-17)

SHI, UAS, school districts, sign agreements to advance Northwest Coast art, math training  (11-28-17)
Program to be offered in Juneau, Klawock and Hoonah

SHI to transfer cultural values panels to Juneau school  (11-17-17)
Transfer ceremony planned for Nov. 22

SHI to sponsor lectures, special events, for Native American Heritage Month  (11-8-17)
Schedule includes celebration of Walter Soboleff Day

SHI to sponsor lecture on collaboration between scientists, Alaska Natives, to map, document Alaska  (11-8-17)
Event part of Native American Heritage Month

SHI to sponsor Native Youth Olympics in Juneau  (11-6-17)
Athletes to vie to compete in state championship

SHI to open doors to all second-grade JSD students for arts initiative  (11-1-17)
Program part of partnership with Kennedy Center, local groups

SHI to sponsor lecture on preeminent Jilkáat leader  (10-31-17)
Event part of Native American Heritage Month

SHI publishes new Baby Raven book for children, offers book signing  (10-30-17)
Book part of award-winning early literacy program 

SHI distributes Baby Raven books region wide  (10-27-17)
Books produced through award-winning early literacy program 

SHI expands award-winning Baby Raven program across Southeast Alaska  (10-25-17)
Program to serve 10 communities, fund publication of nine new children’s books

SHI to host museum conservation specialist to stabilize old Tlingit box drum  (10-12-17)
Infrared scans to unveil original formline design

Thank you for making SHI's Tináa Art Auction a success  (10-4-17)
Auction raises nearly $200,000 for endowment

SHI publishes new Baby Raven books for children, plans book signing  (10-2-17)
Illustrator’s original paintings for books to be on exhibit, available for sale

SHI’S Tináa Art Auction attracts internationally known artists  (9-25-17)
Event to kick off Friday, preceded by pop-up Native fashion boutique on Thursday

Sealaska Heritage to host Native fashion pop-up boutique  (9-19-17)
Boutique to showcase designers to be featured at SHI’s Tináa Art Auction

SHI’S Baby Raven Literacy program wins Library of Congress Award  (9-1-17)
Honor recognizes Baby Raven Reads as model for literacy programs

SHI publishes new Baby Raven Books for children, offers book signing  (9-1-17)
Books part of award-winning early literacy program

Homecoming for Chilkat robe scheduled this week, public invited  (8-21-17)

SHI to continue art and business workshops for Alaska Native prisoners in 2018  (8-17-17)

SHI, JAHC, KTOO, to sponsor performance by Canada’s acclaimed music group A Tribe Called Red  (8-10-17)

Seattle family gives “one-of-a-kind” Chilkat robe to SHI  (8-7-17)
Robe woven circa late 1800s-early 1900s, SHI to hold ceremony in late August

SHI releases new Tlingit games, enhances apps to include quizzes, score tracking  (7-11-17)

SHI to sponsor public roundtables with artists featured in mask exhibit  (7-5-17)
Event to include prominent Native artists from Alaska, Washington and Canada

Ph.D. candidate, Native education advocate, chosen for Judson Brown Scholarship  (6-29-17)

SHI releases Haida Baby Raven Reads books for children  (6-15-17)

Cultural education conference to kick off next week  (5-25-17)
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Lt. Governor Byron Mallott, to address attendees

SHI releases Beginning Tlingit Workbook  (5-24-17)
Volume extension of Dauenhauers’ landmark work

SHI receives grant to conserve, scan, old T’aḵdeintaan box drum  (5-2-17)
Infrared scans to unveil original formline design

SHI to sponsor spruce-root weaving mentor-apprentice program  (4-25-17)
Program part of effort to revitalize endangered art forms, establish Northwest Coast art capital

SHI, PITAAS, to sponsor free lecture, performances, by Ed Littlefield  (4-5-17)

Study reveals 10,000 years of genetic continuity in northwest North America  (4-4-17)

Education conference keynotes to include big names in education  (3-28-17)
SHI accepting proposals for breakout sessions presentations

SHI to sponsor cultural orientation series for educators (3-22-17)

SHI to host first culturally responsive education conference (3-20-17)
Free event for educators to be held June 1-3 in Juneau

Five teams chosen for Haa Shuká Language Project  (3-8-17)

SHI recruiting spruce-root weaving apprentices  (3-8-17)
Mentor-apprentice program part of effort to revitalize endangered art forms

SHI to showcase Native fashion at Tináa Art Auction (3-1-17)
Institute now accepting entries from designers

Miss Alaska USA 2017 named SHI Cultural Ambassador (2-21-17)
London to raise awareness about Southeast Alaska Native cultures on public platform

SHI to showcase Northwest Coast masterworks at second art auction (2-14-17)
Program part of effort to perpetuate Native languages, arts, education

SHI chooses three Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian artists to make posts (2-7-17)
Pieces to be cast in bronze, displayed in front of Walter Soboleff Building

Rising stars in language revitalization spearhead new language committee (1-30-17)

Native groups rally against proposed homelessness ordinance  (1-19-17)

SHI opens application period for Haa Shuká Community Language Learning Project  (1-10-17)

SHI to accept applications for college, voc-tech Sealaska scholarships  (12-12-16)
Institute offering cash incentive to early birds

SHI to release five new children’s books on creation stories, alphabet at public reception  (12-7-16)
Author, illustrators to sign copies

SHI to release six children’s books on creation stories, colors, alphabet  (11-29-16)
Illustrator to sign copies of first book on Friday

SHI to open statewide Native mask exhibit highlighting ancient, current uses  (11-28-16)

SHI, Sealaska to sponsor lectures on Tlingit, Navajo code talkers (11-18-16)
Event part of Native American Heritage Month

SHI signs landmark agreement with IAIA, UAS to advance Northwest Coast art  (11-17-16)

Lecture on armored warriors rescheduled  (11-15-16)
Lecture part of SHI’s Native American Heritage Month celebration

SHI releases first Tlingit language podcast (11-10-16)

SHI to open doors to all local second-grade students for arts initiative  (11-9-16)
Program part of partnership with Kennedy Center, local groups

SHI to sponsor veterans panel, film screening on Thursday  (11-7-16)
Event part of Native American Heritage Month

Sealaska, SHI to honor traditional warriors, Native veterans for Native American Heritage Month  (10-26-16)
Annual lecture series to kick off next week

SHI publishes book of rare photos documenting Inupiat life in early 1900s  (10-25-16)
Book compiled, edited by Inupiat photographer’s granddaughter

SHI to sponsor lecture on Yup’ik ways of dancing (10-24-16)

SHI releases new study on definition of “Alaska Native” (10-17-16)
Study focuses on eligibility of future generations of Natives to hunt marine mammals

SHI receives large grant to revitalize Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian languages (9-12-16)
SHI to establish new language committee to guide effort

Assistant professor, language advocate, chosen for Judson Brown scholarship (9-1-16)

SHI releases first Tlingit language and games apps (8-29-16)

Feds recognize Indian Point as historic place (8-16-16)

SHI to sponsor lecture on Alaska Native Identity study by visiting scholars (6-15-16)

SHI’S inaugural fashion show highlights traditional and contemporary Native art (6-11-16)

Soapberry, seaweed contest winners announced (6-10-16)

SHI announces winners of Juried Art Competition, Youth Art Exhibit (6-7-16)

Celebration 2016 to kick off next week (5-31-16)

What’s new: Celebration to include fashion show, youth art exhibit, & more (5-31-16)
New Walter Soboleff Building to host some events

SHI to unveil winners of juried art competition, youth art exhibit and to feature exemplary pieces (5-31-16)

SHI to host internationally-known Irish dance group at Celebration (5-31-16)
Effort part of institute’s cross-cultural understanding outreach

SHI releases Baby Raven Reads books for children (5-23-16)
Books mark first three of eighteen volumes for literacy program

SHI to receive national arts grant for art training (5-9-16)
Award slated to fund workshops for inmates, low-income residents

Visiting scholars seek paid participants for a study at SHI on Alaska Native identity (4-19-16)
Study scheduled for May and June in Juneau

Legacy to continue in partnership (4-8-16)
ANAF to gift assets to Sealaska Heritage Institute

SHI to sponsor lecture on indigenous intellectual property rights  (4-6-16)
Lecture is second of two by SHI Visiting Scholar Jacob Adams

SHI to sponsor lecture on injustices, inequities in Native education (3-14-16)

SHI to sponsor Native Fashion Show during Celebration (2-22-16)

SHI to sponsor lecture on indigenous intellectual property rights (2-22-16)

SHI, PITAAS, to sponsor free performance by Byron Nicholai  (2-9-16)

Dugout canoe project to kick off in Sitka  (2-8-16)
Project aims to document, perpetuate, endangered practice of canoe making

Sealaska Heritage accepting applications for new Juried Art Youth Exhibit (2-4-16)
Awards will be used to purchase art supplies for schools

Renowned physician, researcher, to speak on far-reaching effects of childhood trauma  (2-1-16)

SHI welcomes visiting scholar from Norway (1-19-16)
Research to focus on indigenous intellectual property rights

SHI, state library, to sponsor lecture on de Laguna (12-30-15)

SHI accepting applications for college, voc-tech Sealaska scholarships (12-23-15)
Institute offering cash incentive to early birds

SHI to hold homecoming ceremony for sacred Chilkat robe (11-25-15)
Public invited to attend

SHI accepting applications for revamped Juried Art Show, Competition (11-19-15)
SHI also to sponsor exhibit of youth art

SHI acquires sacred Chilkat robe on ebay (11-18-15)
Seller takes loss to send robe home

SHI joins forces with Any Given Child, local groups, in arts initiative (11-16-15)
Elementary students to make annual arts excursion to Walter Soboleff Building

SHI to sponsor workshop on art and math (11-12-15)
Educators in Juneau, Hoonah, Angoon and Hydaburg eligible to apply

Sealaska, SHI to sponsor retrospective for Dr. Walter Soboleff Day (11-10-15)
SHI seeking copies of letters penned by Soboleff

SHI to co-sponsor art, Tsimshian classes (10-26-15)

SHI to sponsor lectures, discussions for Native American Heritage Month, Walter Soboleff Day (10-26-15)

Federal investigators find in favor of complaint filed by SHI (10-20-15)
East Coast school subject to repatriation law

SHI's work featured in 50 humanities projects that have shaped the country (9-29-15)

Brothers donate significant writings, photos to SHI archives (9-3-15)
Donation includes letters written by archives' namesake

SHI to sponsor formline design classes at prison with master artist (8-21-15)
Teacher to lead Tsimshian immersion classes in the evenings

SHI to sponsor two lectures in August (8-3-15)

SHI releases formline design curriculum and art kit, shares with schools (7-27-15)

New traveling exhibition on Native concepts of health and illness opens (7-8-15)

SHI to sponsor annual Latseen Hoop Camp (7-6-15)
Camp to feature Hoop Time AAU Coach Bob Saviers

SHI petitions feds to investigate sale of Native objects by East Coast school (6-26-15)

SHI to sponsor lecture on Native place names that feature cedar (6-22-15)

SHI to sponsor lecture on repatriation of headdress by visiting scholar (6-17-15)

Hoonah student chosen for Judson Brown scholarship (6-11-15)

Grand opening of Walter Soboleff Building to kick off this week (5-11-15)
Event to be broadcast, streamed online live

SHI to sponsor math and culture academy (4-14-15)
Institute accepting applications through April 30

SHI to sponsor family night for Baby Raven Reads (4-2-15)

SHI to sponsor Latseen Leadership Academy (3-31-15)

SHI chooses apprentices to help make, install monumental glass piece (2-26-15)

SHI to partner with Department of Interior on move to new building (2-24-15)
Move to begin this week

SHI to sponsor first family night for Baby Raven Reads (2-18-15)

SHI launches program to teach literacy skills through the arts (1-21-15)

SHI accepting applications for college, voc-tech scholarships (1-6-15)

SHI to sponsor lectures for Native American Heritage Month (10-30-14)

Archives facility to be named for Tlingit hero William L. Paul, Sr. (10-15-14)

Totems to be raised at Gajaa Hit in Juneau (9-22-14)
Community invited to attend

New cultural building to showcase dramatic masterpieces by Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian artists (9-15-14)

SHI to sponsor lecture on climate change, effect on Native cultures (9-10-14)

Foundation buys sacred object at Paris auction, donates to SHI (9-2-14)
Staff stunned by turn of events

Congressman Young continues to seek resolution for traditional Alaska Native artwork containing bird parts (7-23-14)
Young bill would recognize subsistence needs and allow sale of handicrafts

SHI to sponsor annual Latseen Hoop Camp (7-14-14)

Winners of Juried Art Competition announced (6-11-14)

Sealaska Heritage Institute releases children's book (6-9-14)
Author to do book signing, storytelling during Celebration

Celebration to kick off next week (6-5-14)

SHI to unveil pieces accepted for Juried Art Show (6-4-14)
Awards to be announced next week

SHI hires new art director (4-19-14)

SHI seeking teachers, artists for Jinéit Art Academy (4-14-14)
Teams to create formline teaching kits for schools

SHI to sponsor Latseen Leadership Academy (4-7-14)
Institute accepting applications through May 16

SHI to sponsor lecture on new research on ancient herring populations (3-31-14)

SHI extends deadline for Juried Art Show and Competition (3-5-14)

SHI accepting applications for juried art competition (2-19-14)
New category for 2D formline design added

SHI chooses mentor-apprentice teams to revitalize Tlingit language (1-21-14)
Institute to train teams in Juneau this week

SHI to sponsor skin-sewing workshops in five communities (1-14-14)

SHI accepting applications for college, voc-tech scholarships (12-31-13)
Institute offering cash incentive to early birds

SHI to sponsor workshop on formline in Anchorage (12-19-13)
Workshop result of demand from Anchorage shareholders

SHI's first art auction attracts huge names in Northwest Coast art (12-17-13)
Tickets, table sponsorships now available for event

SHI to sponsor lectures for Native American Heritage Month (10-29-13)
November series will focus on spirituality

Doyon makes award for Walter Soboleff Center (10-26-13)

SHI awarded $454,828 grant toward revitalizing the Tlingit language (9-12-13)

Collector buys, donates old Haida hat to SHI (9-2-13)

SHI chooses artists to carve totem poles, screen (8-26-13)

SHI to hold public viewing at Santa Fe Indian Market (8-6-13)
Alaska Native ethnographic collection to be displayed, explained

SHI to break ground on the Walter Soboleff Center Thursday (7-31-13)

National cruise foundation makes award for Soboleff center (7-29-13)

SHI awarded grants to commission new totem poles, screen in Juneau (7-24-13)
Institute accepting proposals from Native artists

SHI to break ground on Walter Soboleff Center (7-17-13)

SHI hires general contractor to build Walter Soboleff Center (7-1-13)
Project to break ground in July

Cruise Industry Charitable Foundation grants SHI $75,000 for Walter Soboleff Center (6-13-13)

SHI to sponsor math and cuture academy (6-12-13)
Students will learn math through Native art

SHI to showcase Northwest Coast masterpieces at first art auction (5-28-13)
Program effort to make Juneau center for Northwest Coast art

Artplace makes award to fund Walter Soboleff Center, art (5-20-13)

Individuals, club make significant donations to center (5-7-13)

SHI to sponsor Native artist market (4-29-13)
Tables available for reservation now

SHI to sponsor Latseen Leadership Academy (4-8-13)
Institute accepting applications through May 3

Murdock makes award to fund Walter Soboleff Center (4-2-13)

SHI to sponsor skin-sewing workshops (3-1-13)
First class scheduled next week

Rasmuson awards grant for media equipment to SHI (2-25-13)

SHI a finalist for extremely competitive ArtPlace grant (1-17-13)

SHI to hold formline workshops regionwide (1-8-13)

SHI accepting applications for college, voc-tech scholarships (1-7-13)
Institute offering cash incentive to early birds

Eagle totem to be raised at University of Alaska Southeast (04-12-10)
Eagle to balance Raven totem

Artists chosen to carve Eagle totem pole for Sealaska Heritage Institute, UAS (5-6-09)
 

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News Stories About Sealaska Heritage

Groundbreaking Tlingit School Program expands to eighth grade
KINY
A groundbreaking Tlingit elementary school program established by Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) and the Juneau School District (JSD) in 2000 is expanding to eighth grade, welcoming a full-time, interim principal and growing its Lingít language instruction...(more) (2-4-23)

Chilkat robes come to life in ceremony
The pieces were created by dozens of student weavers over the past two year
By Clarise Larson
Juneau Empire
The sound of dozens of small shoes tapping the ground in rhythm to Tlingit songs filled the Sealaska Heritage Institute’s clan house as young students from the Tlingit Culture Language and Literacy program at Harborview Elementary School performed a Chilkat dancing-of-the-robes ceremony that has been over two years in the making...(more) (2-1-23)

First 10 of 30 totem poles of Kootéeyaa Deiyí to be raised
The Alaska 100
The Sealaska Heritage Institute is holding a ceremony on April 22 to mark the raising of the first 10 of 30 totem poles of the Kootéeyaa Deiyí (Totem Pole Trail) along Juneau’s waterfront. The totem poles will serve as an entry point from the waterfront to Heritage Square, with corresponding story boards of information related to the totem, including the clan and crests...(more) (1-31-23)

Chilkat weavers who learned online during the pandemic see their robes come to life
By Yvonne Krumrey
KTOO
There are about a dozen Chilkat weavers in Juneau this week. They’re meeting at a makeshift workshop set up at Generations Southeast Community Learning Center and weaving five or more hours a day, trying to finish up intricate, child-sized robes that will be worn by local children while they dance a ceremonial dance. The weavers are apprentices of Lily Hope. During the pandemic, she offered classes virtually, so students outside of Southeast Alaska could learn from her...(more) (1-31-23)

Sealaska Heritage Institute sets date for Totem Pole Trail, Faces of Alaska ceremony
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will hold a ceremony in April to celebrate the raising of ten totem poles along the Juneau waterfront and the installation of bronze masks on the SHI arts campus honoring the five major Native groups of Alaska...(more) (1-25-23)

Traditional Games return to Juneau for its 6th year-registration now open
By Jasz Garrett
KINY
The weekend event is scheduled from April 1-2 at Thunder Mountain High School. The games will include teams competing in 10 events over two days and be live streamed on Sealaska Heritage Institute’s YouTube and a website set up for the games. The day generally runs from 9 am to 5 pm each day. Admission is free...(more) (1-19-23)

Traditional Games are returning to Juneau
Registration is now open and games will be livestreamed
By Jonson Kuhn
Juneau Empire
When Kyle Worl first moved to Juneau in 2017, he said it was to be a part of the cultural community. Since then, he’s helped that community grow, by growing the presence of the Traditional Games, (also known as Native Youth Olympics) throughout Southeast Alaska...(more) (1-18-23)

Sealaska celebrtes history and survival through film
Indian Country Today
A new film from the Sealaska Heritage Institute looks at the history and origin of Celebration since its inception in 1982. “40 Years of Celebration — A Biennial Festival of Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian Cultures,” looks at history and survival. Sarah Betcher is the filmmaker...(more) (1-5-23)

Sealaska Heritage releases hour-long film highlighting 40 years of Celebration
Wrangell Sentinel
Sealaska Heritage Institute has released an hour-long film on the history and origin of Celebration since the first gathering in 1982. The film, titled “40 Years of Celebration - A Biennial Festival of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian Cultures,” begins with the first Celebration when Native people came together in Juneau to celebrate their cultures. The film shows the growth of the event over the years…(more) (1-4-23)

Rising tide of ocean research at Mount Royal University
By Peter Glenn
Education News Canada
It's a 674-kilometre journey to the nearest stretch of sea, but Mount Royal University is riding a wave of ocean-related research. From discovering an ancient fish weir off the coast of Alaska, to examining supercontinents and their impacts on ocean chemistry, climate extremes and complex life on land, to climate change's effects on ocean species habitats, MRU faculty are exploring the secrets of the deep...(more) (12-23-22)

SHI releases feature-length film on the origin of Celebration
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has released a feature-length film on the history and origin of Celebration since its 1982 inception. The film, titled 40 Years of Celebration - A Biennial Festival of Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian Cultures, begins with the first Celebration when Tlingit Haida and Tsimshian people came together for the first time to celebrate their cultures that survived...(more) (12-22-22)

SHI expands support for Native Language Study and instruction at UAS
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will fund University of Alaska (UAS) students interested in taking courses in X̱aad Kíl, Sm'algyax and Lingít through a new initiative, Our Ancestor’s Echoes. Through the program, SHI will also fund language teachers at UAS to provide free, non-credited language classes...(more) (12-21-22)

Yakutat Tribe, Sealaska Heritage Institute and Sealaska Corporation urging cessation of logging of historic site
Area is ancient homeland of the Kwaashk’iḵwáan clan
Indian Country Today

Southeast Alaska tribal groups seek logging stopped at historic site
By Angela Denning
Coast Alaska
Controversy over a logging project near Yakutat in Southeast Alaska has intensified. The local tribe, an archaeologist and others say a site that’s being logged is home to centuries-old ruins that could provide clues into the history of Southeast Alaska’s Indigenous people...(more) (KTOO) (KCAW) (12-16-22)

Yakutat Tribe, SHI and Sealaska Urging Cessation of Logging of Historic Site
By Michelle Meyer
Alaska Native News
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI), Sealaska Corporation and the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe are calling on Yakutat’s Native village corporation to stop logging an area that is a known and important cultural and historic site, until an assessment can be conducted and mitigation plans put in place...(more) (12-16-22)

Rising tide of ocean research at Mount Royal University
By Peter Glenn
Mount Royal University
It’s a 674-kilometre journey to the nearest stretch of sea, but Mount Royal University is riding a wave of ocean-related research. From discovering an ancient fish weir off the coast of Alaska, to examining supercontinents and their impacts on ocean chemistry, climate extremes and complex life on land, to climate change’s effects on ocean species habitats, MRU faculty are exploring the secrets of the deep...(more) (12-13-22)

Yakutat Tribe, Sealaska urges cessation of logging of historic site
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI), Sealaska Corporation and the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe are calling on Yakutat’s Native village corporation to stop logging an area that is a known and important cultural and historic site, until an assessment can be conducted and mitigation plans put in place...(more) (12-15-22)

SHI to sponsor lecture by archaeologist on discovery of ancient stone fish weir
KINY
SHI will sponsor a lecture on Tuesday to dive more deeply into the discovery of an ancient, submerged stone weir, which was found near Prince of Wales Island this year. The free event will be held in person and virtually at 12 p.m., Tuesday, December 13th in Shuka Hit within SHI's Walter Soboleff Building, 105 S. Seward St. in Juneau...(more) (12-8-22)

Sealaska Heritage digitizes, posts Celebration 1994
Video series shows seventh Celebration, more years to follow
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has digitized and posted online video of Celebration 1994. Celebration is a dance-and-culture festival first held by Sealaska Heritage Institute in 1982 that has grown into the world’s largest gathering of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people…(more) (12-8-22)

Sealaska Heritage Institute to sponsor lecture on Native Leaders Hall of Fame
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute will sponsor a free lecture next week on the activism of Native leaders during the United States occupation of the ancient homeland of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian of Southeast Alaska. In the talk, longtime Tlingit leader Ed Thomas will explore their successes in securing the human rights Native people enjoy today...(more) (11-30-22)

Panel makes amends on controversial closure of church 60 years later
Walter Soboleff was the first Alaska Native ordained minister at a Juneau church that unexpectedly closed in 1962
By Ariane Aramburo and Mike Nederbrock
KTUU
The audience was small, but the testimony was mighty inside the Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff building in downtown Juneau. The discussion held on Nov. 14 was centered around the efforts to heal an old wound from 60 years ago; the closing of a church led by Tlingit spiritual leader, Walter Soboleff. “There’s so many things we can say about Dr. Soboleff,” Lillian Petershoare, co-leader of the Overture Subcommittee, said in a recent interview. “He gave so much to this community and was so well-respected within the Native community and within the non-Native community”...(more) (11-29-22)

IAIA Partners with Sealaska Heritage Institute for Museum Internship
Institute of American Indian Arts
“The contemporary Native experience is broad and includes Indigenous people from all over the world,” says Kimberly Fulton Orozco (Haida), who undertook an internship at the Institute of American Indian Arts’ museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, this summer. This opportunity was facilitated by Sealaska Heritage, an Indigenous nonprofit organization based in Juneau, Alaska, that promotes cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through public service and events. Sealaska Heritage Institute provides educational opportunities to Indigenous students, including internships and scholarships. Fulton Orozco, a bright and dedicated artist, student, and mother, has benefited from both...(more) (11-28-22)

Raising Indigenous Art and Stories in Alaska’s Capital
Mellon Foundation
Master carvers are working with the Sealaska Heritage Institute to create the Totem Pole Trail—ten sculptures celebrating Indigenous tribes who had been historically excluded from Juneau's monuments.  In a sense, a controversial statue of William Seward kickstarted Kootéeya Deiyí, the Totem Pole Trail in Juneau, Alaska...(more) (11-18-2)

On Walter Soboleff Day, panel reflects on church’s closure and the path forward
By Yvonne Krumrey
KTOO
Monday was Walter Soboleff Day in Alaska. Soboleff, who lived to be 102, was a longtime advocate for Lingít people through his religious ministries and work to support Juneau’s youth. In honor of the day, Sealaska Heritage Institute hosted a panel discussion about the closure of the Memorial Presbyterian Church in Juneau, which Soboleff ran at the time...(more) (11-16-22)

Walter Soboleff Day marked with pledge of action
Church leaders share details about planned apology for church closure
By Clarise Larson
Juneau Empire
Presbyterian minister and Tlingit trailblazer Walter Soboleff had no choice but to watch as his church changed from a thriving center for Juneau’s Alaska Native community into a pile of rubble. But six decades later, the wrongs that led to that change are being reckoned with. “The story of the Memorial Presbyterian Church is a small example of the consequences of racism, but it is a powerful story,” said Myra Munson, co-chair of the Kuneix Hidí Northern Light United Church’s healing committee, during a Walter Soboleff Day presentation in the Walter Soboleff Building. “It can, and has, emboldened others to tell their own story and shine a light of history that lived in the shadows of denial”...(more) (11-14-22)

Stone fish trap found near Alaskan coast believed to be over 11,000 years old, researchers say
By Stephen Sorace
New York Post
Scientists exploring an underwater region off the coast of Alaska discovered an ancient stone fish trap that may be the oldest ever found. University academics working with the Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) made the find earlier this year in Shakan Bay on the west side of Prince of Wales Island while using artificial intelligence to explore submerged caves in search of signs of early human activity, the NOAA said in a news release last month...(more) (11-8-22)

Connecting to Alaska Native Culture through Today’s Indigenous Artists
Travel Alaska
With 229 federally recognized tribes, 20 distinct cultures, and 300 different dialects, Alaska Native culture is interwoven in endless ways through the fabric of Alaska’s history and culture. The artistic traditions of these cultures are diverse, from beautiful beadwork to basketry to carvings both large and small. With traditions and skills passed down for thousands of years, contemporary Alaska Native artists continue to tell their stories through a diverse array of traditional and modern art. Below are just a few of the ways that you can experience Alaska Native artwork on your next trip to Alaska...(more) (11-7-22)

Stone fish trap, believed to be 11,000 years old, found near Alaskan coast
By Chris Williams
Fox4 KDFW
Researchers have discovered a stone fish trap believed to be at least 11,000 years old off the coast of southeast Alaska, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NOAA said a team of scientists from Sealaska Heritage Institute and NOAA Ocean Exploration was exploring an "underwater region" of southern southeast Alaska in May before discovering what NOAA believes to be the "oldest stone fish weir ever found in the world”...(more) (11-6-22)

Moment 11,000-year-old fish trap discovered on ocean floor off Alaska coast
Mary-Kate Findon
The Independent
A fish trap thought to be at least 11,000 years old has been discovered on the ocean floor off the coast of Alaska. This video shows the moment scientists came across the oldest stone fish weir ever found, encased with grime from years underwater...(more) (11-4-22)

11,000-Year-Old Stone Fish Trap Discovered Off Alaska Coast
Yahoo!News
Researchers exploring the sea off southeast Alaska discovered a fish trap made of stone believed to be at least 11,100 years old, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on Thursday, November 3. According to the NOAA, a team of scientists from Sealaska Heritage Institute and NOAA Ocean Exploration surveyed an “underwater region” of southern southeast Alaska in May and discovered what the NOAA said might be the “oldest stone fish weir ever found in the world”...(more) (11-3-22)

5 Ways to Experience Alaska Native Culture, Heritage and Art
With more than 10,000 years of human history, the state offers boundless opportunities to connect with the living culture of Alaska Native peoples
Smithsonian Magazine
Covering an expansive 663,000 square miles of breathtaking wilderness, Alaska draws visitors throughout the year with its vast array of natural attractions, outdoor activities, and diverse wildlife. But a lesser-known facet of the spectacular state is its extensive human history. As the 49th state to enter the Union in 1959, one could mistakenly believe that Alaska has a relatively recent history. But in fact, it has a proud heritage that stretches back an astonishing 10,000 years, and a vibrant living culture that continues today...(more) (11-2-22)

SHI to re-open doors for arts to all second-grade Juneau School students
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute next week will open the Walter Soboleff Building to all second-grade students in the Juneau School District as part of a national program to provide experiences and learning in the arts to all children...(more) (11-1-22)

Carving a future for the Tongass National Forest
In Southeast Alaska, youth help manage a forest and protect an ancient art
By Bethany Sonsini Goodrich
High Country News
Allison Mills manually drilled a bit into the base of a massive yellow cedar tree on Prince of Wales Island, in Southeast Alaska. The drizzly August day filled with the dull squeak of metal rubbing against wood. Once she reached the center of the tree, she gently pulled the delicate core sample free, lifted it to her face and inhaled the wood’s slightly spicy, medicinal scent. “I love the smell so much,” she said...(more) (11-1-22)

World's Oldest Stone Fish Weir Dating Back 11,000 Years Ago Discovered in Alaska
By Louise Franco
Nature World News
A fish trap dating back 11,000 years ago was discovered in Alaska, making it the world's oldest stone fish weir and also revealing migration secrets in North America. The discovery reveals the craftmanship of ancient humans when it comes to hunting and survival. While scientists have found other stone weirs in the state, they have confirmed the oldest fish trap was used by hunter-gatherers from Asia...(more) (10-27-22)

Sealaska Heritage Institute to re-open doors to all second-grade Juneau School District students for arts initiative
Program part of partnership with Any Given Child Juneau, local group initiative
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) next week will open the Walter Soboleff Building to all second-grade students in the Juneau School District as part of a national program to provide experiences and learning in the arts to all children...(more) (10-31-22)

Fish Trap Dating Back 11,000 Years in Alaska Reveals Migration Secrets
By Jess Thomson
Newsweek
The discovery of the oldest stone fish weir in history, from 11,000 years ago, has been confirmed in Alaska. A team of scientists from both robotics company Sunfish Inc. and Sealaska Heritage Institute discovered the weir in Shakan Bay on the west side of Prince of Wales Island. The weir was first detected using sonar in 2010 but has now been confirmed as being a fish trap...(more) (10-26-22)

Ancient Fish Weir Identified Off Coast of Alaska
Archaeology Magazine
The News Tribune reports that the one-foot-tall remains of a stone fish weir thought to have been built close to shore 11,100 years ago have been identified under 170 feet of water more than one mile off the coast of southeastern Alaksa. The trap consists of five or six semi-circular structures each measuring about six feet wide...(more) (10-25-22)

11,100-year-old trap proves people lived in Alaska 1,000 years earlier than believed
By Mark Price
Miami Herald
Remains of an elaborate stone fish trap have been discovered on the seafloor off Southeast Alaska, and scientists say it proves Indigenous people occupied the region 1,000 years earlier than previously believed. Known as a fish weir, the ancient trap dates back about 11,100 years, the Sealaska Heritage Institute reported in a news release...(more) (The Sacramento Bee) (Charlotte Observer) (The News Tribune) (10-25-22)

SHI awarded grant to expand capacity for online digital collections
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute has received a federal grant to expand its storage capacity for online digital collections by more than 600 percent. The grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services will expand SHI’s storage capabilities to manage more than 300 terabytes of materials, including digitized photos, videos and other archival documents...(more) (10-19-22)

Little Cities That Think Big: 8 Forward-Thinking Destinations Across the U.S.
By Elain Glusac
AFAR
Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian people long occupied southeast Alaska, including the rain-forested region around Juneau, before a prospector named Joe Juneau gave the town its name following a gold strike in 1880. Now the state capital, Juneau showcases Indigenous culture—noted for its artistry rooted in reverence for nature—everywhere from town signage to public murals...(more) (10-17-22)

What 18th-Century Tlingit Music in Alaska Sounded Like
Explorersweb
For over 200 years, several sheets of notated music lay silent in a Spanish museum — until now. In a recent lecture from the Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI), humans played and heard the Tlingit tunes for the first time since 1791. The music, it turned out, constituted a method of communication between the indigenous peoples and the exploring Spaniards. To hear two songs from the lecture, click on the video below...(more) (10-6-22)

The search goes on for 'lost Alaskans' sent to insane asylum
By Kris Capps
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
For 60-70 years, Alaskans who were declared insane were sent to Morningside Hospital, an asylum in Portland, Oregon. They are forgotten Alaskans, plucked out of their homes and communities, their names and fates buried in handwritten court docket books. The records are not digitized or copied. Information can only be found by slowly looking through the giant books of handwritten historical record page by page...(more) (10-5-22)

Months after first sighting, Metlakatla is now catching dozens of invasive green crabs a day
By Raegan Miller
KRBD
Wildlife officials in Metlakatla continue to trap record-setting numbers of the invasive crab species that threaten local subsistence food sources and fish habitat. The tribe’s Department of Fish and Wildlife has trapped hundreds of European green crabs — but the numbers keep growing...(more) (10-5-22)

18th-centruy Tlingit music documented during Spanish expedition recreated by experts
By Eric Sowl
Alaska’s News Source
In 1791, the two sailing ships of the Spanish Malaspina expedition sailed into Yakutat Bay in Southeast Alaska. It was a scientific expedition that spent four weeks collecting information. At the end of their time in Yakutat they sailed away with all of their collected materials. Tucked away in the botanist’s notes were four sheets of paper. Recently those four pages were found safely stored in a museum in Spain. It turns out it was sheet music. The Tlingit music was silent for more than two centuries until experts with the Sealaska Heritage Insitute figured out a way to recreate it…(more) (10-3-22)

His grandmother was forbidden to speak Lingít in school. Now, school is helping him reclaim it
Learning the language at University of Alaska Southeast has been key to Dave Ketah’s journey
By Lisa Phu
Alaska Beacon
The class assignment was to write a letter to anyone they wanted. In Lingít. Eechdaa Dave Ketah chose his late grandmother, the person who spoke Lingít to him when he was growing up in Ketchikan. “And I was telling her that it’s hard learning the language at this point in my life, and one thing that makes it even harder is that I have to pay for it,” Ketah said, describing what he wrote. “White people took the language from us and now they’re charging us to get it back"...(more) (9-30-22)

What Lingít singers sounded like two centuries ago
Juneau Afternoon
On this Thursday’s Juneau Afternoon, a musical time capsule from the year 1781, when a Spanish ship called the Malespina,  sailed into Yakutat. After Lingít singers sang to the Spaniards, one of its crew members, wrote down the notes to the song. A trio of scholars believes this sheet music is proof that the Lingít sang in multi-part harmonies, long before contact with Western civilization...(more) (9-29-22)

SHI to sponsor lecture on historical traumas experienced by indigenous peoples
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute will sponsor a lecture by a molecular anthropologist on the historical traumas felt by Indigenous peoples, as part of its fall lecture series...(more) (9-27-22)

An ancient discovery in Southeast Alaska could help pinpoint how and when the first humans got here
By Claire Stremple
KTOO
An underwater discovery on the west side of Prince of Wales Island shows that people have lived in what we now know as Southeast Alaska for at least 10,000 years. And scientists say it may support the theory that the Pacific coast was first settled by people traveling along the shoreline, living off the sea. Canadian archeologists, in partnership with Sealaska Heritage Institute, found the weir in Shakan Bay — the culmination of a search that started when a weir-like shadow showed up on a sonar image more than a decade ago…(more) (9-26-22)

How the Alaskan capital of Juneau is becoming a hub for Native art
In the state’s capital, a new arts campus signals the growing ambitions of a rich but long-overlooked creative community
The Art Newspaper
It might only be one-tenth the size of Anchorage by population and completely disconnected from North America’s main road network, but Alaska’s state capital, Juneau, is currently enjoying an artistic renaissance spearheaded by its three main coastal Indigenous groups—the Haida, Tlingit and Tsimshian. Most visitors to the city arrive on cruise ships before heading off on glacier tours or visiting bear sanctuaries, but lurking in the foreground is, arguably, the city’s finest attraction, its Alaska Native art...(more) (9-23-22)

Trio of scholars to reveal analysis, play synthesis of Tlingit singing
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute will sponsor a lecture by three scholars on their analysis of Tlingit songs that were documented by the Spanish at Yakutat in the late 18th century. The panel will play a synthesis of the music for lecture attendees to hear...(more) (9-23-22)

Presentation details cons of constitutional convention
Yes-vote rallies seek end to PFD “political football” as Southeast leaders warn of regional harm
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Empire
The upcoming vote on a state constitutional convention was much on the minds of people throughout Alaska on Tuesday — due in large part to it being “PFD Day” for eligible residents opting for direct deposit of the Permanent Fund dividend. Folks in a few places to the north rallied in favor of a convention while in Juneau former Mayor Bruce Botelho joined a long list of Southeast leaders opposing its impacts...(more) (9-20-22)

Lecture on status of Lingít by Tlingit language professor is this week
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute will sponsor a lecture Thursday on the status of Lingít by a Tlingit language professor. In his lecture Hél Dutóow: The Health and Future of the Lingít Language, X’unei Lance Twitchell, Ph.D. will describe his work over the past decade as he has been working with language teachers, speakers and learners to try and accurately document the number of Tlingit language speakers...(more) (9-20-22)

Sealaska Heritage Lecture on Constitutional Convention to be held Tuesday
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute will sponsor a lecture by former Juneau Mayor and Alaska Attorney General Bruce Botelho on Tuesday regarding a Constitutional Convention. On November 8, Alaskans will be asked to answer the question, “Shall there be a Constitutional Convention?”...(more) (9-19-22)

Ancient weir sheds new light on Alaska Native history
Stone fish trap dates to at least 11,100 years ago, according to scientists
By Jonson Kuhn
Juneau Empire
The watery depths near Prince of Wales Island recently revealed an Indigenous connection to Southeast Alaska even deeper than previously known. A team of scientists discovered what could potentially be the world’s oldest stone fish weir in the Shakan Bay on the west side of Prince of Wales Island, which could mean Southeast Alaska Natives were living in the region at least 1,000 years earlier than previously confirmed, according to Sealaska Heritage Institute, a Juneau-based nonprofit that works to perpetuate Southeast Alaska Native cultures...(more) (9-16-22)

SHI: Stone fish trap could be oldest ever found in the world
KINY
A team of scientists exploring an underwater region of southern Southeast Alaska has discovered what might be the oldest stone fish weir ever found in the world. The existence of the fish trap, which is thought to date to at least 11,100 years ago, was confirmed earlier this year by a group of university academics and Sunfish Inc., a robotics company specializing in undersea exploration and inspection...(more) (9-14-22)

Carvers across Southeast Alaska are working on totem poles that will line Juneau’s waterfront
By Raegan Miller
KRBD
The Sealaska Heritage Institute sees Juneau as the Northwest Coast art capital of the world. And they hope the Totem Pole Trail will help visitors see it the same way. The institute has invited master carvers from around Southeast to create 10 totem poles representing Lingít, Haida and Tsimshian cultures, which should start going up along Juneau’s waterfront next year. The trail will eventually have 30 poles, with storyboards and plaques for each...(more) (KTOO) (9-11-22)

Metlakatla residents and partners trying to eject invasive crabs from their first Alaska beachhead
By Yereth Rosen
Alaska Beacon
When Natalie Bennett was walking surveying a beach on Annette Island as part of a team trying to defend Southeast Alaska from marine invaders, she made a major but ominous discovery: the state’s first documented shell of an invasive European green crab. Bennett, a summer intern with the nonprofit Sealaska Heritage Institute who was working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, noticed the tell-tale spines on the side of the eye areas. Right away, she notified one of her internship advisers, Barb Lake of NOAA Fisheries...(more) (KTOO) (9-8-22)

Listen to the program on the Lost Alaskans project
KTOO
Juneau Afternoon
From 1904 to the 1960’s, more than 4,ooo Alaskans were sent to Morningside Hospital in Portland, Oregon, because the young state wasn’t able to provide treatment for mental patients. They were arrested and put on trial as criminals. After they were convicted of insanity, the judge issued an order committing them to Morningside. Through Territorial court records, volunteer researchers have been able to find out what happened to many of the patients who never made it home. Some died. Others were released but did not return to Alaska, because they had lost contact with their families...(more) (9-8-22)

Lectures launched
Ketchikan Daily News
This Thursday will launch the fall 2022 season of lectures sponsored by the Sealaska Heritage Institute, with Ernestine Saankaláxt Hayes presenting a talk titled “An Alaska Native Memoir: Our Lives are Stories Telling Themselves"...(more) (9-8-22)

Sealaska Heritage starts fall lecture series this week
Petersburg Pilot
Sealaska Heritage Institute is sponsoring a free, 13-part fall lecture series covering a wide range of topics, including clan crests, lost Alaskans, historical trauma in Alaska Native peoples and whether the state should call a constitutional convention...(more) (9-8-22)

SHI to sponsor lecture on story behind clan's use of crest
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute will sponsor a lecture next Tuesday on the story behind a clan’s use of a crest as part of its new fall series on a wide variety of topics. In his talk, How the Chookaneidí Clan Earned the Rights to Use the Devilfish/Octopus as a Crest, Saat-Kaa Fred Fulmer will share images and words about his newest creation, which is made from old-growth red cedar...(more) (9-8-22)

Pair of Sitka master carvers invited to work on SHI Totem Trail
KRBD
By Raegan Miller
Tommy Joseph was just finishing up carving a canoe when Rosita Worl from Sealaska reached out, asking if he’d be interested in carving a pole for the Juneau trail. “They wanted me to do a pole representing all of the eagle clans, all the eagle moiety,” Joseph said. Joseph got to work in Sitka,  sketching out his vision for the pole...(more) (9-6-22)

Decorated Ketchikan carvers and apprentices work on totem poles to be raised in Juneau
KRBD
By Raegan Miller
Two totem poles bound for Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Totem Pole Trail in Juneau will be from the carving shed of Ketchikan artists. Renowned Tlingit master carver Nathan Jackson, his son Stephen Jackson — who uses the artist name Jackson Polys — and four apprentices will be done by year’s end...(more) (9-2-22)

SHI Fall lecture series to open with Ernestine Hayes
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute will sponsor a lecture on Thursday next week, as part of its new fall series on a wide variety of topics beginning with award-winning author and professor Ernestine Hayes...(more) (9-2-22)

Carvers from Metlakatla and Prince of Wales are working on totem poles that will line Juneau’s waterfront next year
KRBD
By Raegan Miller
The Sealaska Heritage Institute invited master carvers and their apprentices in Southeast to create 10 totem poles representing Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures. They’ll be part of SHI’s Totem Pole Trail — which will ultimately include 30 poles — and be installed on Juneau’s waterfront sometime next year…(more) (KCAW) (8-31-22)

One City, Two Capitals
The living treasure of Juneau’s Northwest Coast art
By Scott Rhode
Alaska Business Magazine
We used to say—this is something we used to say—that we don’t have a word for art,” says Rosita Worl, emphasizing her own Tlingit heritage. Even though she has a PhD in anthropology, the president of Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) was surprised when she learned the Tlingit language can in fact convey the concept. It happened at a council of traditional scholars. Worl recalls, “Our meetings are all held in Tlingit and we have simultaneous translation, and the translator came running out and said, ‘What is that word, At.nané?’ It was actually the chair, Ken Grant, who said, ‘It refers to an iconic event between a supernatural being and a human being’”...(more) (September, 2022)

New book from Sealaska Heritage Institute tells saga of Indian Point and the battle to reclaim its history
KTOO
By Rhonda McBride
Shamans. Sacred burial grounds. A stand-off between two tribal chiefs. These are among the stories about land in Juneau’s backyard, told in a new book published by the Sealaska Heritage Institute as part of its Box of Knowledge series...(more) (8-25-22)

After a decade in business, Pat Race and Alaska Robotics still making people smile
KTOO
​By Rhonda McBride
Alaska Robotics celebrated its tenth anniversary this summer. From COVID to Sealaska Heritage Institute’s growing footprint, the downtown cartoon shop has seen a lot of change during that time...(more) (8-16-22)

Sealaska Heritage Institute to sponsor lecture on old Alaska-Canada travel routes
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute will sponsor a free lecture next week on old travel routes between northern Southeast Alaska and Canada. Through the lecture, Trails from Long Ago: the Deishu-Chilkat Trail to the Yukon, Tim Ackerman of the L’uknax.ádi clan will give an overview of trails in Chilkat/Chilkoot country that led into the Yukon and served as important trade routes for the Tlingit people...(more) (8-11-22)

Sealaska Heritage Institute publishes book on historic fight to protect Indian Point
Site first traditional cultural property in region to be placed on federal register
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has published a book documenting the historic and decades-long battle to protect Juneau’s Indian Point, considered to be a sacred site to Native people. The book, National Recognition of the Traditional Cultural Significance of X'unáx̱i (Indian Point), traces the saga that began in 1959 with a proposal to develop the site and culminated in 2016, when Sealaska Heritage Institute prevailed in an effort to list it in the National Register of Historic Places, making it the first traditional cultural property in Southeast Alaska to be placed on the register...(more) (8-10-22)

Sealaska Heritage Institute publishes book on fight to protect sacred site
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute has published a book documenting the decades-long battle to protect Juneau’s Indian Point, considered to be a sacred site to Native people. The book, National Recognition of the Traditional Cultural Significance of X'unáx̱i (Indian Point), traces a saga that began in 1959 with a proposal to develop the site and culminated in 2016, when SHI prevailed in an effort to list it in the National Register of Historic Places, making it the first traditional cultural property in Southeast Alaska to be placed on the register...(more) (8-9-22)

Sah Quah
More than twenty years after the American Civil War, an enslaved Alaskan walked into a Sitka courtroom and sued for his freedom
A project of the Alaska Landmine
By Jeff Landfield, Paxson Woelber, and Lee Baxter
On April 26, 1886, more than two decades after the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, a Haida man named Sah Quah entered a United States courtroom in Sitka. A judge later described him as a “sad spectacle” of a man, with mutilated ears and a missing eye. Sah Quah’s English was limited, but it would be impossible to ignore the gravity of his allegations: that he had been captured by the Flathead Indians and sold into slavery as a child, trafficked up a Northwest Coast slave-trading network, and was currently enslaved to a Tlingit man in Sitka named Nah-Ki-Klan. Sah Quah had come to the American court, he said, to seek “papers” freeing him from his bonds. Alaskans today might be startled by the thought of a slave suing for his freedom in Alaska. Present-day local historical resources, educational curricula, and museum programming contain virtually no references to the practice of slavery in Alaska. However, an investigation by the Alaska Landmine suggests that this near-total historical amnesia demands reexamination...(more) (8-8-22)

Ironman Alaska chills and thrills
Rain and numbing cold add extra challenge to inaugural race in Juneau, but warmth from locals shines
By Mark Sabbatini and Clarise Larson
Alex Whetman, suffering leg cramps and numb hands moments after winning the inaugural Ironman Alaska in Juneau on Sunday, found something sufficient to divert his attention a minute or so later while in the midst of explaining his victory to the surrounding cameras and voice recorders. “That’s the third bald eagle I’ve ever seen,” he said, breaking off his recap of the race mid-sentence at the finish line at the University of Alaska Southeast...(more) (8-8-22)

Doctoral student in Alaska Native studies wins Judson Brown Scholarship
Program honors students with academic achievement, leadership skills
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has chosen a Ph.D. student with a focus on Alaska Native sovereignty as the recipient of its 2021 Judson L. Brown Leadership Award. The honor was given to Tlingit scholar Breylan Náajeyistláa Martin, who holds a master’s degree from Brown University and is pursuing her doctorate in ethnic studies with a focus on Native American studies at the University of California, Berkeley...(more) (8-4-22)

Doctoral student in Alaska Native Studies wins Judson Brown scholarship  
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute has chosen a Ph.D. student with a focus on Alaska Native sovereignty as the recipient of its 2021 Judson L. Brown Leadership Award...(more) (8-3-22)

Sealaska Heritage Institute to kick off fifth Culturally Responsive Education Conference next week
Registration for online participation still open
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will kick off its fifth annual culturally responsive education conference next week and welcome more than 650 in-person and online participants from Alaska, the Lower 48 and as far away as Australia...(more) (8-2-22)

Conference on Culturally Responsive Education to be held next week
KINY
In its fifth annual holding of the conference, Sealaska Heritage Institute said it will be the largest cultural conference they have organized. The theme is "Haa Ḵusteeyí Yatsáakw: Our Way of Life Persists." SHI said the goal of the conference is to provide a deep understanding of culturally responsive, place-based education and to equip educators and school administrators with the skills needed to reach all students, especially those who have been historically underserved, disenfranchised and marginalized...(more) (8-2-22)

Sealaska Heritage Institute announces dates for Celebration '24
KINY
The Sealaska Heritage Institute Board of Trustees have announced the dates for the next in-person Celebration will be June 5 through 8, 2024. Celebration is one of the largest gatherings of Southeast Alaska Native peoples, drawing thousands of people, including more than 2,000 dancers...(more) (7-25-22)

OPINION: Sealaska affirms: Being Native is more than a blood percentage
By Rosita Worl
Anchorage Daily News
On behalf of the Sealaska Heritage Institute Board of Trustees and staff who I know share my sentiment, I want to express my congratulations and deepest thanks to Sealaska for its leadership in advancing a lineal descendant resolution that was approved by shareholders in this year’s corporate election...(more) (7-14-22)

Sealaska Heritage and city museum to host lecture on Juneau’s 'Four Story Pole'
Free event to be offered virtually, in-person July 12
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI), in partnership with the Juneau-Douglas City Museum (JDCM), will co-sponsor a lecture by Native art scholar Dr. Emily Moore next week on a shaman totem pole in Juneau. Through the lecture, Reevaluating the “Four Story Pole” by John Wallace, Moore will examine recent research that suggests Kaigani Haida carver John Wallace intended the pole to be read as one story, rather than four separate stories...(more) (7-12-22)

Tracing a lineage of Chilkat weavers in ‘A Life Painted in Yarn’
Historian Zachary Jones brings to light the life of important weaver Clara Benson
By Lisa Phu
Alaska Beacon
It’s called Between Worlds. And it features a diving whale. “Peering through the bones of this diving whale pattern is this ancestor with her face and hands pressed against the veil between worlds,” Alaskan Chilkat and Ravenstail Weaver Lily Wooshkindein Da.Áat Hope said. “Because we talk about the Chilkat dancing blanket as the veil that separates our physical realm to the spirit realm on the other side.” “So, this particular ancestor or teacher, or whomever, is in this space between worlds”...(more) (7-7-22)

Thank you for making Celebration 2022 possible
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute would like to thank the many volunteers, moderators and friends who helped with Celebration 2022. A special thank you to the local businesses and organizations that granted administrative leave to their employees for Celebration volunteer shifts...(more) (7-3-22)

Sealaska Heritage to host Marc Brown & The Blues Crew for 4th of July Weekend in Juneau
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute has hired Fairbanks musicians Marc Brown & The Blues Crew to play at its newly-opened arts campus at Heritage Square in Juneau for the Fourth of July holiday...(more) (6-29-22)

Whitehorse Dakhká Khwáan Dancers to lead Celebration 2024
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute's Board of Trustees has named Dakhká Khwáan Dancers, or People of the Inland, as the lead dance group for Celebration 2024. Dakhká Khwáan Dancers, a Tlingit group based in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada, will lead all dancers for the first time since the group initially performed at Celebration in 2008...(more) (6-24-22)

Sealaska Heritage Institute digitizes, posts video of Celebration 1990
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute has digitized and posted online video of Celebration 1990.Celebration 1990 was the fifth Celebration SHI hosted, with the featured theme, “Continuing Our Traditional Way of Life: In Our Ancestors’ Trail”...(more) (6-24-22)

Celebration returned to Juneau last week. Here’s what some attendees had to say about the in-person gathering
By Raegan Miller
KRBD
Celebration, the every-other-year gathering of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people in Juneau, wrapped up last week. Alaska Native people from all over Southeast Alaska made their way to Juneau for three days of dancing, art and cultural expression...(more) (6-18-22)

Toddlers showcase Southeast Alaska clan regalia at Celebration
By Claire Stremple
KTOO
Sealaska Heritage Institute bills the Toddler Regalia Review as the most adorable event at Celebration, the biennial festival of Lingít, Haida and Tsimshian culture. It delivers. For many of the young participants, it was their first time at Celebration due to pandemic cancellations...(more) (6-16-22)

Celebration's Grand Exit complete as of Saturday night
KINY
Celebration's Grand Exit occurred Saturday, June 11th, 5 pm-7:30 pm at Centennial Hall. For the Grand Exit, all dance groups performed and sang the "Wrangell Coming In Song" which was also played on Wednesday for the Grand Entrance...(more) (6-12-22)

Celebration goes out like it came in
1,200 Alaska Natives perform encore of entrance dance for Grand Exit, talk of revived future hopes
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Empire
For people long accustomed to facing and overcoming hardship together, finding the spirit to end Celebration loud and proud came naturally. “Didn’t you see the strength of our people?” Rosita K̲aaháni Worl, president of Sealaska Heritage Institute and the de facto emcee throughout the week, asked rhetorically with pride after a 90-minute Grand Exit dance by this year’s 1,200 participants at Centennial Hall...(more) (6-11-22)

Kids take the stage for toddler regalia review
Regalia stories highlight family connections
By Peter Segall
Juneau Empire
Children aged 2-5 were center stage at Centennial Hall Friday afternoon for Celebration 2022’s most adorable event: the toddler regalia review. Kids made their way across the stage — some needing a guiding hand from the parents, others with a clear future in show business — wearing regalia made by friends and family members...(more) (6-10-22)

Traditions set the table for Celebration food contest winners
Winners say subsistence traditions feed bodies and souls during pandemic
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Empire
Mike Allard’s seaweed is a decades-old recipe and Donna James’ dried fish is a first-time effort. But both of the first-place winners in this year’s Celebration food contest say they’re relying on traditions that have nourished the body and soul for thousands of years — and are proving that time-tested worthiness as today’s society is struggling to obtain their groceries...(more) (6-10-22)

Opposite attraction: Winner of art competition at Celebration is an Eagle carver who is ‘drawn to Raven when I am creating’
She knows the value of strong mussels
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Empire
Tlingit artist Káakaxaawulga Jennifer Younger knows the value of strong mussels. The Sitka resident who grew up in Yakutat has made earrings and pendants in the image of the shapely shellfish for several years. So when it came time to crafting a more elaborate sculpture that was named the Best of Show in a juried art exhibit at Celebration this week, the inspiration came naturally, so to speak...(more) (6-9-22)

Winners named for Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Juried Art Show and Competition
KINY
Thirteen artists have taken top prizes and one honorable mention at Sealaska Heritage Institute’s eleventh biennial Juried Art Show and Competition. Three young artists also placed in SHI’s fourth biennial Juried Youth Juried Art Exhibit...(more) (6-9-22)

Wrangell dancers lead the way at Celebration
By Sage Smiley
KSTK
This week, two Tlingit dance groups from Wrangell are the co-leads at Celebration – the once-every-two-years festival honoring the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people of Southeast Alaska. Wrangell dancers are excited to share stories of the community…(more) (6-9-22)

Local students show traditional games skills
Pan-Arctic games
By Peter Segall
Juneau Empire
Local students and coaches demonstrated traditional Alaska Native games such as the Alaska high kick, two-foot high kick, the Inuit stick pull and others at Atnané Hít, or House of Art, the new Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus in downtown Juneau as part of the Celebration 2022 festivities...(more) (6-9-22)

Native food contest winners announced
Traditional food contests held as part of Sealaska Heritage Institute's Celebration 2022
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has announced the winners of its popular traditional food contests, held as part of Celebration 2022. The winners are as follows...(more) (6-10-22)

Celebration starts in Juneau for the first time in four years
The biennial dance-and-culture festival features two lead dance groups, both from Wrangell
By Lisa Phu
Alaska Beacon
Ten-year-old Quinn Davies from Wrangell was “super nervous” to dance for the first time at Celebration – a biennial dance-and-culture festival of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures – happening now in Juneau through June 11. “I’m using my dad’s regalia that he used when he was in Celebration, and I’m using his hat that he also used,” Davies said on Wednesday in Downtown Juneau...(more) (6-9-22)

Hundreds gather for Celebration grand procession
Regalia-clad dancers pack streets downtown as ceremonies open
By Peter Segall
Juneau Empire
Regalia-clad celebrants thronged through downtown Juneau Wednesday evening carrying drums, flags, paddles and more as they prepared for Celebration 2022’s grand entrance at Centennial Hall. Hundreds of people packed Willoughby Avenue behind Centennial Hall as dozens of dance groups and community delegations lined the street waiting for their turn in a grand procession through the hall...(more) (6-9-22)

Winners named for Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Juried Art Show and Competition
KINY
Thirteen artists have taken top prizes and one honorable mention at Sealaska Heritage Institute’s eleventh biennial Juried Art Show and Competition. Three young artists also placed in SHI’s fourth biennial Juried Youth Juried Art Exhibit...(more) (5-9-22)

Sealaska Heritage unveils new Native arts campus
KINY
A new arts campus opened its doors to Juneau Wednesday. "This is the second phase in making Juneau the northwest coast arts capital of the world," said Sealaska Heritage Institute President Rosita Worl, who welcomed attendees to the 6,000 square foot arts campus located in Heritage Square...(more) (6-9-22)

Celebration begins with arts campus opening and totem pole dedication in Juneau
By Yvonne Krumrey
KTOO
The Sealaska Heritage Institute’s new arts campus was formally opened and dedicated on Wednesday afternoon. Its name was announced at the ceremony — Antnané Hít, or House of Art. Ricardo Worl, communications director for SHI, said the project was funded by over 2,000 individual donors, mostly in Southeast Alaska...(more) (KNBA) (Native News Online) (6-8-22)

‘It is so wonderful to be together again’: Celebration kicks off in Juneau
By Sean McQuire
Celebration, a biennial four-day festival that celebrates Southeast Alaska’s Native peoples, dances and cultures, has kicked off in Juneau. The festival is marking its 40th anniversary and is back in person after being held virtually in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There are still reminders of the pandemic: everyone in attendance must be vaccinated and wearing face masks at indoor events...(more) (6-8-22)

Celebration opens with Sealaska campus debut
Dances, ceremonies, Alaska’s first 360-degree totem and a new discovery about old times mark event
By Mark Sabbatini
Celebration returned to Juneau at midday Wednesday with the official opening of the Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus, which tribal elders say signifies a regional Alaska Native culture whose past began thousands of years earlier than recently thought and whose future extends thousands of years longer than recently hoped. Several hundred people gathered in the outdoor square between Sealaska’s corporate building and new cultural center, where Alaska’s first 360-degree totem pole also was honored with an official debut...(more) (6-8-22)

Celebration and collective memory
KTOO
Guests: Ed Thomas, President Emeritus, Tlingit and Haida Central Council. Barbara Blake, Alaska Native Policy Director, First Alaskans Institute. Joaqlin Estus, National Correspondent, Indian Country Today...(more) (6-8-22)

Celebration set to kick off in Juneau
By Adelyn Baxter
Alaska Public Media
Celebration — the every-other-year gathering of Indigenous people in Southeast Alaska — kicks off Wednesday in Juneau. Through Saturday, Lingít, Haida and Tsimshian people will participate in dances, arts markets, cultural demonstrations and the ever-popular toddler regalia review...(more) (6-8-22)

Reflections on Celebration: Past, present and future from Rosita Worl
KTOO
Rosita Worl helped to organize the first Celebration in 1982, a festival to honor Lingít, Haida and Tsimshian cultures. She says the 1982 gathering only had about 200 people, mostly elders. But today, Celebration draws more than 5,000 people and 2,000 dancers, with young people and children in the sea of faces...(more) (6-7-22)

Four days of Celebration are ahead
Some events are free, others ticketed
By Peter Segall
Juneau Empire
Four days of festivities for Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Celebration festival kick-off at noon Wednesday with the official opening of the new arts campus in downtown Juneau. The biennial festivities are returning to in-person for the first time in four years and is commemorating the 40th anniversary of the event with this year’s theme, “10,000 Years of Cultural Survival”...(more) (6-6-22)

Healthy outlook for return of Celebration
Landmark Alaska Native event returns to Juneau starting Wednesday, with strict COVID-19 rules
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Empire
There’s plenty of T-shirts, few available hotel rooms (at inflated prices) and an abundance of both thrilled anticipation and stern insistence on obeying rules related to COVID-19 as Juneau prepares for its first in-person Celebration in four years beginning Wednesday. “I think everything is going on schedule,” said Lee Kadinger, chief of operations for Sealaska Heritage, on Friday. “It always gets a little frantic as things get closer"...(more) (6-4-2022)

Shx’at Ḵwáan, Kaasitlaan dancers to lead the way at Celebration
KINY
At this year's Celebration, two dance groups from Wrangell will lead the way for the first time in four years. The Shx’at Ḵwáan and Kaasitlaan Dancers will be the lead groups for Celebration 2022...(more) (6-3-22)

Assembly Finance Committee hears about Juneau Economic Plan report
KINY
The Juneau Assembly Finance Committee heard from McKinley Research Group on Wednesday night about progress on the Juneau Economic Plan. The report focused on eight key topics...(more) (6-2-22)

Celebration returns for 40th year
KINY
The biennial event Celebration, an event bringing together clans from Southeast Alaska and beyond, is
next week. Sealaska Heritage Institute will hold an in-person Celebration in Juneau from June 8 to the 11. This year marks the 40th year anniversary of the event. 1200 dancers will be performing at the Centennial Hall, the Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall, and the new Sealaska Arts Campus...(more) (6-1-22)

Wrangell dancers will lead at Celebration next week
By Sarah Aslam
Wrangell Sentinel
For the first time in four years, Celebration, one of the largest gatherings of Southeast Alaska Native peoples to celebrate their culture, will be held in person in Juneau from June 8-11...(more) (6-1-22)

Native artists, SHI release Celebration-themed children’s book
It’ll join the ever-expanding Baby Raven Reads catalogue
By Michael S. Lockett
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute, working with a pair of Tlingit artists from Southeast Alaska, released a children’s book aptly titled “Celebration” in time for Celebration 2022, which begins in a week. Written by Lily Wooshkindein Da.áat Hope and illustrated by Kelsey Mata Foote, “Celebration” will part of the Baby Raven Reads collection, and follows the story of a young girl as she experiences Celebration, an every-other-year event celebration Southeast Alaska Native art and culture held in Juneau...(more) (6-1-22)

First 360-degree totem pole in Alaska was recently installed in Juneau
The pole, representing the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures, will be dedicated June 8
By Lisa Phu
Alaska Beacon
A new totem pole in Juneau is 22 feet tall, almost 4 feet wide at the base and about 7 to 8 feet wide where Raven and Eagle are. You have to walk around it completely to see all of the elements. Unlike most poles that are carved on one side, the Sealaska Cultural Values totem pole is carved all the way around, a full 360 degrees. According to Sealaska Heritage Institute, there are only three others like it, all in Canada. Now, there’s one in Alaska...(more) (KTOO) (Wrangell Sentinel) (Skagway News) (6-1-22)

Rosita Worl on indigenizing downtown Juneau
By Rhonda McBride
KTOO
As dancers and culture bearers stream onto the streets of downtown Juneau for Celebration this year, things will look very different from the last gathering in 2018 — all part of Rosita Worl’s vision for turning Juneau into a Northwest Coast capital for indigenous art. On this Tuesday’s Juneau Afternoon, the head of the Sealaska Heritage Institute talks with KTOO’s Rhonda McBride about that dream, which is starting to take shape with a new art school, plaza and a totem trail...(more) (5-31-22)

Strict COVID protection measures planned for Celebration with Juneau cases on the rise
By Yvonne Krumrey
KTOO
It has been 40 years since the first Celebration, which was hosted to celebrate the survival of Lingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures. This year, the theme is Celebration 2022: Celebrating 10,000 Years of Cultural Survival. This will be the first time the event has been in person since 2018, and after two years in a pandemic, the term “survival” is even more meaningful. Sealaska Heritage Institute President Rosita Worl said that, especially before the vaccine, the organization was committed to keeping the community as safe as possible...(more) (5-28-22)

Southeast Native Radio aired for just 16 years, but its voices will live on in a new digital archive
KCAW
Hundreds of hours of audio from an unlikely historical source are now archived on the internet, and available for anyone to listen to. Southeast Native Radio was broadcast over KTOO in Juneau for 16 years, from 1985 to 2001. The volunteer-produced show played as current affairs at the time, but twenty-one years later it’s become a window into the lives of the people and events that shaped Native culture in the region over the last century...(more) (KTOO) (Alaska Public Media) (5-19-22)

Old styles in new ways: beader talks art and octopus bags
She’s been selected for both a local collection and a major Indigenous art market
By Michael S. Lockett
Juneau Empire
Jill Kaasteen has been beading since she was young, but in recent years, she’s taken that art form to a higher level. With a project recently accepted by Sealaska Heritage Institute for their collection, and gaining admission for a major Indigenous arts market, the Tlingit beader is gaining momentum...(more) (5-18-22)

Sealaska Heritage Institute to hold grand opening for Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus
Facility to officially open during dance-and-culture festival, Celebration in June
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will hold a grand opening for the Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus in June during its biennial dance-and-culture festival, Celebration. The opening will include the unveiling of the new Sealaska Cultural Values Totem Pole...(more) (5-17-22)

Sealaska Heritage Institute to hold grand opening for arts campus
KINY
Sealaska Heritage will hold a grand opening for the Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus in June during its biennial dance-and-culture festival, Celebration. The opening will include the unveiling of the new Sealaska Cultural Values Totem Pole, a rare and massive piece carved on all sides and the first one of its kind in Alaska...(more) (5-16-22)

Children's book on Celebration released
KINY
Written by Wooshkindein Da.áat Lily Hope with illustrations by Jaax̱snée Kelsey Mata Foote, the book "Celebration" tells the story of the biennial festival from the perspective of a young girl. Sealaska Heritage Institute released details about the book Thursday and said it is part of their Baby Raven Reads program...(more) (5-12-22)

SHI digitizes, posts online collection of radio recordings
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute has digitized and posted online a collection of radio recordings. The collection includes interviews with Native people across Southeast Alaska that date back nearly four decades. Additionally, it includes hundreds of recordings made for the award-winning public radio program Southeast Native Radio, which was broadcast by KTOO in Juneau from 1985 to 2001. The recordings document Native history and action taken by Native Elders, leaders and other people...(more) (5-10-22)

Sealaska Heritage Institute seeks presenters for education conference
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute is accepting proposals from presenters for its fifth Culturally Responsive Education Conference, which is part of an effort to promote culturally responsive teaching in schools...(more) (5-6-22)

Sealaska Heritage Institute to sponsor seven summer academies for youth in 2022
Application period now open, most academies open to students across the region
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will sponsor seven summer academies for students across the region who range in age from kindergarten to grade 12. The application period is now open for the following programming...(more) (4-19-22)

Sealaska Heritage Institute to sponsor lecture on Native identity, blood quantum
Talk by SHI President Rosita Worl to be livestreamed
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will sponsor a lecture next week on the varying methods Native people and governments define who is Indigenous and the ways those policies are increasingly affecting young people...(more) (4-8-22)

Juneau’s Native Youth Olympics makes comeback after 2 years
By Lyndsey Brollini
KTOO
This past weekend Juneau had its first Native Youth Olympics competition open to the public since the pandemic. This was the fifth year of the Traditional Games, and for many people who went, it felt a lot like the games before COVID-19. The dance group Woosh.ji.een was back for their usual opening performance, there was an audience again and more people came to compete...(more) (4-7-22)

PHOTOS: Traditional Games return to Juneau
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
It wasn’t quite business as usual —masks and COVID-19 screening were an unavoidable presence —but the Traditional Games returned to Juneau this weekend. Over 100 athletes from 20 communities competed in 10 events in Thunder Mountain High School’s gym. Athletes traveled from Hoonah, Haines, Skagway, Petersburg, Metlakatla, Hydaburg, Anchorage, Nome, Fairbanks, , Bethel, Homer, the Pacific Northwest, Chickaloon, Seward, White Horse, Kenai, Kotzebue, Lower Kuskokwim, Kwigillingok and Fort Simpson...(more) (4-2-22)

USDA announces $9M investment in 25 Southeast programs
Grants meant to diversify local economies
By Peter Segall
Juneau Empire
Officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Thursday announced roughly $9 million in investments to various entities in Southeast Alaska, part of the department’s Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy...(more) (3-31-22)

Ancient caves in Southeast Alaska to be explored to seek evidence of early human occupation
KINY
The Sealaska Heritage Institute will employ the use of artificial intelligence in working with researchers to further explore the root of the ancestry of Native people in Southeast Alaska. The institute will team with a group of university academics and Sunfish, Incorporated, to explore ancient, submerged caves around Prince of Wales Island.   The team will explore the caves using robots this year and in 2023...(more) (SitNews) (3-2-22)

Haida artist TJ Young is carving a new totem pole that will go up in downtown Juneau
By Lyndsey Brollini
KTOO
A new totem pole is being carved in Juneau to represent the Lingít, Haida and Tsimshian tribes of Southeast Alaska. The carver is Haida artist TJ Young, and the pole will be installed at Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Arts Campus. Young is working on carving the pole, chipping away at a massive log. Small, curled wood chips pile up on the floor. Some of it is still uncarved, but there are figures emerging along most of the pole...(more) (2-24-22)

Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood gather with organizations to celebrate civil rights leader
KINY
Elizabeth Peratrovich Day was marked by members of the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood via Facebook this week. Peratrovich held the highest office in the Sisterhood, Grand President. The sitting president, Daphyne Albee, said of her...(more) (2-18-22)

Sealaska focus on culture
By Renee Brincks
Travel Weekly
The Sealaska Heritage Institute Arts Campus will bring 6,000 square feet of exhibit and educational space to downtown Juneau. When it opens this summer, the indoor-outdoor facility will spotlight northwest coast art and artists, headlined by members of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian communities of Southeast Alaska...(more) (2-14-22)

Kicking for the stars: Registration opens for 2022 Traditional Games
The games will be held here at TMHS in April
By Michael S. Lockett
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute, along with other partnering organizations, is gearing up for the 2022 Traditional Games in Juneau this April 2-3. Cheered on by this year’s theme of “Sh yáx̱ ayeeltseenáa!” Lingít for “Strengthen yourself!,” the games will be in person, though spots are limited by mitigation measures, said coach and organizer Kyle Worl…(more) (2-4-22)

2022 Traditional Games planned in Juneau, registration open
Games to be live streamed
The 2022 Traditional Games will be held in Juneau in April with teams from across Alaska, and the registration for athletes ages 11 and older is now available online. The games will include a limited number of teams competing in 10 events over two days and be live streamed on Sealaska Heritage Institute’s YouTube and a website set up for the games. Athletes who have questions should contact Coach Kyle Worl at kworl@ccthita-nsn.gov or 907.227.4998...(more) (2-2-22)

Wanted: Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian recordings
Sealaska Heritage Institute collecting recordings for a culture and history publication
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage is embarking on a major, long-term project to collect all known Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian recordings in both Native languages and English for a publication about our culture and history based on the voices of our ancestors...(more) (2-20-22)

Gathering Through the Airwaves
KNOM Radio
The 2021 convention celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). A panel, consisting of Nelson Angapak, Willie Hensley, Roy Huhndorf, Ken Johns, Sam Kito, Jr., Georgianna Lincoln, and Rosita Worl, spoke about the history of ANCSA. They highlighted the Alaska Native public service and leadership that originated in the villages, to empower their own communities with local education, airports, healthcare, hunting rights, and numerous other areas...(more) (1-5-22)

Sealaska Heritage Institute announces winner of Celebration 2022 art contest
Three other entries also tapped to visually represent programs
Indian Country Today
A Haida and Tlingit artist from Georgia has won Sealaska Heritage Institute’s (SHI) first-ever competition to visually represent Celebration, a huge, dance-and-culture festival held every even year in Juneau since 1982...(more) (12-30-21)

Celebration art winner announced
KINY
The winner of Sealaska Heritage Institute's Celebration 2022 Art Contest is a Haida and Tlingit artist from Georgia. Kimberly Fulton Orozco won with her piece entitled "The Energy That Moves Us.  Orozco said her work was inspired by the Celebration 2022 theme "Celebrating 10,000 Years of Cultural Survival...(more) (12-28-21)

$2.9M grant to fund totem poles along Juneau waterfront
Associated Press
An Alaska Native nonprofit organization has received a $2.9 million grant to start building a totem pole trail along Juneau’s waterfront. The Sealaska Heritage Institute said the grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will cover 10 poles though the longer-term goal is to have 30 poles in place...(more) (Anchorage Daily News) (Wrangell Sentinel) (12-28-21)

Pair donates rare copper plates made by Edward Curtis to Sealaska Heritage Institute
Plates feature portraits of Alaska Native people, culture from the early 1900s
Indian Country Today
Two entrepreneurs have donated to Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) eight old and rare copper plates showing portraits of Alaska Natives, a tomb, an old house, and carvings photographed in the early 1900s. The plates were made by Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952), an American photographer and ethnologist whose work focused on the American West and on Native American people. He used a technology called “photogravure” which preceded the use of film...(more) (12-28-21)

Telling Alaska’s Story: Native nonprofit secures $2.9 million grant to build Juneau totem pole trail
By Sean Maguire
The Sealaska Heritage Institute has been awarded a $2.9 million grant to start building a totem pole trail along Juneau’s waterfront. The grant was awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation earlier in the month. The plan is to carve the poles by the end of 2022 and raise them in 2023...(more) (MSN) (12-27-21)

Sealaska Heritage gets multimillion dollar grant for totem pole trail
Before these ten go up, however, a unique totem pole will be raised in the new arts campus downtown
By Michael S. Lockett
A $2.9 million grant will allow the Sealaska Heritage Institute to commission 10 totem poles to decorate the cruise ship piers and downtown Juneau as part of a totem pole trail beginning in 2023. The 10 poles planned are just the first wave of a trail that will hopefully one day include as many as 30, said SHI President Rosita Worl...(more) (12-26-21)

Sealaska Heritage secures grant for Totem Pole Trail
KINY
A grant secured by Sealaska heritage institute will go towards a totem pole trail project on the Juneau Waterfront. The $2.9 million dollar grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will allow Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian master artists in Juneau and villages across Southeast Alaska to carve the poles...(more) (12-23-21)

Sealaska Heritage Institute secures funding to launch Totem Pole Trail
Project part of vision to make Juneau the Northwest Coast art capital of the world
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has secured a grant to commission ten totem poles that will comprise part of Kooteìeyaa Deiyiì (Totem Pole Trail) along the downtown Juneau waterfront...(more) (12-23-21)

Dr. Rosita Worl looks back on the 50th Anniversary of ANCSA
By Rhonda McBride
KTOO
It will be 50 years tomorrow, that Dr. Rosita Worl stood in the back of the room at a historic Alaska Federation of Natives convention, when delegates voted to approve President Nixon’s signing of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.  As an Alaska Native, she felt a rush of excitement as the votes were cast. At the time, she was a student, studying to become an anthropologist — and later went on to become president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute...(more) (12-17-21)

Sealaska Heritage Institute trustees support petition to recognize tribes
Ballot initiative would create an equal government-to-government relationship with the State of Alaska by officially recognizing Alaska tribes in the law
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute’s (SHI) Board of Trustees has moved to support a ballot initiative that would create an equal government-to-government relationship with the State of Alaska by officially recognizing Alaska tribes in the law...(more) (12-17-21)

Sealaska Heritage Institute accepting applications for college, voc-tech Sealaska scholarships
Institute offering cash incentive to early birds
Indian Country Today
The enrollment period for Sealaska scholarship applications is open for the 2022-2023 school year. The deadline to apply is March 1, 2022. However, Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is offering a $50 incentive to those who complete their scholarship application on or before Feb. 1 and who are accepted as scholarship recipients; if selected as a recipient, the $50 will be included in their scholarship award...(more) (12-15-21)

Thanksgiving has somber context for Indigenous Americans
Indigenous perspectives on holiday taking hold
By Peter Segall
Juneau Empire
This year’s Thanksgiving holiday will mark the 400th anniversary of the 1621 gathering of English settlers and the Wampanoag people, traditionally viewed as the holiday’s start. But for many Indigenous groups, the Thanksgiving holiday is a painful reminder of the history of colonization. “There’s a lot of misconceptions about Thanksgiving,” said Rosita Worl, executive director of the Sealaska Heritage Institute...(more) (11-24-21)

A medical anthropologist explores the interaction of race and infectious disease in historic Sitka
KCAW News
Adam Kersch is a doctoral student in Cultural Anthropology at UC Davis. He’ll be giving a lecture at noon on Wednesday, November 24, on 200 years of infectious diseases and colonialism in Sitka as part of a series on Southeast Alaska Native history in honor of Native American Heritage Month. The program is free, sponsored by Sealaska Heritage Institute...(more) (11-23-21)

Celebrating ANCSA at 50 | Special Edition of Alaska Insight
Alaska Public Media
Fifty years ago this December, Alaska Native leaders joined forces with lawmakers to create legislation that ensured certain native land rights in our state. How has that legislation evolved over the decades? What do younger Alaska Natives think of it?...(more) (11-17-21)

With reading and writing close behind, Juneau’s school board approves spoken Lingít teaching standards
By Bridget Dowd
KTOO
Juneau’s board of education has approved new oral narrative standards for its Tlingit Culture, Language, and Literacy program. These are the first oral narrative standards to be developed for Lingít language to be taught to school children...(more) (11-17-21)

The Juneau Board of Education received a COVID-19 report from the district Superintendent during their meeting Tuesday evening, and also adopted educational standards for an Alaska Native program in the district
KINY
...For items up for board action, the Tlingit Culture Language and Literacy Oral Narrative Standards were presented for final consideration, the standards would be used by the Tlingit Culture Language and Literacy program, or TCLL. Ted Wilson, Teaching and Learning Director for JSD, said the standards are the first step in making official curriculum for the program...(more) (11-10-21)

Sealaska Heritage Institute accepting applications for dance groups, associated events for Celebration 2022
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is accepting applications for dance groups and some of its associated events for Celebration 2022, scheduled June 8-11, which will mark the 40th anniversary of the festival. Sealaska Heritage Institute’s board of trustees chose the theme Celebrating 10,000 Years of Cultural Survival to commemorate that the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures are here, alive and thriving...(more) (11-10-21)

Rock Aak’w festival opens with songs, dancing and drumming
Virtual festival opened in person
By Peter Segall
Juneau Empire
The inaugural Rock Aak’w Indigenous Music Festival held its opening ceremonies beneath the mural of Elizabeth Peratrovich on the Juneau waterfront, with drums and singing ringing out across the Gastineau Channel. This year’s festival is the first in what organizers hope to be a recurring event highlighting Indigenous artists, according to Stephen Qucang Blanchett, Rock Aak’w’s creative director, who told the Empire in an interview he has wanted to hold this kind of event for 20 years...(more) (11-5-21)

This Native American Illustrator Is Bringing Indigenous Stories to Life—and Opening the Door for Others
Michaela Goade, United States
By Simmone Shah
Time
Last April, Michaela Goade moved from Juneau to Sitka, Alaska. Though she’d never lived there before, moving to the land where her tribe is from felt like a homecoming for Goade, an award-winning illustrator who has always found inspiration in the natural world. The history of the Tlingit tribe she is enrolled with is everywhere in Sitka—the building that houses her studio was once a residential school her grandmother attended...(more) (10-13-21)

What happened to the $2M a cruise ship company offered Juneau?
By Jeremy Hsieh
KTOO
The $2 million in relief that Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings offered Juneau earlier this year is now reaching local nonprofits’ accounts. This summer, Norwegian’s initial offer went to the City and Borough of Juneau government. The company said there were no strings attached, but most Juneau Assembly members didn’t like how that would look. Norwegian wants to build a new, downtown cruise ship dock and needs the city’s cooperation to do it...(more) (10-29-21)

With reading and writing close behind, Juneau’s school board approves spoken Lingít teaching standards
By Bridget Dowd
KTOO
Juneau’s board of education has approved new oral narrative standards for its Tlingit Culture, Language, and Literacy program. These are the first oral narrative standards to be developed for Lingít language to be taught to school children...(more) (11-17-21)

Remembering and rebuilding: Angoon residents commemorate 139 years since bombardment

Elders and students work to restore what was taken
By Peter Segall
Juneau Empire
More than a century after the U.S. Navy opened fire on the village of Angoon, its residents take comfort that despite the violence, the village remains. “It’s a happy anniversary even if it’s tragic,” said Chenara Johnson, a Tlingit language teacher with the Chatham School District. “(Our ancestors) kept our home so we can still live here. If it weren’t for the people that stood their ground we wouldn’t be here today"...(more) (10-27-21)

Can Indigenous subsistence rights still be protected in Alaska?
By Meghan Sullivan
Indian Country Today
Rosita Worl unexpectedly grew teary eyed as she looked at the coho salmon a younger family member had brought her. The silver fish was a sight she was used to, but one she had learned wasn’t always guaranteed. “I just cried that our traditions were still viable, and that he was able to still bring food to me as an elder,” she said...(more) (10-25-21)

‘The sky’s the limit’: Hopes are high for upcoming Indigenous music festival
Are you ready to r-Aak’w?
By Michael S. Lockett
Juneau Empire
As National Native American Heritage Month nears, Juneau prepares to celebrate in high style as it hosts a first-of-its-kind event, the Rock Aak’w Indigenous Music Festival. Fourteen groups will perform for the virtual festival, with some performing from afar and some from right here in Juneau, said Stephen Qucang Blanchett, the festival’s creative director and co-founder of band Pamyua, who will perform during the festival...(more) (10-19-21)

Celebration planners looking at in-person for 2022
KINY
Celebration 2022 is on the way and organizers are hoping to hold it in person, the dates are scheduled for June 8th to the 11th, 2022. Sealaska Heritage Institute Operations Officer Carmaleeda Estrada provided the latest details while a guest on Action Line. "We're hopeful that by next June, as more youth are approved for vaccination and more adults choose to be vaccinated, that we can safely host an in-person event, so that's currently what we're planning for," she said...(more) (10-19-21)

Sealaska Heritage, Tlingit and Haida host training for Native Youth Olympics coaches
By Bridget Dowd
KTOO
Sealaska Heritage and Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska will offer free classes for anyone who is interested in becoming a Native Youth Olympics coach. The organizations are based in Juneau, but anyone with internet access can sign up because, for the second year in a row, the training is virtual...(more) (10-8-21)

Shortages and shipping snarls complicate local projects|
Substitutions and patience prevail
By Dana Zigmund
Juneau Empire
Earlier this year, tile destined for the terminal floor at the Juneau International Airport spent two extra and unexpected months at sea. The tile was one of many items in ships full of goods sitting off California’s coast waiting for crews to unload them at the Port of Los Angeles as the nation grapples with supply chain issues, material shortages and a labor crunch that has stymied construction projects across the country..(more) (10-8-21)

In Alaska, pick Juneau over Anchorage
By Bailey Berg
Washington Post
Anchorage, Alaska’s most populous city, is full of energy, especially in the warmer months. It makes sense: The sun barely sets, so locals and in-the-know visitors spend the long daylight hours summiting peaks in the Chugach Mountains, biking more than 100 miles of city trails, sipping craft beer, dining alfresco on freshly caught salmon and attending festivals that stretch into the wee hours of the morning...(more) (10-7-21)

Distribution of cruise line's $2 Million donation to Juneau tracked down
KINY
The Juneau Chamber of Commerce and the Juneau Economic Development Council are receiving part of the $2 Million donation to the community from Norwegian Cruise Lines...(more) (9-30-21)

Baby Raven Reads book is Alaska’s selection for National Book Festival
It’s the first time a book from the early literacy program has been selected
By Michael S. Lockett
A book from Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Baby Raven Reads was selected by the Alaska Center for the Book, a literacy advocacy organization, to represent Alaska in the Library of Congress’ 2021 National Book Festival. The selection is a first for BRR, amid a rising tide of recognition for Alaska Native and other Indigenous writers and illustrators in the literary world. “To be recognized on a national level is very exciting,” said Tess Olympia, BRR’s program manager, in an email. “We hope it brings people’s awareness to Alaska Native culture, and gets more children and families excited about reading"...(more) (9-15-21)

Sealaska Heritage Institute receives grant to document traditional protocols for removal of grief
Institute to work with traditional scholars, clan leaders to produce book
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has received a grant from a Colorado organization to record the ancient practice of removing grief through Tlingit ceremonies known as ku.éex’...(more) (8-25-21)

Sealaska Heritage holds Ceremony to Destroy Retail Coat
KINY
The Sealaska Heritage Institute held a ceremony on Friday destroying a retail coat that copied a design
by the late master weaver, Clarissa Rizal. According to a release from Sealaska Heritage Institute in 2020, the institute discovered the "Ravenstail Knitted Coat" being sold by Neiman Marcus in late 2019 and later filed a lawsuit. President of Sealaska Heritage Institute, Rosita Worl, said they were compelled to use available US law policies and courts to protect the art and property...(more) (8-16-21)

Saga over garment design copyright infringement ends with ceremonial fire
The case was settled in March
By Michael S. Lockett
Juneau Empire
A ceremonial fire in front of the Walter Soboleff Building on Friday marked the end of a legal battle over alleged theft of intellectual property that stretched back to 2019. During the ceremony, family members of acclaimed weaver Clarissa Rizal and clan leaders gathered and immolated an example of a commercial garment at the center of the case...(more) (8-13-21)

Sacred Indigenous Objects Returned to Southeast
KINY
Ancestral belongings were returned to Southeast Alaska in an emotional ceremony Thursday at Sealaska Heritage Institute's clan house in Juneau. The sacred objects, known as at.óow in Tlingit, included a mask and hat. Repatriation is a new ceremony but embodies the traditional values, protocols, and sense of reciprocity of the Tlingit people...(more) (8-13-21)

Sealaska Heritage Institute to conduct traditional ceremony
Ceremony to destroy certain retail items in accordance with Tlingit law and cultural protocol set for August 13
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will hold a traditional ceremony in Juneau this week to destroy certain retail items in accordance with Tlingit law and cultural protocol...(more) (8-10-21)

Juneau Selected for G̱ayéisʼ Ḵáa (IRON MAN) Alaska
By Klas Stolpe
KINY
The beauty and strength of the native people of Alaska and the exhilarating wilderness surrounding Juneau were highlighted in an announcement on Monday by the IRONMAN Group of the capital city’s selection as the next full IRONMAN Triathlon - a 2.4-mile open water swim, a 112-mile bicycle ride and a 26.2-mile marathon run...(more) (8-10-21)

Juneau picked to be 1st Ironman host city in Alaska
The unique full-distance triathlon is a grueling test of endurance by run, swim, and bike.
By Michael S. Lockett
Juneau Empire
Juneau will join a select group of cities worldwide as it becomes an official host for an Ironman triathlon beginning in 2022. The Ironman Group, which operates the run-swim-bike athletic events worldwide, is partnering with Travel Juneau to host the first official event by the organization in Alaska...(more) (8-9-21)

Tlingit Artist Designs IRONMAN Alaska Logo
By Klas Stolpe
KINY
The rich and beautiful history of the Tlingit people in Alaska and specifically in Juneau will be shared with the world as local artist Crystal Worl was commissioned to create the IRONMAN Alaska logo...(more) (8-9-21)

Alaskan Raven Story stamp event one to remember
By Jay Bigalke
Linn's Stamp News
Excited and honored are understatements to say the least when it comes to describing how the speakers and attendees felt about the first-day-of-issue ceremony for the new United States Raven Story forever stamp. The event took place July 30 in the street in front of the Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau, Alaska. Approximately 200 people masked up for the outdoor event that lasted about an hour and 15 minutes...(more) (8-9-21)

Vice Chairman Murkowski Votes to Advance Native Language Bills
Committee on Indian Affairs
This week, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (SCIA), voted to advance two bills, S. 989, the Native American Language Resource Center Act of 2021, and S. 1402, the Durbin Feeling Native American Languages Act of 2021, a bill which she cosponsored, through the Committee...(more) (8-5-21)

New mural to honor Alaskan civil rights leader
The 60-by-25-foot mural will greet visitors.
By Dana Zigmund
Juneau Empire
Soon, a new mural depicting Elizabeth Kaaxgal.aat Peratrovich, a Tlingit civil rights icon, will greet visitors approaching downtown Juneau by water. Peratrovich, who was born in Petersburg and lived in Juneau, worked for equality for Alaska Natives and is best known for her 1945 speech to the territory Legislature that helped prompt an anti-discrimination law in Alaska almost 20 years before the federal government took similar steps...(more) (8-4-21)

Alaska Native artist creates stamp for Postal Service
By Becky Bohrer
Associated Press
Alaska Native artist Rico Worl said he jumped at the chance to create for the U.S. Postal Service a stamp he hopes will be a gateway for people to learn about his Tlingit culture. “I think a lot of people already are learning that there’s a lot more richness in authentic work, and authentic work from Indigenous people and the stories that are there,” he told The Associated Press in a recent interview...(more) (7-30-21) (Anchorage Daily News) (ABC News) (Alaska’s News Source) (Brattleboro Reformer) (Columbia Missourian) (CT Post) (WKOW) (WBNG) (The Daily Nonpareil) (Seattle PI) (My San Antonio) (KTTC) (WSILTV) (Voice of Alexandra) (WAOW) (WPTA21) (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) (The Tribune) (WGEM) (HOIABC) (Bluefield Daily Telegraph) (WFMZ-TV) (WVVA) (KBJR6) (WXOW) (KTAR) (Sit News) (NewsBreak) (Art for your Cause News) (The Daily Sentinel)

Northwest Coast to post: Stamp featuring Raven, designed by Tlingit artist gets release
It marks the first time a Tlingit design has been featured on a stamp, according to SHI
By Michael S. Lockett
More than 100 people gathered in front of the Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff Building on Friday morning to celebrate the national release of Tlingit and Athabascan artist Rico Lanáat’ Worl’s Raven Story stamp. The stamp, thought to be the first stamp designed by a Tlingit artist, depicts popular traditional figure Raven in the story “Raven and the Box of Daylight”...(more) (7-30-21)

Native-designed Raven Story postage stamp enters circulation with ceremony in Juneau
By Jennifer Pemberton
KTOO
Eighteen million postage stamps featuring an Alaska Native raven design were released to the public on Friday. A ceremony in Juneau celebrated the first stamp ever designed by a Lingít artist and the importance of the design and its story to the people who live in Lingít Aaní today...(more) (7-30-21) (Alaska Public Media) (Hotels California)

That’s so Raven
Stamp spotlights Indigenous myth
U.S. Postal Service
On July 30, the Postal Service will release Raven Story, its latest Forever stamp. The character of Raven is important for many of the Indigenous peoples of North America, particularly those in the Pacific Northwest. Stories and myths about the trickster bird are legion...(more) (7-29-21)

U.S. Postal Service to hold ceremony for release of Tlingit stamp July 30
Indian Country Today
The U.S. Postal Service on Friday, assisted by Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI), will hold a release ceremony for the Raven Story Forever Stamp — the first stamp ever illustrated by a Tlingit artist...(more) (7-28-21)

Release ceremony planned for Raven stamp
Public is invited, but it will also be livestreamed
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
A U.S. Postal Service stamp designed by a Tlingit and Athabascan artist will make its public debut on Friday. Rico Lanáat’ Worl designed the Raven Story forever stamp, which will be unveiled at Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff Building at 11 a.m. on Friday, the USPS and SHI announced. The stamp is the first to be illustrated by a Tlingit artist, according to SHI, a Juneau-based nonprofit that protects and promotes Southeast Alaska Native arts and culture...(more) (7-28-21)

Postal Service releases Raven stamp this week
Wrangell Sentinel
The U.S. Postal Service will officially release the "Raven Story" stamp at 11 a.m. Friday at the Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau. The stamp, designed by Juneau-based Rico Lanáat' Worl, a Tlingit and Athabascan artist, depicts Raven freeing the sun, stars and moon...(more) (7-29-21)

Tlingit Stamp release ceremony to be held Friday
KINY
A release ceremony for the “Raven Story” stamp, previously unveiled in November of last year, will be held Friday by the U.S. Postal Service and Sealaska Heritage Institute. The ceremony is scheduled at 11 am, Friday, July 30th in front of Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff Building at 155 S. Seward St. in Juneau. The ceremony will also be streamed live through the Institute’s YouTube...(more) (7-26-21)

Seattle Man Donates Old Spruce-Root Basket to Sealaska Heritage Institute
KINY
A Seattle man has donated an exquisite spruce-root basket to Sealaska Heritage Institute that dates back more than 100 years. According to a press release from SHI, donor Richard Zahniser, now in his 90s, purchased the piece in Southeast Alaska or Anchorage in the 1970s and decided to donate it this year to make it accessible to the public and weaving students...(more) (7-14-21)

U.S. Postal Service to hold ceremony for release of Tlingit stamp
Stamp designed by Tlingit artist Rico Lanáat’ Worl of Juneau, ceremony set for July 30
The U.S. Postal Service this month, assisted by Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI), will hold a release ceremony for the “Raven Story” stamp, which was designed by Tlingit artist Rico Lanáat’ Worl of Juneau and unveiled in November...(more) (7-7-21)

Juneau’s museums are optimistic for summer
Curators say there’s a steady increase in museum visitors
By Peter Segall
Juneau Empire
They’re not what they were before the COVID-19 pandemic, but visitor numbers at Juneau’s museums are strong enough to have local curators optimistic about the coming season. “We’re still thrilled with the amount of visitors coming in,” said Beth Weigel, director of the Juneau-Douglas City Museum. “More than we expected"...(more) (7-2-21)

Paddling the channel
Local students complete 17-mile journey
By Dana Zigmund
Juneau Empire
Juneauites peering out into the Gastineau Channel Friday were treated to a rare sight — two traditional Tlingit canoes snaking through the water. The canoes were powered by local students who completed a 17.64-mile trip over almost seven hours on Friday. The group left Don D. Statter Harbor and arrived at Douglas Harbor with just two quick stops along the way...(more) (6-26-21)

Haida-language children’s book released as part of award-winning series
The book is a re-issue in X̱aad Kíl of a previously released traditional story.
By Michael S. Lockett
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute has released the first children’s book in the Haida language Xaad Kíl through its Baby Raven Reads program. “Nang Jáadaa Sgáana ‘Láanaa aa Isdáayaan,” or “The Woman Carried Away by Killer Whales,” is a story carried down through generations orally and published through the work of team of artists and linguists...(more) (6-23-21)

US to study dark legacy of Alaska Native, American Indian boarding schools
By Sean Maguire
Alaska's News Source
Dr. Rosita Kaahán Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, has a harrowing story of being brought to a Haines boarding school at the age of 6. “I was taken. I was kidnapped from my grandparent’s home and brought to one of those mission schools,” she said. “And I didn’t understand why I was there at 6 years old. But the trauma, the punishment, the abuse, the abuse that I endured, was very, very real"...(more) (6-22-21)

The Raven and Rico Worl
The Pennsylvania Gazette
By Trey Popp
As a kid growing up in Alaska, Rico Worl C’09 used to visit his maternal grandparents in Nenana, where about 400 souls lived beside the confluence of the Nenana and Tanana rivers midway between Fairbanks and Denali National Park. His favorite thing to do there was poke around his Grandpa Rudy’s woodworking shop. It was stuffed with meticulous scale models of cabins, food caches, fish traps, and other traditional artifacts of Athabascan material culture...(more) (6-18-21)

Traditional Games returning to Anchorage
KINY
The Anchorage Traditional Games are scheduled to be held this weekend for the first time in two years. Featuring 50 athletes from around the state aged 16 and older, the competition will be held at Begich Middle School on June 19 and 20...(more) (6-16-21)

Planting a seed: Students learn about gardening, carbon sequestration
Learning to care for a plant was also on the agenda
By Michael S. Lockett
Juneau Empire
What do potatoes have to do with climate change? It comes down to carbon, as students from the Juneau School District have learned...(more) (6-13-21)

Traditional Games
By Greg Lincoln
The Delta Discovery
For the past two years – 2020 and 2021, we have missed the live, in-person Native Youth Olympics statewide event that is usually held every spring in Anchorage. This year, the Sealaska Heritage Institute will be hosting Traditional Games in Anchorage on June 19th and 20th, 2021. Athletes ages 16+ are invited to participate. The games will be held at the Special Olympics Alaska Gym at 3200 Mountain View Dr. starting at 11am...(more) (6-11-21)

Kids learn about STEAM careers at Wrangell 2021 Culture Camp
By Sage Smiley
KSTK
School’s out for the summer… but that doesn’t mean the kids aren’t learning. KSTK attended an afternoon of a science and arts camp put on by Wrangell’s local tribe and Sealaska Heritage Institute...(more) (KTOO) (6-11-21)

Sealaska Heritage releases first children’s book entirely in Haida language
'Nang Jáadaa Sg̱áana ‘Láanaa aa Isdáayaan', or 'The Woman Carried Away by Killer Whales' is part of Sealaska's Indigenous language series
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has released its first-ever children’s book entirely in the Haida language, X̱aad Kíl. The book, Nang Jáadaa Sg̱áana ‘Láanaa aa Isdáayaan, or The Woman Carried Away by Killer Whales in English, is part of Sealaska Heritage Institute’s award-winning Baby Raven Reads program...(more) (6-11-21)

The modern treaty: protecting Alaska Native land, values
The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, in its simplest terms, provided Alaska Natives with $962.5 million and title to 44 million acres of land in exchange for the extinguishment of aboriginal land claims #ANCSA50
Indian Country Today
By Meghan Sullivan
In 1969, a young Koyukon Athabascan woman stood before the U.S. House of Representatives, and described the life her community had been living on the banks of the Yukon River since time immemorial. “For centuries [my mother, grandmother] and their forebears had lived in this country happily gaining their livelihood from the land,” Georgiana Lincoln testified. Her community had lived and worked within the region’s dense forests and rolling mountains for thousands of years. She was there to let lawmakers know how devastating it would be if this were to change...(more) (6-7-21)

Memorial service held for Albert Kookesh in Angoon
KINY
On Friday evening, a memorial service was held for the late senator and Alaska Native leader, Albert  Kookesh in Angoon. Kookesh passed away on May 28 in Angoon at the age of 72. Rosita Worl, president of SHI, spoke during the service...(more) (6-5-21)

Alaska ferry system adds Angoon stops for guests attending Kookesh memorial
By Katherine Rose
KCAW
The Alaska Marine Highway is changing its schedule to accommodate guests attending the upcoming funeral service for the late Tlingit leader and politician Albert Kookesh. According to a release from the state’s Department of Transportation, two port calls have been added to the ferry schedule. The LeConte will make the additional stops in Angoon on June 3 and June 6. The memorial service for Kookesh will be held at 6 p.m. on Friday, June 4. Those unable to attend in person can attend virtually on Sealaska’s website or on YouTube...(more) (6-3-21)

Memorial for Tlingit leader Albert Kookesh to be livestreamed
Ceremony slated for June 4 in Angoon
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) and Sealaska will offer a live webstream from Angoon to share the memorial service for the late Tlingit leader Kaasháan, Albert Kookesh. The ceremony is scheduled at 6 p.m. (AKDT), Friday, June 4. The service will be available through the MySealaska website and open to the public via Sealaska Heritage Institute’s YouTube. All loved ones, friends, acquaintances and well-wishers are welcome to tune in...(more) (6-3-21)

Sealaska Heritage Center resurrects 1984 Celebration footage
The Alaska 100
By Brittany Thurmbuchler
As part of its Celebration: 10,000 years of Cultural Survival project, Sealaska Heritage Institute digitized video of its second Celebration, a dance and culture festival, and shared the footage on its YouTube channel. First held in 1982, Celebration has since grown into the largest gathering of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people...(more) (6-2-21)

Museum exhibit features Northwest Coast Native textiles
By The Cordova Times
A new exhibit running through Oct. 9 at the Alaska State Museum in Juneau traces the history of sacred textiles employed by Tsimshian, Haida and Tlingit weavers of Alaska and First Nations descent to make traditional “Raven’s Tail” and “Chilkat” robes...(more) (5-21-21)

May 19th: Sealaska Heritage Institute’s summer of learning and adventure
By Rhonda McBride
KTOO
From running camps, to art and science programs, infused with Native culture, Sealaska Heritage Institute has the kind of summer activities that almost make you wish you were a kid again. (Scroll down to listen to story)...(more) (5-19-21)

Colonization's dark history puts undue burden on Tribes seeking repatriation of remains, objects
By Tripp Crouse
KNBA
In Alaska, repatriations can range from as small as an individual bone or skull, up to hundreds of sets of remains. Between 1910 and 1941, Czech anthropologist Aleš Hrdlička curated the U.S. Museum of Natural History. In the 1930s he removed remains of more than 1,000 individuals and funerary objects from Larsen Bay and brought them to the Smithsonian Institute...(more) (5-18-21)

Museums, Native heritage organizations look to future of digital collection, repatriation
By Tripp Crouse
KNBA
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act certainly has its flaws. But museums and Native cultural organizations look to the future of digital collections and repatriation. The Alutiiq Museum, which is based in Kodiak, will begin to digitize its collection with the eventual goal of expanding and digitizing collections from other museums. Museum collections curator Amanda Lancaster says they’re already using a database and have most of their object’s catalogued...(more) (KTOO) (5-18-21)

Sealaska Heritage Institute’s education summit
Juneau Afternoon
KTOO
SHI's David Sheakley-Early talks about the institute's upcoming education summit...(more) (5-18-21)

SHI education summit, update on arts campus
Action Line
KINY
SHI’s Lee Kadinger and David Sheakley-Early talk about the institute’s upcoming education summit and progress on construction of the Sealaska Heritage Arts Camps…(more) (5-18-21)

Alaska Native cultural experts say more work on repatriation needs done
KNBA
By Tripp Crouse
In early 2021, the Harvard Peabody Museum issued a statement apologizing for its reluctance working with Tribes to return some remains and funerary objects. The social unrest of 2020 reignited the conversation of returning ancestral remains and sacred objects to their people. Since contact, Indigenous people and settlers have had a contentious relationship, particularly as settlers appropriated items from traditional Native homelands…(more) (5-18-21)

NYO in Ketchikan postponed for a second time
KINY
The southern Native Youth Olympics Traditional Games in Ketchikan have been postponed. Sealaska Heritage Insitute made this decision based on "a high level of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ketchikan," according to an announcement Wednesday morning...(more) (5-12-21)

Young introduces bill to protect indigenous artifacts
KINY
Alaska Congressman Don Young along with Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico has introduced the STOP Act, legislation that works to prohibit the exporting of sacred Native American items and increase penalties for stealing and illegally trafficking indigenous cultural property...(more) (5-10-21)

Congressman Don Young Introduces Bipartisan, Bicameral Legislation to Safeguard Tribal Items
By Zack Brown
Alaska Native News
Congressman Don Young (R-AK), Republican Leader of the Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples, and Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández (D-NM), Chair of the Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples, have introduced the STOP Act, bipartisan legislation to prohibit the exporting of sacred Native American items and increase penalties for stealing and illegally trafficking Tribal cultural patrimony...(more) (5-9-21)

Here’s What’s Going On In Indian Country
Native News Online
By Tamara Ikenberg
...Talented teens will perform feats of Alaska Native athleticism, like the Seal Hop and Eskimo Arm Pull at this year’s northern Native Youth Olympics Traditional Games. The northern games, streamed live from Juneau on Sealaska Heritage Institute’s YouTube and a special website, will feature athletes in grades 6-12 from Juneau, Hoonah, Anchorage and Unalakleet...(more) (5-7-21)

Sealaska Heritage Institute undertakes project to digitize reel-to-reel recordings
KINY
After previously receiving a collection of recordings of Southeast Native Radio and other valuable programs in 2010, Sealaska Heritage Institute is moving forward with processing the recordings through a grant that supports the preservation of rare and unique audio. Southeast Native Radio was broadcasted by KTOO in Juneau from 1985 to 2001 and informed Alaskans about Native topics...(more) (5-6-21)

Gov proposes land exchange for Vietnam-era Alaska Native veterans
Program would let veterans swap federal land for state
By Peter Segall
Juneau Empire
Gov. Mike Dunleavy and several state lawmakers are proposing the state transfer lands to Alaska Native Vietnam War veterans after a decision from the Department of the Interior delayed a similar transfer of federal lands. The issue goes back decades, the governor said at a press conference at the Walter Soboleff Building in downtown Juneau, and the state is using the opportunity to fulfill a promise to Alaska Native veterans...(more) (5-6-21)

NYO Traditional Games Stream Live from Juneau, Embrace Culture Statewide
KINY
The 2021 Native Youth Olympics Traditional Games will stream live from the Thunder Mountain High School gymnasium this Saturday and Sunday.  Juneau Native Youth Olympics coach Kyle Worl said the games are generally held each spring and normally feature teams from across the region and state and have even included teams from Canada and Arizona...(more) (5-5-21)

NYO in Ketchikan rescheduled for May 22 and 23
KINY
The 2021 southern Native Youth Olympic Traditional Games have been rescheduled to May 22 and 23. They were postponed last week due to a COVID-19 outbreak in Ketchikan. The northern Traditional Games are scheduled for this weekend, May 8 and 9, in Juneau...(more) (5-4-21)

Ketchikan Native Youth Olympics event rescheduled for late May
KRBD
By Eric Stone
Organizers have rescheduled a Native Youth Olympics event in Ketchikan after the initial Southern Regional Games were postponed because of a COVID-19 outbreak at the high school. The Native Youth Olympics Traditional Games consist of 10 events inspired by hunting and survival skills of the state’s Indigenous people. Sealaska Heritage Institute organizes the games in Southeast Alaska...(more) (5-4-21)

Sealaska scholarships help students for 2021-2022
KINY
Four hundred fifteen full- and part-time students and vocational-technical students are receiving scholarships from Sealaska for the 2021-2022 school year. Sealaska is partnering with Sealaska Heritage Institute to invest in educational programs that benefit Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian people...(more) (5-3-21)

SHI to digitize recordings going back 35 years
KINY
The Sealaska Heritage Institute has received funding to digitize hundreds of recordings of interviews with "notable Elders, clan leaders, and other Native people," according to a release from SHI. The recordings date back 35 years and were part of the public radio program, Southeast Native Radio, which aired between 1985 and 2001 in Juneau. The collection was donated to SHI in 2010 from KTOO...(more) (4-30-21)

Upcoming Native Youth Olympics events in Ketchikan postponed due to COVID-19; Kayhi to stay closed
By Eric Stone
KRBD
This weekend’s upcoming Native Youth Olympics Traditional Games in Ketchikan have been postponed. That’s after Ketchikan’s school district announced a cluster of at least five new cases of COVID-19 among people who attended a high school wrestling tournament, the prom and an after-party...(more) (4-28-21)

Sealaska Heritage Institute postpones 2021 Traditional Games in Ketchikan due to COVID-19
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has postponed the southern Native Youth Olympics Traditional Games that was slated to happen at the Ketchikan High School this weekend. The change was made following a spike in new COVID-19 cases in Ketchikan this week, including five that were announced by the Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District on Tuesday...(more) (4-29-21)

NYO in Ketchikan postponed, rise in COVID-19 cases
KINY
The southern Native Youth Olympics Traditional Games, which was scheduled to be held this weekend in Ketchikan, has been postponed due to COVID-19 concerns. According to a release from Sealaska Heritage Institute, five cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District on Tuesday. SHI will monitor the situation and is hoping to reschedule sometime soon...(more) (4-28-21)

2021 Traditional Games to stream live in Ketchikan, Juneau
Nearly 40 athletes to compete in Southern Regional Games event this weekend
Indian Country Today
This year’s Native Youth Olympics Traditional Games will stream live from Ketchikan and Juneau in May, and the first event will kick off this weekend. The southern games will feature nearly 40 athletes in grades 6-12 from Ketchikan, Metlakatla, Craig, Hydaburg and Nome...(more) (4-26-21)

Easing virus fears prompts return of Alaska Native festival
Associated Press
Celebration, a four-day dance-and-cultural event billed as the largest gathering of Alaska Natives in southeast Alaska, will return next year as an in-person event after widespread immunizations in the nation’s largest state, organizers said Thursday. Sealaska Heritage Institute said the event celebrating Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures will be held in Juneau from June 8-11, 2022...(more) (Anchorage Daily News) (Albany Times Union) (4-22-21)

Indigenous creators hope to share history, cultural art forms through first-ever Tlingit opera
By Pablo Arauz Peña,
KTOO
The first Tlingit opera in production is about the Tlingit-Russian wars at the start of the 19th century. The opera is still in the early development stages but the creators say it’s bound to be an epic production. Sealaska Heritage Institute recently announced the opera’s development which will be based on the true story of the Tlingit-Russian wars in 1802 and 1804. Ed Littlefield, the opera’s composer, said one word has been used to describe the story so far…(more) (Alaska Public Media News) (KNBA) (4-16-21)

Sealaska Heritage Institute to hold Cultural Education Conference
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute announced Tuesday it will sponsor its fourth education conference for teachers and administrators in Southeast Alaska in an effort to promote culturally responsive pedagogy in schools...(more) (4-6-21)

Sealaska Heritage Institute provides celebration update during Action Line
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute announced in January that Celebration was canceled in 2021, but have said they are monitoring COVID conditions for an in-person celebration in 2022. Chief of Operations for Sealaska Heritage, Lee Kadinger, was asked how it is looking for a celebration to be held in 2022 while a guest on Action Line...(more) (3-31-21)

First-ever first Tlingit opera will premiere locally
It is a collaboration between Perseverance Theatre and the Sealaska Heritage Institute.
By Dana Zigmund
Juneau Empire
The pageantry of western opera will join forces with the Tlingit culture’s rich history of storytelling, singing and dancing to create the world’s first Tlingit opera. The opera will premiere at the Perseverance Theatre around 2025. The opera will be performed primarily in Lingít, the Tlingit language, and will feature Indigenous actors and singers. The Sealaska Heritage Institute is supporting the writing and production of the work in partnership with the theater. The writing and scoring work is currently underway...(more) (3-31-21)

Downtown arts campus construction updated on Action Line by top SHI official
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute has been working on the construction of a new arts campus downtown across the street from its Soboleff Building in the former parking lot. Chief of Operations Lee Kadinger updated us on the progress of construction while on Action Line.  He said they have finished the perimeter walls and are now doing some of the support walls and columns within the garage itself...(more) (3-31-21)

First ever Tlingit Opera to be held
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute is partnering with Juneau’s Perseverance Theatre to write and produce the first Tlingit opera in recorded history. This original opera will focus on stories from the Tlingit-Russian War in Alaska waged in 1802 and 1804 and be based on historical facts and oral traditions as told from the Tlingit perspective…(more) (3-24-21)

Native women leaders make history fighting for the people
By Art Hughes
Native America Calling
There are a several exceptional Native women who’ve spoken out, broken barriers and improved the lives of Native Americans. Elizabeth Peratrovich (Tlingit) is a civil rights activist who helped end discrimination against Alaska Natives in Alaska. Elouise Cobell (Blackfeet) went toe-to-toe in court with the U.S. government over its mismanagement of Indian land. And Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) is the first Native American U.S. Interior secretary. We’re continuing our celebration of historic Native women with a program about warrior women who shook things up to improve people’s lives...(more) (3-22-21)

Skagway students in their first Jr. Native Youth Olympics
By Melinda Munson|
The Skagway News
“I’ve never coached anything a day in my life,” admitted school board member Jaime Bricker. Nevertheless, Bricker made Skagway history by starting the town’s inaugural Junior Native Youth Olympics team (NYO). Practices began Jan. 30 with 15 participants. They meet once a week for 1.5 hours and give fourth, fifth and sixth graders the chance to seal hop, kneel jump and toe kick...(more) (3-12-21)

Alaska Native group, Neiman Marcus settle lawsuit over coat
Associated Press
An Alaska Native cultural organization and the luxury department store Nieman Marcus have settled a lawsuit over the sale of a coat with a copyrighted, geometric design borrowed from Indigenous culture. The Sealaska Heritage Institute said in a statement on Wednesday that both sides, including 11 other defendants besides Nieman Marcus, agreed to terms “to resolve all disputes between them under U.S. and Tlingit law,” Juneau Public Media reported…(more) (3-5-21) (ABC27) (Juneau Empire) (Ketchikan Daily News) (Dallas Morning News) (ABC7 Chicago) (Huron Daily Tribune) (WBAP) (KTBS) (Red Lake Nation News) (KNBA) (Seattle Times)

Sealaska Heritage settles Ravenstail coat case with Neiman Marcus, other defendants
By Jeremy Hsieh
KTOO
Sealaska Heritage Institute and the luxury retailer Neiman Marcus have settled a lawsuit over a coat the company sold. The coat bears a striking resemblance to a copyrighted, Alaska Native Ravenstail pattern. The case began with Neiman Marcus but eventually grew to include 11 defendants. In a statement, Sealaska Heritage said they’ve agreed to work together to resolve the issue “under Tlingit law and cultural protocols.” Jacob Adams is the cultural nonprofit’s attorney on the case. He said the terms of the settlement are confidential, but some effects of it may become public…(more) (3-3-21)

Lectures worth herring
Ketchikan Daily News
This region’s rich cultural history has an able advocate in the Sealaska Heritage Institute, which has been active in sponsoring a variety of lectures and lecture series about Native history and cultural topics in recent months. The latest example will be a lecture given this Thursday by Dr. Thomas F. Thornton, an author of the new book “Herring and People of the North Pacific: Sustaining a Foundational and Keystone Species"...(more) (3-3-21)

Chilkat robe returned to its homeland
Indian Country Today
The Monroe Foundation has donated an exquisite Chilkat robe to Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) in an effort to return it to its homeland. The piece, which is small and apparently made for a child, was woven in the traditional way using cedar bark. The robe’s exact origins and the name of the weaver are unknown...(more) (2-24-21)

Chilkat robe donated to Sealaska Heritage Institute
KINY
A Fairbanks foundation has donated a Chilkat robe to Sealaska Heritage Institute in an effort to return it to its homeland. The piece, which is small and apparently made for a child, was woven in the traditional way using cedar bark. The robe’s exact origins and the name of the weaver are unknown...(more) (2-23-21)

First stamp designed by Alaskan indigenous artist, showing Raven stealing the sun
By Clive Thompson
BoingBoing
USPS asked Rico Lanáat' Worl, a Tlingit and Athabascan artist, to create a stamp. He drew an awesome piece showing Raven, the Trickster, stealing the sun. Over at his web site, Worl tells a short version of the traditional story that his image is based on...(more) (2-21-21)

The First USPS Stamp Designed by an Alaska Native Artist Features a Trickster Raven as It Steals the Sun
Colossal
When it’s released later this summer, a new stamp from the U.S. Postal Service will illuminate a piece of Indigenous culture that’s long been associated with an escape from darkness. Titled “Raven Story,” the history-making postage features an iconic animal rendered by Rico Lanáat’ Worl, who is the first Tlingit and Athabascan artist to be featured by U.S.P.S. Awash with twinkling stars, the stamp portrays a black bird grasping the sun in its beak as it breaks from its human family...(more) (My Modern Met) (2-19-21)

Finding activism through art: A Q&A with Tlingit illustrator Michaela Goade
By Erin McKinstry
KCAW
Sitka illustrator Michaela Goade received national attention in December for her Google Doodle of Alaska Native leader Elizabeth Peratrovich, whose legacy is honored annually on Feb. 16. Goade made headlines again last month as the first Indigenous person to win the Caldecott Medal, one of the highest honors in children’s literature. Following news of her award, KCAW’s Erin McKinstry interviewed Goade about her work illustrating “We are Water Protectors” and what inspires her as a Tlingit artist…(more) (2-16-21)

First US Stamp by Alaska Native Person Spotlights Tlingit Lore
The stamp, designed by Tlingit and Athabascan artist Rico Lanáat’ Worl, features the raven as a trickster-spirit within a field of gold stars, holding the sun in his beak
By Sarah Rose Sharp
The Tlingit nation (meaning “People of the Tides” in the Tlingit language) is indigenous to the US Pacific Northwest, and its art features some of the most iconic motifs associated with Native American cultural production. Cedar poles and canoes, as well as shamanic objects and adornments, are all known to feature carved and painted formline representations of important totem animals, including the raven, wolf, bear, eagle, and others...(more) (2-14-21)

SHI digitizes Celebration 1982 videos
KINY
Capital Chat
This podcast episode features an interview with SHI’s Archivist and Collections Manager Emily Pastore…(more) (2-12-21)

Skagway’s first Native Youth Olympics program gets off the ground
By Henry Leasia
KHNS
Skagway students have been learning traditional Alaska Native games in preparation for the Junior Native Youth Olympics. The town’s new NYO club is part of a wider effort to develop more Native sports programs throughout Southeast Alaska...(more) (2-11-21)

Sealaska lecture series highlights need for more Native researchers
By Pablo Arauz Peña
KTOO
Inclusivity has always been an issue for scientific fields like paleogenomics, which is the study of ancient DNA. Several academic researchers who document Southeast Alaska’s ancient history are highlighting the need to retain more Native researchers in a lecture series hosted by Sealaska Heritage Institute. In 1996, the remains of a man now called Shuká Káa were found in a cave on Prince of Wales. James Dixon, an anthropology professor at The University of New Mexico, was a lead researcher in that excavation. He said Shuká Káa — or “the man ahead of us” — brings to light the origins of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people...(more) (KNBA) (2-8-21)

How To Spend The Perfect Long Weekend In Juneau, Alaska
By Jo-Anne Bowen
TravelAwaits
A must-visit is the hidden gem of Sealaska Heritage to learn more about the Native peoples and their 10,000 years of history. Stop to marvel at the Tsimshian clan house front in the foyer...(more) (2-7-21)

Renowned Northwest Coast artist named USA Fellow
United States Artists awards $50,000 to the Ketchikan-based artist
By Dana Zigmund
Juneau Empire
Nathan Jackson, a Ketchikan-based traditional woodcarver and sculptor, was named a 2021 USA Fellow by United States Artists, an organization dedicated to supporting artists. The award was announced in a news release on Wednesday. His award represents the traditional arts category, where he is one of seven winners. According to the announcement, “USA Fellowships are awarded to artists at all stages of their careers and from all areas of the country through a rigorous nomination and panel selection process”…(more) (2-3-21)

Sealaska Heritage Institute to sponsor lecture on the ancestry of the Tsimshianic language family
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will sponsor a free lecture this Thursday on the ancestry of the Tsimshianic language family. The lecture, The Tsimshianic Language Family, its Ancestry and Distant Relatives, will be given linguist Dr. Marie-Lucie Tarpent...(more) (2-3-21)

Good as Goade: a Q&A with Southeast’s recent Caldecott Medal winner
The prestigious award for her illustration work tails her Google Doodle being featured in December
By Michael S. Lockett
Juneau Empire
Homegrown artist Michaela Goade is having quite the start to her 2021. Rising to the spotlight just before the new year for her Google Doodle featuring Elizabeth Peratrovich, Goade again shot to national prominence this week when the book “We Are Water Protectors” won Randolph Caldecott Medal, making Goade the first Native American or Alaska Native to win the award...(more) (1-27-21)

Program that brings Indigenous culture into the classroom expands to more communities in Southeast Alaska
By Angela Denning
KFSK
A program that teaches teachers how to incorporate culture into their classrooms has moved into several communities in Southeast Alaska. The program “Thru the Cultural Lens” is run by Sealaska Heritage Institute. It’s been in some of Juneau’s secondary schools for about seven years but this year it’s expanding to five K-12 school districts in smaller communities in the region...(more) (KTOO) (1-25-21)

From wilderness to Tlingit culture: Adventures in Learning
By Rhonda McBride
KTOO
Interview on how the Sealaska Heritage Institute is working to get teachers to incorporate Tlingit culture into their lessons. David Sheakley-Early explains the importance of teaching through a cultural lens...(more) (1-21-21)

Sealaska Heritage Institute cancels ‘Celebration’ in 2021
By Jacob Resneck
CoastAlaska
Southeast Alaska’s largest Native cultural gathering won’t be held this year. “Celebration” traditionally draws thousands of participants to Juneau to honor Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian dances, language and song. It’s normally held every two years. But the coronavirus pandemic forced the 2020 event to move online, and organizers hoped to hold a gathering this year. Now, the in-person event tentatively planned for June has been called off...(more) (KTOO) (1-20-21)

Sealaska Heritage Cancels Celebration
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute’s board of trustees has opted to cancel Celebration 2021, which was tentatively scheduled for June this year after the coronavirus sidelined the in-person event in 2020. The decision came Wednesday after the board assessed the latest scientific evidence on the state of the pandemic...(more) (1-20-21)

Sealaska Heritage lecture to highlight intersections of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian
By Tripp Crouse
KNBA
Steve Langdon is a professor emeritus at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Landon has researched and studied the Alaska Native communities of what is now called Southeast Alaska. KNBA’s Tripp Crouse talks with Steve Langdon, his interests and an upcoming virtual lecture hosted by the Sealaska Heritage Institute…(more) (1-20-21)

Top 10 Stories: What Indian Country read this past week
By Vincent Schilling
Indian Country Today
What you, our Indian Country Today readers, read most...(more) (1-16-21)

‘Opening the Box’ kits allow students to explore space between art, science, and culture
KCAW
Sealaska Heritage is providing Blatchley students with a “maker kit” in January. The kits, which are going out to over 1,300 students in six Southeast communities, emphasize traditional learning and hands-on experience in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math). The first kit will have the kids sewing face masks. There will be new kits for students for the next three months. Sitka School District cultural director Jule LeBlanc and Sitka Sound Science Center education director Janet Clarke share the details...(more) (1-13-21)

New Baby Raven Reads books include story written by Juneau elementary students
By Pablo Arauz Peña
KTOO
Sealaska Heritage Institute has published four new books to bolster its efforts of teaching Indigenous language and culture to kids. One is an original story written by kids from Harborview Elementary School in Juneau. n “Raven and The Hidden Halibut,” two animals that are complete opposites want to play with each other...(more) (1-12-21)

Top 10 Stories: What Indian Country read this past week as of January 9, 2021
By Vincent Schilling
What you, our Indian Country Today readers, read most...(more) (1-9-21)

Sealaska Heritage Institute offering cultural training for teachers, support staff, admins
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is recruiting Juneau School District elementary school teachers, support staff and administrators to participate in its 2021 cultural orientation program, which aims to incorporate Native world views into schools and promote cross-cultural understanding. The program, Thru the Cultural Lens, provides 50 hours of cultural orientations. Through the program, participants earn a stipend upon completion of all requirements and have the option of earning three continuing education credits through the University of Alaska Southeast...(more) (1-6-21)

Alaska Native artist shares story behind stamp
By Sandra Hale Schulman
Indian Country Today
A striking new stamp by Tlingit/Athabascan artist Rico Lanáat’ Worl will be issued in 2021. It features Raven — a figure of great significance to the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast — and merges traditional and contemporary tribal design. “Among the cultures of the region, Raven plays an essential role in many traditional tales, including stories about the creation of the world,” the Postal Service said in a release...(more) (1-4-20)

Sealaska Heritage and Nieman Marcus will settle lawsuit over sale of Ravenstail coat
By Jeremy Hsieh
KTOO
The lawsuit over Nieman Marcus selling a coat that bears a striking resemblance to a copyrighted, Alaska Native Ravenstail pattern is close to a settlement. Sealaska Heritage Institute and the heirs of the late weaver Clarissa Rizal sued the luxury retailer in April. In addition to violating the copyright, they said Nieman Marcus violated the Indian Arts and Crafts Act by misrepresenting the coat as an Alaska Native craft...(more) (12-31-20)

The Best of KTOO News 2020
By Jennifer Pemberton
KTOO
Almost everything we reported on this year falls into the categories of pandemic, election, racial justice or weather. We relentlessly covered the big events that defined the year. We started reporting on potential impacts of COVID-19 before it reached Alaska and eventually we reported on the pandemic daily, including the arrival of the first vaccine in Juneau...(more) (12-31-20)

Sealaska Heritage Institute publishes original Raven story written by children, language books
New series part of the institute’s Baby Raven Reads program
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has published four new books through its award-winning Baby Raven Reads program, including an original Raven story written by children and three books that teach the Lingít and Sm’algya̱x languages. The release includes Raven and the Hidden Halibut, an origin story based on traditional oral narratives. In the story, Halibut invites Raven to a game of hide and seek, and Raven is surprised how well Halibut, a bright white fish, can hide…(more) (12-28-20)

Neiman Marcus, MyTheresa, Farfetch close to settlement in Indian Arts and Crafts case
The Fashion Law
Neiman Marcus, MyTheresa, and Farfetch “have agreed to the key terms of settlement” in the case that the Sealaska Heritage Institute, Inc. (“SHI”) filed against them for making and/or selling a $2,500-plus knitted coat that allegedly violates federal copyright law, as well as the Indian Arts and Crafts Act (“IACA”) and the Alaska Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Act, in part because the Alanui-branded “Ravenstail Knitted Coat” was sold “in a manner that falsely suggests it was produced … by an Indian or Indian tribe” when it was not...(more) (12-24-20)

How Juneau, Alaska Is Becoming an Epicenter for Indigenous Art
The city is on a quest to solidify its standing as the Northwest Coast arts capital of the world
By Jennifer Nalewicki
Smithsonian Magazine
When it comes to art capitals, Rome, New York, Paris and Berlin are a few of the global hot spots that come to mind. However, if the city of Juneau, Alaska, has any say in the matter, it could very well earn a coveted spot on the list. A community-wide effort began in Juneau in late 2017, when Sealaska Heritage Institute, a private nonprofit that promotes cultural diversity through the arts and public services, announced its plans to make “Juneau the Northwest Coast arts capital of the world.” They'd meet this goal through the promotion and support of several Indigenous cultures that are strongly interwoven into the fabric of the region, and whose works exemplify this artistic style...(more) (12-23-20)

Native American Artist Rico Worl Designs U.S. Postage Stamp
By Nadja Sayej
Forbes
Tis the season for Christmas cards. But in fact, many people have returned to sending and receiving letter mail since the pandemic hit, from one pen pal match-making project out of New York City, to nursing homes reviving the art of lettermail. It’s all the more reason to pay attention to stamps. Not any kind of stamps, but ones that make history, rightfully so...(more) (12-16-20)

Raven Mail: Tlingit Artist Designs Stunning Stamp for U.S. Postal Service
Native News Online
By Tamara Ikenberg
Raven is swooping in, and making snail mail look snazzy.  Surrounded by twinkling gold stars, with the sun in his beak, the Trickster of Tlingit culture is the star of “Raven Story,” the new Forever Stamp by Tlingit and Athabascan artist Rico Lanáat’ Worl. “Raven Story,” believed to be the first USPS stamp designed by an Alaska Native, was unveiled last month. It will be in circulation in 2021 at a date yet to be announced...(more) (12-9-20)

Top 10 Stories: What Indian Country read this past week as of December 5, 2020
By Vincent Schilling
Indian Country Today
What you, our Indian Country Today readers, read most...(more) (12-5-20)

Priorities emerge for cruise line’s proposed dock project
Public feedback for cruise dock shows preference for local focus
By Peter Segall
Juneau Empire
Green space, locally-owned businesses and a focus on arts and culture emerged as some of Juneau residents’ top priorities for Norwegian Cruise Line’s proposed dock project on the downtown waterfront during a public meeting...(more) (12-4-20)

New Postal Stamp To Feature Design By Artist From Tlingit Tribe
By Ari Shapiro
All Things Considered
National Public Radio
The U.S. Postal Service plans to issue a stamp designed by Native American Rico Worl. It would become the first stamp designed by a member of the Tlingit tribe. In Alaska's Tlingit tribe, there's one character who appears again and again. Raven is in many traditional stories. And next year, he'll show up someplace new - a U.S. postage stamp...(more) (11-30-20) (KUOW) (WHQR) (ARTnews) (NetNebraska) (WQCS)

Tlingit artist designs stamp inspired by trickster raven tale for US Postal Service
By Samantha Davenport
Anchorage Daily News
Tlingit and Athabascan artist Rico Lanáat’ Worl designed a new postage stamp to be released in 2021 for the United States Postal Service, inspired by a traditional Indigenous tale. The Juneau-based artist says the stamp design, titled “Raven Story,” tells the story of trickster Raven, who sets free the sun, moon and stars before escaping from his human family and transforming back into bird form...(more) (11-28-20)

Top 10 Stories: What Indian Country read this past week as of November 28, 2020
By Vincent Schilling
Indian Country Today
What you, our Indian Country Today readers, read most...(more) (11-28-20)

City funds give arts campus project a boost
Contaminated soil created unexpected costs for ongoing work
By Peter Segall
The City and Borough of Juneau Assembly approved a $1.5 million dollar grant Monday toward the construction of the Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus in downtown Juneau. The appropriation was approved unanimously by the Assembly after a short public comment period in which Chairman of Sealaska Corporation’s Board of Directors Joe Nelson and former Juneau Mayor Bruce Botelho among others testified in support of the project. “I think the campus that’s been proposed is one opportunity to really invigorate our community,” Botelho said in his testimony. “It might be all too easy to forget that Juneau has a future beyond this disease.” No one spoke against the project during the meeting…(more) (11-24-20)

Juneau-based Tlingit artist designs Raven stamp
Associated Press
A depiction of Raven freeing the sun, stars and moon will appear on U.S. Postal Service Forever stamps in the near future thanks to a Juneau-based Tlingit artist, the Sealaska Heritage Institute has announced. Rico Lanáat’ Worl, a Tlingit/Athabascan artist and social designer, works alongside SHI with the aim of empowering indigenous artists, a Sealaska press release said. He has engaged in creative and artistic activities for his entire life, Worl told the Sentinel today. “Art is kind of integral to indigenous culture. It has always been around me, it’s always been integral to my life… I’ve always been involved in being creative,” Worl said…(more) (11-24-20) (The Washington Times) (The Seattle Times) (U.S. News & World Report) (Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce) (News Press Now) (EditorWeb360) (The Delta Discovery) (The Titusville Herald) (The Star) (News-Press Now)

Assembly awards $1.5 million for SHI
KINY
The Sealaska Heritage Institute cleared a huge hurdle Monday when they received a grant from the CBJ to help construct the SHI Arts Campus. The money will come from the CBJ general fund fund balance. Supporters said it would help the economy and also attract more visitors to Juneau...(more) (11-23-20)

Top 10 Stories: What Indian Country read this past week as of November 21, 2020
By Vincent Schilling
Indian Country Today
What you, our Indian Country Today readers, read most...(more) (11-21-20)

Tlingit artist from Juneau designs stamp for the U.S. Postal Service
By Henry Leasia
KHNS
Rico Lanáat’ Worl is the founder of Trickster Company, a design shop based in Juneau that incorporates traditional Northwest Coast Art into everything from T-shirts and stickers to skateboard decks and basketballs. He said that an art director with the U.S. Postal Service named Antonio Alcala called him up one day. “He had apparently discovered some of Trickster Company’s artwork at the National Museum of the American Indian’s giftshop in D.C. That’s sort of where our discussion began about making this design happen,” Worl said...(more) (Alaska Public Media) (KTOO) (KNBA) (11-20-20)

AlaskaBusiness
USPS has tapped a Tlingit artist based in Juneau to create a Northwest Coast art stamp for distribution in 2021. The design of the stamp, titled “Raven Story” by Rico Lanáat’ Worl, was unveiled this week by USPS as part of its Forever Stamps series…(more) (News Break) (11-19-20)

USPS unveils Tlingit artist's postage stamp design
Ketchikan Radio Center
The U.S. Postal Service has tapped a Tlingit artist based in Juneau to create a Northwest Coast art stamp for distribution in 2021. The design of the stamp, titled “Raven Story” by Rico Lanaat Worl, was unveiled this week by the Postal Service as part of its Forever Stamps series...(more) (11-19-20)

USPS unveils Tlingit artist's postage stamp design
Sitka Radio Center
The U.S. Postal Service has tapped a Tlingit artist based in Juneau to create a Northwest Coast art stamp for distribution in 2021. The design of the stamp, titled “Raven Story” by Rico Lanaat Worl, was unveiled this week by the Postal Service as part of its Forever Stamps series...(more) (11-19-20)

US Postal Service picks Tlingit artist’s design for a 2021 stamp
By Gilbert Cordova
KTUU
A Tlingit and Athabascan artist from Juneau will have one of his designs featured in the U.S. Postal Services’ 2021 stamp program. The stamp, titled “Raven Story” by artist Rico Lanaat Worl, is one of a dozen stamp designs that were unveiled earlier this week. “Merging traditional artwork with modern design touches, this stamp depicts one of many stories about Raven, a figure of great significance to the Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast. Among the cultures of the region, Raven plays an essential role in many traditional tales, including stories about the creation of the world. Inspired by the traditional story of Raven setting free the sun, the moon and the stars, Tlingit/Athabascan artist Rico Worl depicts Raven just as he escapes from his human family and begins to transform back into his bird form,” the Postal Service said in a release...(more) (11-19-20)

Putting his stamp on it: Tlingit artist creates Northwest Coast design for USPS
The stamp will become available in 2021
By Michael S. Lockett
Juneau Empire
In 2021, the United States Postal Service will release what is though to be its first stamp designed by a Tlingit artist, depicting Raven, a being represented in many traditional Tlingit stories. Rico Lanáat’ Worl, artist and co-founder of local company Trickster Company, designed the stamp, titled “Raven Story,” modeled after a traditional Tlingit tale. “The story I’m referencing is ‘Raven and the Box of Daylight.’ It’s probably one of the most depicted stories in Tlingit art,” Worl said in a phone interview. “It’s a national platform, so I wanted to make sure there’s a good entry point for others to learn from"...(more) (11-19-20)

Tlingit artist creates stamp for U.S. Postal Service
Indian Country Today
The U.S. Postal Service has tapped Rico Lanáat’ Worl, a Tlingit/Athabascan artist based in Juneau, to create a Northwest Coast art stamp for distribution in 2021. The design of the stamp, titled “Raven Story” by Rico Lanáat’ Worl, was unveiled this week by the Postal Service as part of its Forever Stamps series...(more) (11-19-20)

USPS unveils Tlingit artist's postage stamp design
KINY
The U.S. Postal Service has tapped a Tlingit artist based in Juneau to create a Northwest Coast art stamp for distribution in 2021. The design of the stamp, titled “Raven Story” by Rico Lanaat Worl, was unveiled this week by the Postal Service as part of its Forever Stamps series...(more) (11-19-20)

Norwegian Cruise Lines unveils initial design concepts for downtown Juneau property
By Adelyn Baxter
KTOO
Last year, Norwegian Cruise Lines outbid competitors when it agreed to pay the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority $20 million for a 3-acre parcel of waterfront land in downtown Juneau. Now, Norwegian is moving forward with its development plans for the lot...(more) (11-19-20)

Opinion: City investment in Arts Campus would provide economic and cultural returns
We humbly ask the people of Juneau to take this journey with us again
By Rosita Worl
Juneau Empire
The city Assembly will meet next week to consider an investment of $1.5 million for the Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus, which is part of Sealaska Heritage Institute’s vision to make Juneau the Northwest Coast arts capital of the world. The city’s contribution to the arts campus is an investment that will provide significant and long-term economic benefits to Juneau and the business community, as well as the type of cultural and educational benefits — for Native and non-Native people — that enrich our town and make it a better place to live...(more) (11-18-20)

Nicole George '16 is Helping to Expand the Reach of her Lingít Language
By Mike Francis
Pacific University Oregon
Only about 100 people in the United States are fluent speakers of Lingít, one of three heritage languages spoken in southeast Alaska and western British Columbia. But Nicole George ’16 is helping others learn. Since January, George has served as the Tlingit Language Project coordinator at the Sealaska Heritage Institute, a private nonprofit corporation in Juneau, Alaska, that seeks to perpetuate and enhance the cultures of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people of southeast Alaska...(more) (11-17-20)

Travel Alaska blog — Indigenous cultures
Travel Alaska
Depending on where you travel in Alaska, you might have dozens of opportunities to learn about the state’s Indigenous peoples and cultures, whether you visit Saxman Native Village near Ketchikan, hear stories about Glacier Bay from a Huna Tlingit cultural guide or watch artists working on their Umiaqs for whaling season at the Iñupiat Heritage Center…(more) (11-13-20)

Sealaska Heritage Institute awarded federal grant to publish Tlingit, Haida archives for language revitalization project
By Pablo Arauz Peña
KTOO
Late Tlingit scholars Nora Ḵeixwnéi Marks and Richard Xwaayeenák̲ Dauenhauer once dedicated the first volume of their book “Classics of Tlingit Oral Literature” to Tlingit orators. They co-edited the four-volume series and were two-time winners of the American Book Award. The couple carried the knowledge of Southeast Alaska’s Native languages into the 21st century. Recently, the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded Sealaska Heritage Institute a two-year grant to process and digitally publish a massive collection of Tlingit and Haida documents archived by the late scholars...(more) (KNBA) (11-10-20)

Alaska Tlingits hold memorial ceremony online amid pandemic
By Mark Thiessen
Associated Press
When a Tlingit elder dies, leaders from the Alaska Native tribe’s two houses, the Raven and Eagle clans, typically come together along with family and well-wishers for a memorial ceremony featuring displays of traditional tribal regalia. After elder, tribal leader and college professor David Katzeek died last month, the tribe scrambled to find a way to observe their sacred traditions while keeping everyone safe during the pandemic, with coronavirus cases surging in the state. “We know that many of our people are grieving over this great loss, but we also recognized that we need to protect each other and make sure we stay healthy. We also wanted to honor Kingeisti in our traditional way,” Sealaska Heritage Institute president Rosita Worl said, using Katzeek’s Tlingit name...(more) (Juneau Empire) (KINY) (KOB) (ABC National) (Anchorage Daily News) (San Francisco Chronicle) (USA Today) (Arkansas Online) (KAAL) (Houston Chronicle) (KPRC) (East Oregonian) (Greenwich Times) (The Wilton Bulletin) (The Daily Universe) (11-10-20)

David Katzeek leaves legacy of revitalized language, culture
He had this vision of what needed to be accomplished for the renaissance of Tlingit culture
By Joaqlin Estus
Indian Country Today
Kingeisti David G. Katzeek, Tlingit, died suddenly last week, leaving a gaping hole in the ceremonial, educational and community life of his people. He was 77. He was passionate about increasing his understanding of the Tlingit language and culture and teaching it to others, building on what he’d learned as a child from his parents and grandparents in the village of Klukwan, in Southeast Alaska...(more) (11-6-20)

Virtual memorial ceremony scheduled for David Katzeek
Indian Country Today
A  virtual memorial ceremony has been scheduled for Shangukeidí (Thunderbird) Clan Leader David Katzeek, who Walked Into the Forest on Oct. 28 at the age of 77. Because of David Katzeek’s significant cultural contributions and decades of service to Southeast Alaska Natives, cultural leaders representing both Eagle and Raven clans met to plan a virtual memorial ceremony with the technical assistance of Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI)...(more) (11-4-20)

Traditional memorial ceremony to be held virtually
It will be livestreamed and open to the public
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute plans to hold a first-of-its-kind virtual memorial ceremony for a late Tlingit clan leader, beloved elder and educator. Kingeisti David Katzeek, 77, passed away on Oct. 28. A virtual, traditional memorial ceremony is scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursday for the Shangukeidí Clan leader, SHI announced...(more) (10-4-20)

Alaska awards for contributions to literacy announced
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Supporters of writers, literacy and education are the winners of the 2020 Contributions to Literacy in Alaska awards, announced this month by the Alaska Center for the Book. This year’s winners are...(more) (10-29-20)

Filling In the Map: Presenting and Preserving Native Alaskan History
Institute of Museum and Library Services
It’s no surprise that interactive exhibits attract more attention and make learning more fun. So when the Sealaska Heritage Institute was given the opportunity through a Native American Museum Services grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to enhance its tabletop display showing a satellite map of Southeast Alaska, they were eager to get started...(more) (10-29-20) 

Tlingit Elder, clan leader David Katzeek passes away
KINY
David Katzeek, a respected Tlingit elder, mentor, and clan leader of the Shangukeidí, has passed away. Katzeek was born in Klukwan in November 1942 to Anna and George J. Katzeek. He was a Chilkat Eagle Tlingit of the Shangukeidí Clan from the Thunderbird House, the House Lowered by the Sun, and the Tree Bark House in Chilkat Kwáan Klukwan, and a child of the Gaanaxteidí Clan...(more) (10-29-20)

Clan leader and Tlingit language education pioneer has died
Katzeek helped advanced Tlingit language revival
By Peter Segall
Juneau Empire
Kingeisti David Katzeek, clan leader of the Shangukeidí, founding president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute and a Tlingit language and culture professor died last night, SHI said in a statement. Statements made about Katzeek following the news spoke glowingly of his role as a clan leader and pioneer of Tlingit language and culture education. “Our culture has gone through thousands of years of survival, we can see now through his teaching our students have learned our culture,” said Rosita Worl, president of Sealaska Heritage Institute said in a phone interview Thursday...(more) (10-29-10)

Tlingit elder and clan leader King̱eestí David Katzeek has died
KHNS and KTOO
By Henry Leasia
King̱eestí David Katzeek died last night according to an announcement from the Sealaska Heritage Institute. Katzeek was the clan leader of the Shangukeidi, the first president of Sealaska Heritage Foundation and an educator who championed Tlingit culture and language...(more) (10-29-20)

Downtown arts campus gets a funding boost
Capital City Weekly
The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust has pledged $400,000 toward construction of the Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus being built by Sealaska Heritage Institute, the nonprofit that protects and promotes Southeast Alaska Native arts and culture announced. The donation, which will be given when the institute raises the remaining balance needed to finish construction, would put SHI a step closer to its fundraising goal of $13 million, SHI said in a news release. The institute still needs to raise about $2 million...(more) (10-29-20)

Washington man donates Frog button blanket to Sealaska Heritage
By Tripp Crouse
KNBA
A Washington state resident donated a Frog button blanket to Sealaska Heritage Institute. According to a Sealaska Heritage news release, the blanket is thought to date from the late 1800s and belonged to the late Ethel Kiley...(more) (10-27-20)

Discussion of generational trauma research postponed because of pandemic
By Tripp Crouse
KNBA
Community discussion surrounding a study of generational trauma has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Sealaska Heritage Institute and the Hoonah Indian Association are collaborating on a study that looks at the potential impact of historical trauma on Alaska Native people...(more) (10-26-20)

Southeast Alaska Native artists struggle to survive a season without cruises
By Tamara Ikenburg
Tribal Business News
In the remote Southeast Alaska village of Metlakatla, population 1,375, Tsimshian artist Dale Horne shapes cedar and abalone into masks, suns, killer whale fins, paddles, boxes and bowls. Horne may live and work off the beaten path, but he still does a robust business by selling his work in galleries and gift shops like Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau and Crazy Wolf Studio and Arctic Spirit Gallery in Ketchikan. Both cities swell with upwards of 1 million tourists annually, thanks to the active cruise ship season that runs from May through September...(more) (10-19-20)

Native Org. Says Neiman Marcus IP Row Belongs In Alaska
By Emma Whitford
Law360
An Alaska Native organization has urged an Alaska federal court not to grant several Neiman Marcus entities' bid to ax a copyright suit over a patterned coat the organization says is appropriative, accusing the retailer of "outdated notions" of jurisdiction. The nonprofit, Sealaska Heritage Institute Inc., said Neiman Marcus entities includingMyTheresa.com, which started advertising the "Ravenstail Knitted Coat" in April, are trying to skirt Alaska federal court while ignoring the realities of the internet and online shopping....(more) (10-13-20)

Washington man donates old frog button blanket to SHI
KINY
A blanket that dates back to the late nineteenth century was donated by Rick Verlinda, who received the blanket from his grandmother, Ethel Kiley, of Klukwan. Kiley was a Tlingit Raven of the Gaanaxteidi lan which uses the frog crest. She kept the blanket in a sealed plastic bag, and it had been in her closet for many years...(more) (10-9-20)

Contaminated soil delays Juneau arts institute construction
Associated Press
A discovery of contaminated soil has delayed construction of a new arts center in Alaska’s capital city. The contamination may affect the target date to complete Sealaska Heritage Institute’s future arts campus in downtown Juneau, KTOO Public Media reported Tuesday. “Believe me, it’s aggravating for me to look out the window and not see anything happening,” said Lee Kadinger, the institute’s chief operating officer. “We’re waiting for soil testing to come back, and so things are just kind of on hold”...(more) (Ketchikan Daily News) (Lexington Herald Leader) (The Hour) (News Press Now) (10-7-20)

Profiles in Science Engagement with Faith Communities
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
In this profile, the AAAS spoke with SHI President Rosita Worl about her work documenting a traditional Indigenous Alaskan ceremony, and Indigenous Alaskan cultural knowledge loss...(more) (10-7-20)

Contaminated soil puts arts campus construction on hold
By Jeremy Hsieh
KTOO
Construction began in August on Sealaska Heritage Institute’s future arts campus in downtown Juneau. But they found contaminated soil, which may affect the institute’s goal to have it complete in time for Celebration next year. The site in downtown Juneau ought to be busy with construction work. Instead, earth movers sit idle inside the fenced-off site...(more) (10-6-20)

Contaminated soil adds to cost of arts campus
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute got a surprise they didn't want recently when contaminated soil was found on the proposed site of the SHI Heritage Arts Campus. It will cost about $500,000 to remove the soil. The CBJ Assembly discussed a $1.5 million grant for the project this week during the finance committee meeting...(more) (10-2-20)

Assembly to deal with arts campus construction contamination after local election
KINY
CBJ Manager Rorie Watt was asked on Action Line about the request from the Sealaska Heritage Institute for $1.5 Million in city funds to address a contamination problem at the site of its art campus. "It looks like it's from old gas stations.  Back in the day, I think we had two different gas stations at two different times down there at the corner of Main and Front," he said. Watt added Every time anybody digs up an old gas station site that's what you find"...(more) (10-2-20)

Sealaska Heritage asks for city support for project
Soiled soil is the problem
By Ben Hohenstatt
Unexpected contaminated soil means the in-progress Northwest Coast arts campus downtown needs city support soon to keep progressing, said the chief operating officer for the nonprofit creating the campus. Lee Kadinger, COO for Sealaska Heritage Institute, said Wednesday during a City and Borough of Juneau Assembly Finance Committee meeting a $1.5 million grant being considered by the city is needed in the near future to cover additional expenses caused by the contaminated earth…(more) (10-2-20)

Sealaska Heritage Institute to revitalize, perpetuate Southeast Alaska Native languages
The Alaska 100
Sealaska Heritage Institute and University of Anchorage Southeast is bestowing 18 students committed to learning and teaching Southeast Alaska Native languages to receive immersive language training, including summer language institutes and additional language opportunities...(more) (9-30-20)

Neiman Marcus, MyTheresa want out of lawsuit over $2,500 coat "copied" from Alaskan Native
The Fashion Law
Neiman Marcus Groupand its subsidiary MyTheresa want the lawsuit filed against them for selling a sweater that allegedly ripped off a pattern associated with Native American groups tossed out of court. In a motion to dismiss filed on September 14, counsel for Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. (“NMGI”) and MyTheresa argues that the plaintiff, the Sealaska Heritage Institute, Inc. (“SHI”) – a nonprofit “established to perpetuate and enhance the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska” – lacks the requisite jurisdiction to include them in a suit over Alanui’s $2,500-plus Ravenstail Knitted Coat...(more) (9-21-20)

Tlingit photo collection ‘not like anything else’ donated to Sealaska Heritage Institute
By Grant Robinson
KTUU
A collection of photographs believed to be the largest collection taken by a Tlingit person will soon give anyone wanting to learn more about the history and culture of Angoon a unique window into the past. Last month, the family of the late Cyril George donated an estimated 4,000 photographs to the Sealaska Heritage Institute. George, who died in 2014 at the age of 92, was a Tlingit elder, former mayor and councilman in Angoon, and was generally very involved in the community...(more) (9-18-20)

One-of-a-kind photo collection documents life in Angoon
By Erin McKinstry
KCAW
Cyril George was a leader in the Beaver Clan of Angoon and was known for his contributions to local and regional politics. He was also known by those he was closest to as a photographer. When he died six years ago at the age of 92, he left behind a vast photo collection that is thought to be the largest ever made by someone who was Tlingit. George’s family recently donated those photos with the goal of making them available to the public...(more) (KTOO) (Alaska Public Media) (KNBA) (9-15-20)

Upcoming lecture focuses on Douglas’ history and healing
It will be livestreamed
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute is sponsoring a lecture concerning history and healing on Douglas Island. The lecture will be livestreamed on SHI’s YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTOynWRsH0EDYf1rw8oWV3w, from noon to 1 p.m., Friday, Sept. 11. Dan Monteith, who has been an anthropology professor at University of Alaska Southeast for more than 20 years and has been researching events of historical trauma in Douglas and how the community can move forward toward healing since 2012, will be the lecture’s speaker...(more) (9-9-20)

New arts campus construction proceeding on schedule
Work continues without presence of more than a million visitors
By Michael S. Lockett
Juneau Empire
As many residents of downtown Juneau and Douglas are likely aware, construction downtown on Sealaska Heritage Institute’s arts campus has entered a new and energetically noisy phase. “Things are going fairly well,” said Lee Kadinger, SHI’s chief of operations. “We’ll spend the next couple weeks driving pile around the perimeter of the campus”...(more) (9-4-20)

A UAS project aims to preserve and revitalize Alaska Native languages
By Gilbert Cordova
KTUU
It’s an all too familiar tale, Indigenous languages on the verge of going extinct. Lost to time with the move to English being a predominant language in many households and the lack of native language speakers. But a project at the University of Alaska Southeast is looking to change the narrative. It’s called the “Haa Yoo X’atángi Deiyí: Our Language Pathway” project, a three-year grant focused on language immersion in collaboration with Sealaska Heritage Institute...(more) (8-26-20)

Angoon family donates vast photo collection to Sealaska Heritage
The photos span 75 years
Juneau Empire
The family of the late Tlingit traditional scholar and master storyteller Cyril George, Sr. has donated a vast photo collection to Sealaska Heritage Institute that documents 75 years of Alaska Native life and history, SHI announced. Most of the images were taken by George, a prolific photographer for most of his life...(more) (8-26-20)

Cyril George' family donates 4,000 photos to Sealaska Heritage
KINY
The family of the late Tlingit traditional scholar and master storyteller Cyril George, Sr. donated photos collected over 75 years that depict Alaska Native life and history. The donation is thought to be the largest collection of photographs made by a Tlingit person. The donation was made during a transfer ceremony at the Sealaska Heritage Institute Clan House last week...(more) (8-25-20)

Sealaska Heritage Institute recruits 18 scholars for Native language program
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has recruited 18 Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian scholars to revitalize and perpetuate Southeast Alaska Native languages through a program at the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS). Through the initiative, Haa Yoo X̱’atángi Deiyí: Our Language Pathways, Sealaska Heritage Institute and University of Alaska Southeast are offering immersive language training for the scholars, who are committed to learning and teaching the languages...(more) (8-20-20)

Civil rights leader Elizabeth Peratrovich, senator Lisa Murkowski among 10 influential women from Alaska
By Lindsay Schnell
USA TODAY
In the 1940s, almost 20 years before Alaska became the 49th state of America, signs frequently were hung in store windows and doors that spoke to blatant racism in the area. Phrases like “No Natives Allowed” or “No Dogs or Indians” were common. But Elizabeth Peratrovich was determined to change it. After all, hadn’t her Indigenous ancestors been here long before European settlers moved in?...(more) (8-17-20)

Work begins on SHI’s arts campus
COVID canceled the groundbreaking, but not the construction
By Peter Segall
Juneau Empire
Construction has officially begun on Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Arts Campus in downtown Juneau with hopes to be mostly completed by next summer, according to Chief of Operations Lee Kadinger. “A leap of faith,” Kadinger called it in a phone interview with the Empire Thursday. “It’s an exciting time, we’re able to take advantage of starting construction at a time least impactful to the community”...(more) (8-7-20)

Sealaska Heritage begins construction of arts campus
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) today launched the construction phase of its Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus, putting it one step closer to making Juneau the Northwest Coast arts capital of the world. A small traditional ceremony had been planned but was cancelled due to the rise in local COVID-19 infections and concern for the safety of the Elders and clan leaders who would conduct the ceremony. However a grand celebration is planned when the construction of the arts campus is completed...(more) (8-5-20)

Elders to Sealaska: 'It is your responsibility to ensure our cultural survival'
By Joaqlin Estus
Indian Country Today
Indigenous people are used to overcoming obstacles in stressful situations and COVID-19 has created another opportunity to prevail. In Alaska, where they've had recent outbreaks, Native organizations are structured differently from the lower 48. On today's newscast Rosita Worl, Tlingit, explains how Alaska Native corporations are handling the pandemic and explains why they were created in the first place under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971...(more) (8-4-20)

It’s been years in the making. Now, students can enroll in a Northwest Coast arts program
By Elizabeth Jenkins
KTOO
This fall, students headed to the University of Alaska Southeast can enroll in a new associate degree program in art. It’s part of a larger vision — in works for several years now — to establish a Northwest Coast arts hub...(more) (8-4-20)

Sealaska Heritage's Our Cultural Landscape Virtual Conference
KINY
Capital Chat
Angie Lunda and Lisa Richardson, organizers of SHI's Our Cultural Landscape culturally responsive education conference, talk about the event...(more) (8-4-20)

Sealaska Heritage Institute, university partner for new degree program
An Associate of Arts with an emphasis on Northwest Coast arts
Juneau Empire
University of Alaska Southeast and Sealaska Heritage Institute are partnering for a new Associate of Arts degree with an emphasis on Northwest Coast arts, SHI announced. The undergraduate program, recently unveiled in the UAS academic catalog for 2020-2021, includes a wide spectrum of classes, such as tool making, design, basketry and weaving among others...(more) (7-29-20)

SHI, UAS debut new degree program with arts emphasis
KINY
The University of Alaska Southeast, in partnership with Sealaska Heritage Institute, for the first time is offering a new Associate of Arts degree with an emphasis on Northwest Coast arts. The undergraduate program, recently unveiled in the UAS academic catalog for 2020-2021, includes a wide spectrum of classes—from tool-making to design, basketry, and weaving among others...(more) (7-28-20)

Efforts underway in Alaska to remove statues of colonialists
By Brian P.D. Hannon
Associated Press
As many in the Lower 48 call for statues of Confederate leaders to be removed amid a national reckoning on race, some Alaska residents are conducting a similar movement demanding statues tied to colonization be eliminated or relocated. A statue of Russian colonialist Alexander Baranov will be taken out of public view in one city and petitions are circulating calling for the removal of statues dedicated to former U.S. Secretary of State and Alaska purchase architect William Seward and Capt. James Cook, who has been credited with discovering land already inhabited by Indigenous people...(more) (The New York Times) (Minneapolis Star Tribune) (Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette) (The Hill) (News-Press Now) (Sitka Sentinel) (7-26-20)

“Our Cultural Landscape” virtual conference
By Sheli DeLaney
KRNN
Friday on Juneau Afternoon, we’ll learn about the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP) and their virtual Acceleration Academy…(more) (7-23-20)

Sealaska Heritage’s library grows with donation of Northwest Coast art books
Indian Country Today
A Seattle resident has donated a collection of books on Northwest Coast (NWC) art to the Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) library. Lesley Jacobs, who studied Northwest Coast art under the formline design scholar Bill Holm, gave more than 20 books to Sealaska Heritage Institute for the benefit of art students...(more) (7-23-20)

Sealaska Heritage Institute library grows thanks to donations
Seattle resident donates Northwest Coast art books
Juneau Empire
A Seattle resident donated more than 20 books on Northwest Coast art to the Sealaska Heritage Institute library, SHI announced. Lesley Jacobs, who studied NWC art under the formline design scholar Bill Holm, gave the books to SHI for the benefit of art students, according to news release from SHI...(more) (7-22-20)

Weaver donates ‘Chilkat Protector Mask’
It will enter Sealaska Heritage Institute’s permanent collection
Peninsula Clarion
Face coverings are becoming a common sight around Southeast Alaska and the country, but few look anything like the Chilkat mask just donated to Sealaska Heritage Institute. Juneau artist Lily Hope, a well-known Tlingit weaver, wove the mask as a nod to the cornoavirus pandemic using an ancient art practice in a new way, SHI announced. The piece, “Chilkat Protector Mask,” is a work of fine art that will go into the institute’s permanent collection and tell the story of the virus through the Native world view for many years to come, said SHI President Rosita Worl in a news release...(more) (7-8-20)

Neiman Marcus filed for bankruptcy, but lawsuit is moving ahead over ‘Ravenstail knitted coat’
By Elizabeth Jenkins
KTOO
Neiman Marcus is one of the clothing retailers that’s seen a decline in sales because of the coronavirus. The company filed for bankruptcy in early May — just weeks after it was sued by Sealaska Heritage Institute. The company was selling a so-called “Ravenstail knitted coat” on its website, which the Institute alleges is a copy of a notable Alaska Native weaver’s design...(more) (Alaska Public Media) (7-1-20) 

Weaver Lily Hope donates Chilkat Protector mask to Juneau’s Sealaska Heritage Institute
By Elizabeth Jenkins
KTOO
A Chilkat mask woven to document the coronavirus pandemic has been donated to Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau. Famed weaver, Lily Hope, created a similar mask as part of an online art competition in April. It took her 60 hours to weave the mask, which was later acquired by the Burke Museum in Seattle...(more) (Alaska Public Media) (KNBA) (6-26-20)

Outgoing UAS chancellor: Merger talk ‘something you should pay attention to’
Caulfield said workforce development programs could be in jeopardy
By Peter Segall
Juneau Empire
The proposal to merge the University of Alaska Southeast with UA Fairbanks is troubling and should be a concern to businesses in Southeast Alaska, said UAS Chancellor Rick Caulfield Thursday in an address to the Greater Juneau Chamber of Commerce...(more) (6-25-20)

‘Take them all down’: Statues spark discussion about colonialism in Alaska
By Tripp Crouse
KTOO
In St. Paul, Minnesota, leaders from the American Indian Movement of the Twin-Cities orchestrated and helped in the toppling of a Christopher Columbus statue on the state capitol grounds. Videos of the event went viral, and helped initiate a conversation about what statues of Confederate war figures, as well as Columbus and others mean today...(more) (6-26-20)

Weavers celebrate new robe with first dance at SHI
The event is part of a resurgent trend for traditional weaving
By Michael S. Lockett
Juneau Empire
Lily Hope and Ricky Tagaban, two of Juneau’s preeminent Chilkat and Ravenstail-style weavers, celebrated the completion of a robe Monday night with its first dance, held at Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Shuká Hít clan house. “The first dance event stemmed from my mother, Clarissa Rizal,” said Hope in a phone interview. “She taught me and Ricky to weave. In 2016, when she finished her 11th Northwest Coast textile. It was the first time she had had a dance for the release of a blanket”...(more) (6-25-20)

Opinion: United we stand, divided we fall
Here is what I know: The statue is causing pain to some of my neighbors
By Phil Mundy
Juneau Empire
When first confronted with the idea of removing the statue of Secretary William Seward from its position near the state capitol in my current hometown, Juneau, Alaska, I was disturbed and not a little angry. Seward was an abolitionist who served in the cabinets of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson...(more) (6-24-20)

Petition seeks removal of Juneau statue honoring Alaska-purchase driver William H. Seward
Associated Press
Petitioners have called for the removal of a statue depicting the U.S. cabinet secretary who arranged the purchase of the state’s land from Russia. Juneau resident Jennifer LaRoe launched a Change.org petition last week to remove a statue of William H. Seward from a plaza in the state’s capital city, The Juneau Empire reported Saturday...(more) (6-23-20)

Opinion: Call to remove Seward statue is consistent with views of Southeast Alaska Natives
For myself, I am reminded on a near-daily basis of Seward’s history and the symbols he represents
By Rosita Worl
Juneau Empire
The call for the removal of the William H. Seward statue is consistent with long-held views of Southeast Alaska Natives. The Tlingit have erected three Shame Totem Poles depicting Seward, later ones replacing a deteriorated pole. The original Shame Pole erected by the Tongass Tlingit was a reminder of the debt Seward owed the Tlingit...(more) (6-21-20)

2020 Thank you letters
Juneau Empire
Thank you to everyone who helped to make our virtual Celebration 2020 happen. Because of the pandemic, for the first time we switched from an in-person event, which we have held biennially for nearly 40 years, to a virtual platform. We had hoped to come together, virtually and spiritually, and by all accounts, that happened...(more) (6-21-20)

Polarizing Petition: Hundreds call for statue’s removal
Some say Seward belongs in a museum, not across from the Capitol
By Peter Segall
Juneau Empire
A petition has been filed calling for the removal of the statue of William H. Seward from Dimond Courthouse Plaza across from the Alaska State Capitol. In the wake of the death George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis police custody after an officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck, statues of historical figures have been torn down, vandalized or peaceably removed as protesters call for a re-examination of those figures’ legacies and reconsideration of what kind of people are memorialized in the public square...(more) (6-20-20)

Sitkan Wins Top Honors at Sealaska Art Show
Sitka Sentinel
Tlingit artist Jerrod Galanin of Sitka won Best of Show for “Ch’áak’ Aanyádi” (The High Caste Eagle) at Sealaska Heritage Institute’s 10th biennial Juried Art Show and Competition, June 10. Galanin’s piece is a copper grease bowl with an Eagle design. It also won Best of Metal Category. Eighteen artists took top prizes and honorable mentions. The show is being displayed online. Jurors Deborah Head, or Aanutein, and art historian Steve Henrikson in a written statement said the formline design was expertly designed and beautifully engraved...(more) (6-19-20)

School board approves collaboration agreement with Sealaska, budget revisions
By Caleb Vierkant
Wrangell Sentinel
The Wrangell School Board met Monday, June 15, to accept a collaboration agreement with the Sealaska Heritage Institute. They also approved of some budget revisions. According to the collaboration agreement, in the meeting's agenda packet, Sealaska has received an Alaska Native Education Program grant, from the Department of Education. The purpose of this grant is to support a three-year project to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education in several Southeast Alaskan communities. Wrangell is included in the project, titled "STEAM-Making: A Culturally Respo.....(more) (6-19-20)

Sealaska Heritage honors longtime Juneau photographer Brian Wallace
By Jeremy Hsieh
KTOO
During Celebration this week, Sealaska Heritage Institute recognized longtime Juneau photographer Brian Wallace with an award. Locals likely know him and his work. He photographed the community as a staff photographer for The Juneau Empire over three decades. Now independent, he also shot every single Celebration, the weeklong cultural event that happens every two years in Juneau that began in 1982...(more) (Alaska Public Media) (KNBA) (6-14-20)

During virtual Celebration, some long for the invigoration of meeting in-person
By Matt Miller
KTOO
Harvey Shields is a leader with the Cape Fox Dancers in Saxman and he remembers the months, even years it sometimes takes to plan and prepare for Celebration in Juneau. Of course, there’s practicing song and dance. Then, there’s all the fundraising to pay for transportation and lodging for as many as a hundred people in the dance group...(more) (6-14-20)

With in-person markets canceled, Celebration encourages virtual options to sell traditional crafts
By Adelyn Baxter
KTOO
The biennial Celebration, one of the largest gatherings of Alaska Natives in the country, brings an estimated $2 million to Juneau in just four days. While the city will miss out on bed and sales tax revenue this year thanks to the pandemic, Native artists who come from all over to sell their work will feel the financial hit even more...(more) (6-13-20)

CBJ's Edwardson honored during virtual 2020 Celebration
KINY
Retiring Juneau Assemblyman and Haida tribal member Rob Edwardson was honored with a 2020 “Award for Public Service” by Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Board of Trustees on Saturday during the SHI’s virtual Celebration 2020 broadcast. In a video shown during the program, SHI noted Edwardson’s more than 30 years of public service and his strong belief in contributing to his community...(more) (6-13-20)

Wright named 'Teacher of Distinction' during Celebration 2020
KINY
Longtime Hoonah teacher Daphne Wright was honored with a 2020 “Teacher of Distinction” award by Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Board of Trustees on Friday during SHI’s virtual Celebration 2020 broadcast. Wright has taught at Hoonah schools for more than 35 years and has been a force for integrating Native language, protocols, traditions, and history into classes...(more) (6-13-20)

Sealaska Heritage honors Person and Teacher of Distinction during virtual Celebration
Longtime teacher and photojournalist feted
Juneau Empire
Daphne Wright won a 2020 Teacher of Distinction award presented by Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Board of Trustees on Friday during SHI’s virtual Celebration 2020 broadcast, SHI announced. Wright, a longtime Hoonah teacher, has taught at Hoonah City Schools for more than 35 years, and according to SHI, has been a force for integrating Native language, protocols, traditions and history into classes...(more) (6-13-20)

‘Stunning’ piece wins Best of Show in Juried Art Competition
Sealaska Heritage Institute announces winners
Juneau Empire
Eighteen artists won top prizes and honorable mentions at Sealaska Heritage Institute’s 10th biennial Juried Art Show and Competition. The art show was part of this year’s virtual Celebration. Jurors reviewed the pieces blindly, meaning the names of artists who submitted pieces were not disclosed. The show along with exemplary pieces are featured in an an online exhibit...(more) (6-13-20)

Haida weaver wins three titles at Sealaska juried art show
Karissa Gall
Haida Gwaii Observer
A Haida weaver has won three titles at the Sealaska Heritage Institute 10th Biennial Northwest Coast Juried Art Show and Competition. Stlaaygee X_ay Guul Kun K_ayangas Marlene Liddle, who is based in Old Massett, took home a total of US$1,700 for her wins in the endangered art division, for her small spruce root basket, as well as the weaving and basketry division and category, respectively, for her imitation abalone hat...(more) (6-12-20)

Wallace honored during SHI’s virtual Celebration 2020
KINY
Longtime Tlingit photojournalist Brian Wallace was honored with a 2020 “Person of Distinction” award by Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Board of Trustees. The announcement came on Thursday during SHI’s virtual Celebration 2000 broadcast...(more) (6-11-20)

How an art show was judged from a distance during virtual Celebration
By Elizabeth Jenkins
KTOO
This week marks the beginning of Celebration: An event that brings thousands of Native Alaskan people to Juneau every two years. But this year, the festivities aren’t happening in-person. They’re happening online, due to COVID-19.  That includes a Northwest Coast art show, where art pieces were judged from a distance...(more) (6-11-20)

Educator and artist Daaljini Cruise on Celebration and meet Elaine Jack, Clifton Gutherie, and Jerrod Galanin
KTOO, Juneau Afternoon
On Thursday’s show, we’ll speak with speak with teacher, artist, mother and leader Daaljini Cruise about the significance of Celebration, how she and her family are participating this year, and social equity. We’ll also meet Elaine Jack, Clifton Gutherie, and Jerrod Galanin – winners from this year’s virtual Celebration Juried Art Show and Competition...(more) (6-11-20)

Virtual Celebration: fashion and toddler regalia shows
KTOO, Juneau Afternoon
Sheli DeLaney hosts on Wednesday, June 10, 2020. On Wednesday’s show, representatives from Sealaska Heritage Institute will preview this year’s virtual Celebration Indigenous Fashion show and Toddler Regalia Review...(more) (6-10-20)

SHI names winners in Celebration Juried Art Show
KINY
Eighteen artists have taken top prizes and honorable mentions at Sealaska Heritage Institute’s 10th biennial Juried Art Show and Competition. Tlingit artist Jerrod Galanin won Best of Show for “Ch’áak’ Aanyádi” (The High Caste Eagle), a copper grease bowl with an Eagle design...(more) (6-10-20)

Sealaska Heritage Institute to kick off first-ever virtual celebration this week
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will kick off its first-ever virtual Celebration this week in an effort to bring people together after the coronavirus pandemic in April caused the institute to postpone the in-person event. Virtual Celebration 2020 will include dance performances from Celebration 2018 and new content, including submissions from people around the region and videos of associated events...(more) (6-10-20)

First-ever virtual Celebration happens this week
By Adelyn Baxter
KTOO
Without parades of dancers and a packed convention hall, this year’s Celebration will look very different. Sealaska Heritage Institute’s board of trustees decided to postpone the four-day gathering until June 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic...(more) (6-9-20)

Virtual Celebration preview
KTOO, Juneau Afternoon
Sheli DeLaney hosts on Tuesday, June 9, 2020. On Tuesday’s show, Sealaska Heritage Institute will give us a full preview of this year’s virtual Celebration, which begins on Wednesday...(more) (6-9-20)

Hunker down art to fight climate change
KTOO, Juneau Afternoon
Scott Burton hosts on Monday, June 8, 2020. On Monday’s show, poet, activist, prison abolitionist, weaver, and left-handed storyteller Naawéiyaa Tagaban will preview his online, hunker-down-art-to-fight-climate-change event. And Sealaska Heritage Institute will preview their virtual STEAM summer academy...(more) (6-9-20)

Sealaska’s Celebration is virtually ready to begin
Coronavirus concerns pushed the event online, to protect celebrants
By Michael S. Lockett
Sealaska Heritage Institute’s biennial Celebration, held virtually this year, will begin Wednesday.
“Celebration is about celebrating who we are and the survival of our culture,” said Cemaleeda Estrada, SHI’s Celebration coordinator, in an email. “And while we cannot dance together in person this year, we wanted to still provide an opportunity to participate in and enjoy the many things Celebration has to offer"...(more) (6-8-20)

Indigenous Alaskan Tribes May Have Hunted Sea Otters Thousands of Years Ago, but Not for Food
Nature World News
The Tlingit tribe is an indigenous group living on island communities in southern Alaska. Before the disappearance of the mammals for more than a century, this tribe has been hunting sea otters, not for their meat but their pelts...(more) (6-7-20)

Opposition grows against a possible merger involving University of Alaska Southeast
By Emily Goodykoontz
Anchorage Daily News
The option to merge the University of Alaska System’s smallest university with either the University of Alaska Anchorage or University of Alaska Fairbanks is amassing opposition. Most of it comes from people and groups in the communities that would be directly affected by the merger, including the City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska Native corporation Sealaska and students and educators...(more) (6-3-20)

Alaska Native leaders offer alternatives to proposed university merger
By Pablo Arauz Peña
KTOO
Alaska Native organizations in Southeast are proposing alternatives to the University of Alaska’s Board of Regents’ controversial option to merge the University of Alaska Southeast with one of the other UA campuses. Native leaders from Sealaska, Sealaska Heritage Institute and the Central Council of Tlingit & Haida sent a letter to select regents this week...(more) (6-2-20) 

Native leaders propose UA centralization, tribal college partnership
KINY
Three major Southeast Alaska Native groups are pushing two parallel alternatives to a proposal to merge the University of Alaska Southeast into another UA university to alleviate the institution’s financial pressures. Under the current proposal, which the UA Board of Regents will take up this week, UAS could be subsumed into the University of Alaska Anchorage or the University of Alaska Fairbanks, eliminating UAS as a separate entity...(more) (6-2-20)

Study explores how Native Americans used sea otters
By Jim Barlow
University of Oregon
University of Oregon scientists are probing archaeological evidence for how indigenous peoples used sea otters, and their findings could help Alaskans confront growing numbers of the mammals and Oregonians who want to reintroduce them on the coast. Before fur traders decimated sea otter populations from Alaska to Oregon, ancestors of at least one Alaskan indigenous population, the Tlingit, hunted the mammals for their pelts but probably not for food, according to a study by anthropologist Madonna Moss...(more) (6-2-20)

Assembly puts arts campus support decision on hold
Sealaska Heritage Institute asks for delay prior to committee vote
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Before the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly could decide whether it could find room to in a COVID-19-shaped budget to help fund a $12 million arts campus, the nonprofit working toward the project asked assembly members to postpone the consideration...(more) (5-28-20)

Alaska Natives' Celebration 2020 to be held online in June
By Renee Brincks
Travel Weekly
Celebration 2020 will take place online from June 10 to 13, after Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) postponed this year's in-person gathering until 2021. Celebration is a biennial festival of Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures that draws approximately 5,000 people to Juneau. The rescheduled in-person presentation, delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will take place in Alaska's capital city from June 2 to 5, 2021...(more) (5-26-20)

Sealaska Heritage Institute acquires bentwood box that challenges Native blood quantum rules
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has acquired a piece of art made by the thought-provoking Tlingit/Unangax artist Nicholas Galanin of Sitka. The piece, purchased with the support of Rasmuson Foundation and Museums Alaska, is a weathered bentwood box titled “A tú” (Inside a closed container) that features a carved wooden safe handle and carved wooden combination dial bearing the number one and fractions counting down to zero instead of numbers counting up by 10. Inside the box is a depiction of a sea otter hide...(more) (5-22-20)

SHI, educators honor retiring Tlingit language teacher
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute and educators with Juneau’s Tlingit, Culture, Language and Literacy program honored retiring Tlingit teacher Shgendootan George on Thursday. George worked for 22 years in service to Native students. The TCLL team presented her with a copper tináa made by Tlingit artist Donald Gregory during a small, socially-distanced event at the totem pole at Sandy Beach...(more) (5-21-20)

Sealaska Heritage Institute to hold virtual summer camp on science, technology, engineering, arts, and math
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will offer a summer academy to Native middle school students in Southeast Alaska with instruction on science, technology, engineering, arts, and math, an approach known as STEAM. The STEAM curriculum includes real-life situations to help students learn and activities that provide hands-on lessons for students, an approach that makes learning interesting and fun. Sealaska Heritage Institute will incorporate culturally-relevant activities, said Sealaska Heritage Institute President Rosita Worl...(more) (5-19-20)

Permit approved for SHI Arts Instructional Building and Plaza
KINY
The CBJ Planning Commission discussed parking and access before unanimously approving a conditional use permit to allow construction of the Sealaska Heritage Institute Arts Campus. estimated price of the project is $12 million. They would like to break ground in June or July and have the construction completed in the middle part of 2021...(more) (5-13-20)

How a legal dispute over coat could be a turning point for Arctic Indigenous peoples’ intellectual property rights
The lawsuit might be the first to make an infringement claim based on a traditional Indigenous design
By Yereth Rosen
Arctic Today
A $2,555 knitted coat sold by Neiman-Marcus has sparked a copyright lawsuit that might set a new standard for Indigenous intellectual property. The retailer’s “Ravenstail” coat appropriates both the name and the design type that are part of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian culture, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the Juneau-based Sealaska Heritage Institute. The coat itself is a near copy of a specific Ravenstail robe created in 1996 by the late Clarissa Rizal, a Tlingit artist who was named a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment of the Arts...(more) (4-30-20)

Sealaska Heritage sues Neiman Marcus for selling a 'ravenstail knitted coat'
NPR
Sealaska Heritage Institute has filed a federal lawsuit against the high-end fashion retailer Neiman Marcus, alleging the company copied a traditional Ravenstail pattern when it produced a coat that retails for more than $2,500...(more) (4-27-20)

This $2,500 Sweater Being Sold by MyTheresa, Neiman Marcus Violates the Indian Arts & Crafts Act, Per New Lawsuit
The Fashion Law
Among the Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Gucci, Saint Laurent, and Valentino wares being offered up on München-based MyTheresa’s e-commerce website is an “oversized” bright yellow and black sweater from Italian fashion brand Alanui. With its intricately crafted geometric knitted jacquard made of wool, alpaca, and cashmere fibers, and accents of carefully woven fringe trim, MyTheresa describes the $2,500-plus Ravenstail Knitted Coat as “a wearable objets d’art,” one that comes straight from Alanui founder Nicolò Oddi’s workshop in Milan. Look beyond the extravagant craftsmanship of the sweater from Alanui, a brand that is “defined by its colorful jacquard knitwear that pays homage to Native-American iconography,” and there is a problem. According to a Juneau, Alaska-based nonprofit organization, the sweater runs afoul of the law, and so do MyTheresa and its parent company Neiman Marcus for selling it...(more) (4-23-20)

AJ+ Instagram story
Instagram video on SHI's lawsuit against Neiman Marcus produced by AJ+, which is operated by the global Al Jazeera Media Network…(more) (4-24-20)

Sealaska Heritage sues Neiman Marcus alleging unlawful use of term “Ravenstail,” copyright infringement
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has filed a federal lawsuit against Neiman Marcus, alleging the national luxury retailer falsely affiliated garments sold by them with Native artisans through its use of the term “Ravenstail” (Yéil Koowú) — one of the great weaving traditions of the northern Northwest Coast Native tribes — and unlawfully infringed the copyright of a famous Northwest Coast artist...(more) (4-23-20)​

Sealaska to hold virtual Celebration 2020
KINY
The event will be held from June 10-13 and include performances from past Celebrations and new content. The virtual Celebration will take place during the time Celebration 2020 would have occurred if not for the COVID-19 pandemic...(more) (4-22-20)

Sealaska Heritage plans a virtual celebration
Physical event postponed until next year
Juneau Empire
With this summer’s celebration of Southeast Alaska Native arts and culture on hold, Sealaska Heritage Institute is planning live watch parties of previous Celebration performances and new videos of associated events from June 10-13, according to the Juneau-based nonprofit. In-person Celebration is postponed to June 2-5, 2021, according to SHI...(more) (4-22-20)

Alaska Natives Say Neiman Marcus Ripped Off Coat Design
Law360
An Alaska Native organization urged a federal judge Monday to stop Neiman Marcus Group Inc. from selling a patterned coat, saying the garment infringes a copyright from an artist who was drawing on a centuries-old design tradition. Alaska nonprofit Sealaska Heritage Institute Inc. alleged in its complaint that Neiman Marcus and related companies have sold in stores and online a “Ravenstail Knitted Coat” that infringes the copyright in a work by the late artist Clarissa Rizal called “Discovering the Angles of an Electrified Heart"...(more) ( 4-21-20)

Alaska Native group sues Neiman Marcus over coat’s design
By Rachel D'Oro
Associated Press
An Alaska Native cultural organization is suing luxury retailer Neiman Marcus, saying the Dallas-based company violated copyright and American Indian arts protection laws in selling a knit coat with a geometric design borrowed from indigenous culture. In the federal lawsuit filed Monday, Sealaska Heritage Institute maintains the retailer falsely affiliated the $2,555 “Ravenstail” coat with northwest coast native artists through the design and use of the term, Ravenstail...(more) (US News and World Report) (USA Today) (CBS, Dallas) (Sitka Sentinel) (Alaska Public Radio) (Anchorage Daily News) (The Register Citizen) (Insurance Journal) (4-21-20)

Alaska Native group sues Neiman Marcus over coat's design
KTVA
Associated Press
An Alaska Native cultural organization is suing luxury retailer Neiman Marcus, saying the Dallas-based company violated copyright and American Indian arts protection laws in selling a knit coat with a geometric design borrowed from indigenous culture. In the federal lawsuit filed Monday, Sealaska Heritage Institute maintains the retailer falsely affiliated the $2,555 “Ravenstail” coat with northwest coast native artists through the design and use of the term, Ravenstail...(more) (4-20-20)​

Alaska Native group sues Neiman Marcus over coat's design
KTUU
An Alaska Native cultural organization is suing luxury retailer Neiman Marcus, saying the Dallas-based company violated copyright and American Indian arts protection laws in selling a knit coat with a geometric design borrowed from indigenous culture. In the federal lawsuit filed Monday, Sealaska Heritage Institute maintains the retailer falsely affiliated the $2,555 “Ravenstail” coat with northwest coast native artists through the design and use of the term, Ravenstail...(more) (4-20-20)

Sealaska Heritage Institute sues Neiman Marcus for “blatant” copyright infringement
Native nonprofit seeks damages from luxury chain
By Michael S. Lockett
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute filed a lawsuit Monday in the U.S. District Court against luxury department store chain Neiman Marcus over alleged unlawful use of the term “Ravenstail” and copyright infringement. “In our opinion, this retail garment looks like a Ravenstail robe, and it features a replica of a design that is protected by copyright,” said SHI President Rosita Worl in an email. “It’s one of the most blatant examples of cultural appropriation and copyright infringement that I’ve ever seen"...(more) (Homer News) (4-20-20)

Neiman Marcus is getting sued for selling a ‘Ravenstail Knitted Coat’ for $2,500
By Elizabeth Jenkins
KTOO
Sealaska Heritage Institute has filed a federal lawsuit against the high-end fashion retailer Neiman Marcus, alleging the company copied a traditional Ravenstail pattern when it produced a coat that retails for more than $2,500. In a press release, Sealaska Heritage’s president Rosita Worl called it “one of the most blatant examples of cultural appropriation and copyright infringement” she’d ever seen...(more) (Alaska Public Radio) (KNBA) (4-20-20)

Sealaska Heritage sues Neiman Marcus alleging unlawful use of term “Ravenstail,” copyright infringement
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute has filed a federal lawsuit against Neiman Marcus. The lawsuit claims the luxury retailer falsely affiliated garments sold by them with Native artisans through its use of the term "Ravenstail." Ravenstail is one of the great weaving traditions of the northern Northwest Coast Native tribes. The lawsuit claims Neiman Marcus unlawfully infringed the copyright of a famous Northwest Coast artist...(more) (4-20-20)

Trio of optional educational opportunities for Juneau students
KINY
Three optional educational programs available to Juneau students are available for enrollment through April 24. This process is for the Juneau Community Charter School, Montessori Borealis Public School and Tlingit Culture Language and Literacy Program...(more) (4-17-20)

Sealaska Heritage to offer first virtual art class
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI), in partnership with Petersburg Indian Association, will offer its first virtual art class this month through a pilot project that is expected to become the new normal for delivery of educational programming. The class on formline design will be taught by the award-winning Tlingit artist Robert Mills on Zoom, a video platform that allows participants see and interact as a group live...(more) (4-16-20)

Sealaska Heritage Institute, PIA to offer first virtual art class
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute, in partnership with Petersburg Indian Association, will offer its first virtual art class this month through a pilot project that is expected to become the new normal for delivery of educational programming. The class on formline design will be taught by the award-winning Tlingit artist Robert Mills on Zoom, a video platform that allows participants to see and interact as a group...(more) (4-15-20)

With physical contact forbidden, Juneau finds new ways to socialize
First Friday will move to an all-online format
By Michael S. Lockett
As Juneau hunkers down to weather the continuing storm of the coronavirus outbreak, residents have to find new ways to enjoy the arts — and each other’s company...(more) (4-2-2020) 

Celebration 2020 is postponed
New dates are in 2021
The Sealaska Heritage Institute Board of Trustees decided to postpone Celebration 2020 to next year amid concerns about the COVID-19 coronavirus and its spread in Alaska in recent days, SHI announced Friday. The every-other-year dance-and-culture event, originally scheduled June 10-13 in Juneau, is now planned for June 2-5 of 2021, according to the Juneau-based nonprofit that protects and promotes Alaska Native arts, culture and languages...(more) (3-27-20) 

Celebration postponed
KINY
The Sealaska Heritage Institute Board of Trustees decided to postpone Celebration 2020 until 2021. The SHI will explore ways to bring virtual events to the public through social media this year...(more) (3-27-20)

Sealaska Heritage Institute update
By Sheli DeLaney
Juneau Afternoon
On Tuesday's show, we'll speak with Sealaska Heritage Institute President Rosita Worl...(more) (3-24-20)

​Traditional games athletes find new way to compete amid distancing
Far away from each, teams still found a way to be close
By Michael S. Lockett
Juneau Empire
This year’s Arctic Winter Games, scheduled to happen this week, were canceled as a COVID-19 prevention measure. “We heard the Arctic Winter Games were canceled during Native Games weekend. We cried when we heard it,” said coach Kyle Worl on Tuesday. “I think that was really the best time for us to hear the news. We could come together, cry together, laugh together. They held a ceremony for everyone who qualified for the Arctic Winter Games. Sealaska Heritage Institute gave robes to everyone who qualified for the Arctic Winter Games"...(more) (3-19-20)

Convention bookings for Juneau could be impacted by coronavirus, Celebration could be jeopardized
KINY
One of the chores assigned to Travel Juneau as it works to attract visitors here is the booking of conventions. President and CEO Liz Perry was asked about the impact of the coronavirus on those bookings while a guest on Action Line...(more) (3-17-20)

SHI and UAS partner on immersive scholarship program to train up more Native language educators
By Jeremy Hsieh, KTOO
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute and the University of Alaska Southeast announced a scholarship program aimed at getting more Native language teachers into Southeast communities. If all goes as planned, eight more scholars will selected this summer and enrolled in the fall into the second year of the immersive program. Come 2022, a total of 16 people should be certified by the state to teach the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian languages of Lingít, X̱aad Kíl and Sm’algya̱x...(more) (3-11-20)

Full scholarship to UAS to be available for language students
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) and the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) have signed a new memorandum of agreement to further the education of Native language scholars in an effort to revitalize and perpetuate Tlingit (Lingít), Haida (Xaad Kíl) and Tsimshian (Sm'algyax). According to a press release from both SHI, the University plans to offer an immersive language program for 16 scholars across Southeast Alaska who plan to teach their language...(more) (3-11-20)

Photos: Traditional Games athletes reach for glory in Juneau
Juneau Empire
More than 125 athletes from more than 18 locations came to compete in Juneau this weekend. The 2020 Traditional Games held Saturday and Sunday at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé. The games attracted teams from throughout Alaska, international competitors and collegiate teams from Alaska Pacific University and Northern Arizona University...(more) (3-9-20)

Juneau hosts 2020 Traditional Games this weekend
More than 125 athletes will participate in the games
By Michael S. Lockett
Juneau Empire
More than 125 athletes from more than 18 locations will come together at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé to compete in the 2020 Traditional Games this Saturday. “It’s cool to see the growth and the momentum of the sport throughout the southeast,” said Kyle Worl, the organizer of the event and a prime mover in the push increase the popularity of the traditional games and the Native Youth Olympics in Southeast Alaska...(more) (3-6-20)

Students work to add second verse to state song
Their effort isn’t flagging
By Peter Segall
Juneau Empire
A group of elementary school students from Juneau is leading an effort to add a second verse to the state song, “Alaska’s Flag.” The effort began when Glacier Valley Elementary School Sít’ Eetí Shaanáx music teacher Lorrie Heagy taught the song to her students on Alaska Day in October. The students learned the well-known first verse, but also the lesser-known second verse that references Benny Benson, the 13-year-old Aleut who designed the state flag...(more) (3-5-20)

215-Million-Year-Old, Sharp-Nosed Sea Creature Was Among the Last of Its Kind
Researchers gave the marine reptile the genus name G̱unakadeit in honor of a sea monster from Tlingit oral history
By Katherine J. Wu
Smithsonian Magazine
As the frigid Alaskan waters lapped at his heels, Patrick Druckenmiller repositioned his saw against the algae-dappled rock. Pressed into the shale before the University of Alaska Fairbanks paleontologist were the fossilized remains of a brand-new species of thalattosaur, an extinct marine reptile that roamed the world’s shallow oceans during the Triassic period. If Druckenmiller and his colleagues acted quickly enough, they had a shot at giving the fossil its first taste of open air in 215 million years. But the water was rising fast—and Druckenmiller knew only hours remained before their find was once again swallowed by the sea...(more) (3-5-20)

‘Roots and Stems’ podcast to help with Native language revitalization
By Madison McEnaney
The Alaska 100
Roots and Stems is a new Alaska podcast, brought to listeners by Sealaska Heritage Institute. The podcast centers around the revitalization of Native languages and what that may look like for different people in the indigenous community. The podcast is meant to be used as a tool for those who want to learn more about language...(more) (3-2-20)

Author talks salmon, education conference approaches and more
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute will sponsor its third education conference for teachers and administrators in Southeast Alaska in an effort to promote culturally responsive pedagogy in schools. The three-day event, “Our Cultural Landscape: Culturally Responsive Education Conference,” will feature nationally known keynote speakers...(more) (2-27-20)

Registration is open for Traditional Games and more
Capital City Weekly
Registration is open for the Traditional Games. Volunteers, vendors and athletes can register for the 2020 Traditional Games. The games are co-sponsored by Sealaska Heritage Institute and will be held March 7-8 at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé...(more) (2-20-20)

Southeast Alaska fossil declared a new species and given a Tlingit name
By Angela Denning
KFSK
A fossil of a marine reptile in Southeast Alaska has officially been declared a new species. The 220 million-year-old Thalattosaur is older than the dinosaurs. And as Angela Denning reports from Petersburg, Tlingit Elders have named it after a well-known creature in their traditional stories...(more) (2-19-20)

Air Force General explores century-late apology for US bombing of Tlingit villages
By Joaqlin Estus
Indian Country Today
A top military leader in Alaska told Tlingit clan leaders earlier this month that the military is open to the idea of apologizing for the bombardment of three Tlingit villages in 1869 and 1882. Lt. Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere, commander of the US Air Force’s North American Aerospace Defense Command Pacific Region, met with Tlingit clan leaders on Feb. 5 from three Southeast Alaska villages. Bussiere said he first heard about the Angoon bombardment in a talk given by Institute president Rosita Worl, Tlingit, at a military event...(more) (2-17-20)

Planet Alaska: Drawing an ovoid a day
The ovoid is the heart of it all
By Vivian Mork Yeilk'
A few weeks ago I awoke to cooing doves, a warm Hawaii breeze, and the scent of Kona coffee tugging at my soul. I have Hawaiian heritage, so something magic happens when I’m walking on Hawaiian soil, surrounded by sun, water and sipping Kona coffee. Maybe it was my coffee that fueled my artistic side that day. But I came up with a New Year’s challenge to draw an ovoid a day...(more) (2-13-20)

Baby Raven Reads book wins award with Petersburg artist’s work
By Joe Viechnicki
KFSK
The American Indian Library Association is honoring a 2018 children’s book with illustrations by a Petersburg artist. “Raven Makes the Aleutians” is part of the Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Baby Raven Reads series. It was named an honor book by the association for 2020. It’s one of three in the series illustrated by Janine Gibbons (Haida) of Petersburg...(more) (2-11-20)

Arts campus project asks for city funds
Will the city support it?
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute wants to build an arts campus downtown, and the private nonprofit wants financial support from the city to do it. Rosita Worl, SHI president, presented information about the project to the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly Committee of the Whole Monday...(more) (2-11-20)

Empire Live: City hears about Sealaska Heritage Institute’s campus plans
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
(SHI President Rosita Worl) said one of the goals of the arts campus would be to establish Juneau as the Northwest Coast arts capital of the world. “Juneau is poised to become a model for cultural heritage tourism, one of the fastest-growing sectors of the travel industry,” Worl said. This is not the first time Worl has envisioned that title for the capital city...(more) (2-10-20)

Local artist's illustrations win American Indian Youth Literature award
By Brian Varela
Petersburg Pilot
Sealaska Heritage Institute's book "Raven Makes the Aleutians" was awarded a picture book honor award from the American Indian Library Association. The illustrations in the book were done by local artist Janine Gibbons. The story was adapted for children from the works of the late Nora and Dick Dauenhauer, who transcribed it from Tlingit Elders Susie James' and Robert Zuboff's oral accounts...(more) (2-6-20)

Sealaska hosts meeting with U.S. Military
KINY
Clan Elders and other tribal members from Angoon, Kake and Wrangell participated in a historic meeting this week with Alaska’s senior military leader to discuss bombardments on the three villages waged by the United States in 1869 and 1882. Lt. Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere and his aides met with tribal members at Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) on Wednesday to discuss possible ways to reconcile and to heal.  “What might be a path forward in opening the dialog with the purpose of healing and a deeper understanding?” Lt. Gen. Bussiere asked tribal members...(more) (2-7-20)

Southeast Alaska fossil declared a new species and given a Tlingit name
By Angela Denning
KFSK
A fossil of a marine reptile in Southeast Alaska has officially been declared a new species. The 220 million year old Thalattosaur is older than the dinosaurs. And as Angela Denning reports from Petersburg, Tlingit elders have named it after a well-known creature in their traditional stories...(more) (Alaska Public Media) (KTOO) (2-6-20)

Setting it right: Military could apologize for bombarding Alaska Native villages
Commander meets with Southeast Native leaders about possible redress for trio of 19th-century
conflicts
By Ben Hohenstatt
Meetings in Juneau this week could lead to apologies more than 150 years in the making. Air Force Lt. Gen. Tom Bussiere, Commander of Alaskan Command, and Alaska Native leaders, including tribal leaders and clan leaders from Kake, Wrangell and Angoon, met at Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff Building Wednesday to discuss a trio of 19th-century conflicts in which the U.S. military bombarded Alaska Native villages...(more) (Peninsula Clarion) (2-6-20)

Fossil of sea monster with needle-sharp snout found on Alaskan island
Marine reptile is a new species and the only intact thalattosaur ever found in North America
By Thomson Reuters
CBC
An iguana-like creature with a needle-sharp snout has been confirmed from a fossilized skeleton as a species of the marine reptile thalattosaur previously unknown to science that roamed the coast of what is now Alaska some 200 million years ago. Dating from the Triassic period and identified from a lone fossil found in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, the new creature has been named Gunakadeit joseeae, after a Tlingit name for a legendary sea monster...(more) (2-5-20)

Sealaska Heritage arts campus gets largest private donation to date
Rod Worl and Dawn Dinwoodie donate $25,000 toward Sealaska's planned arts campus
Indian Country Today
An Anchorage couple has donated $25,000 toward Sealaska Heritage Institute’s (SHI) planned arts campus, which will be a public space for perpetuating and experiencing Alaska Native art. The couple, Rod Worl and Dawn Dinwoodie, made the gift in part because the names of contributors will be engraved at the Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus as founding donors, which has personal meaning for them...(more) (2-5-20)

Ancient species found near Kake given Tlingit name
The fossil is one of the most complete examples of its kind
By Michael S. Lockett
Juneau Empire
An ancient species of marine reptile whose remains were discovered near Kake was given a Tlingit name. Gunakadeit joseeae, ancient seagoing reptiles that lived roughly 200 million years ago, was named in cooperation with a panel of traditional scholars, Tlingit Elders from Kake, and scientists from University of Alaska Fairbanks, according to a press release from Sealaska Heritage Institute...(more) (2-4-20)

New thalattosaur species discovered in Southeast Alaska
Vanderbilt University News
By Spencer Turney
Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Vanderbilt University have identified a new species of thalattosaur, a marine reptile that lived more than 200 million years ago. A new paper, published today in the journal Scientific Reports, identifies the species as Gunakadeit joseeae [Guh-NOK-uh-date JOE-zee-ay]. The fossil, uncovered in Southeast Alaska in 2011, is the most complete thalattosaur ever found in North America and gives paleontologists new insights about the thalattosaurs’ family tree...(more) (2-4-20)

Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus gets largest private donation to date
KINY
An Anchorage couple has donated $25,000 toward Sealaska Heritage Institute’s (SHI) planned arts campus, which will be a public space for perpetuating and experiencing Alaska Native art. Rod Worl and Dawn Dinwoodie will be founding donors.  Their names will be engraved at the arts campus...(more) (2-4-20)

‘Baby Raven Reads Visits Evergreen Elementary School in Wrangell’ by Assistant Principal Jenn Miller-Yancey
Our Alaskan Schools
Recently at the Evergreen Elementary School library in Wrangell, Alaska, we had a special guest from the Baby Raven Reads program, Delilah Ramirez. Baby Raven Reads is a reading program through Sealaska Heritage that promotes early literacy, language development and school readiness for Alaska Native families with children up to age 5...(more) (2-3-20)

Baby Raven Reads books wins award, a new film series is announced and more
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Baby Raven Reads book “Raven Makes the Aleutians” won a Picture Book Honor award from the American Indian Library Association. The AILA, an affiliate of the American Library Association, announced winners of its biennial Youth Media Awards this week in Philadelphia, calling the selected books “the best of the best in children’s and young adult literature"...(more) (1-30-20)

Baby Raven Reads book wins American Indian Library Association Award
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute’s (SHI) Baby Raven Reads book Raven Makes the Aleutians has won a Picture Book Honor award from the American Indian Library Association (AILA). The American Indian Library Association, an affiliate of the American Library Association, announced winners of its biennial Youth Media Awards today in Philadelphia, calling the selected books “the best of the best in children’s and young adult literature"...(more) (1-28-20)

Recommended: Cradle Songs of Southeast Alaska
Reviewed by Jean Mendoza
American Indians in children's Literature
Cradle Songs of Southeast Alaska is part of Sealaska Heritage's Baby Raven Reads program. It's a multilingual board book -- three Tlingit songs, three Haida spoken-word poems, and three Tshimshian songs, each with English translation on the same page. Its companion CD features a bonus track: a Tlingit version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star sung by Keixwnei Nora Marks Dauenhauer...(more) (1-26-20)

In the news: Juneau local recognized for Herculean effort bringing back traditional sports
By Michael S. Lockett
Juneau Empire
For nearly three decades, the Native Youth Olympics in Juneau quietly lapsed, relegated to games played in elementary schools, if that. Now, Kyle Worl has dedicated himself to fanning the flames once more — and he’s being recognized for it. Named one of the two of the Alaska Children’s Trust 2020 Southeast Champion for Kids earlier this month, Worl was recognized for his strenuous efforts to bring back NYO to middle and high school in Juneau, as well as spreading it to communities across the Southeast...(more) (1-26-20)

5 groups in Juneau receive Rotary Vocational Service awards
KINY
The Rotary Club of Juneau honored five individuals and organizations with Vocational Service Awards at a luncheon held Jan. 14 at the Baranof Hotel. Juneau Composts!; the Tlingit Culture, Language and Literacy Program; Mudrooms Story Board, the Association for the Education of Young Children, Southeast Alaska; and Kevin Ritchie all received a Vocational Service Award at the event...(more) (1-21-20)

Sealaska Heritage to expand cultural education program
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will kick off an expanded program this Saturday to provide cultural-responsiveness training to Juneau elementary school teachers, administrators and support staff, in an effort to promote teacher connections in Alaska Native cultures, improve school climate, and boost academic success for Alaska Native students...(more) (1-21-20)

Weavers prepare for ‘stunning’ gathering in Juneau
It's all coming together
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Thousands of hours of work and hundreds of years of history are coming to Juneau. A Gathering of the Robes, which will bring together newly completed and ancient ceremonial dancing blankets as well as a robe meant to honor survivors of domestic violence, is planned ahead of Celebration 2020, the every-other-year Southeast Alaska Native culture festival held in the capital city...(more) (1-20-20) 

Juneau Jazz gets grant, poetry contest open, register soon for sewing workshop
Capital City Weekly news briefs for the week of Jan. 16, 2020
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute offers sea otter machine skin sewing workshop. Registration is open for a skin sewing workshops planned for Jan. 23-26 and Feb. 20-23 in Juneau. The workshop is offered by Sealaska Heritage Institute, and it will be led by Robert Miller. Participants can sign up for either workshop. Each class is limited to four participants, and SHI will provide each participant with a sea otter hide, patterns, supplies and instruction...(more) (1-16-20)

Traditional games athlete named champion for kids
Indian Country Today
Traditional games athlete and coach Kyle Worl is one of two Alaskans chosen for the state’s “Southeast Champions for Kids” award this year. Worl and fellow awardee Kevin Ritchie have been instrumental in helping children and families in Alaska thrive, according to an announcement released by the Alaska Children’s Trust (ACT), the statewide lead organization focused on the prevention of child abuse and neglect...(more) (1-15-20)

Sealaska Heritage Institute will outline a program called Thru the Cultural Lens
Juneau Afternoon
KTOO
(Note: Click the play icon above the text “Juneau Ghost Light…”…(more) (1-14-20)

Action Line
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute Chief of Operations Lee Kadinger, Operations Officer Carmaleeda Estrada, Education Dir. Kristy Dillingham, and Language Project Manager Jill Meserve on programs at Sealaska Heritage Institute…(more) (1-14-20)

SHI to hold lecture series on language revitalization
KINY
Four lectures have been scheduled for the next month that feature scholars and professionals working in the field of language revitalization. The goal of the series to have share teaching techniques and connect language professionals working to perpetuate Native languages...(more) (1-9-20)

Thursday marks 150 years since Wrangell bombardment
KINY
Thursday marks the anniversary of the bombardment of Wrangell, which took place on Dec. 26, 1869. According to Tlingit & Haida Central Council's Facebook page, accounts of the event differ, but sources agree that the murder of a Stikine Tlingit villager by a U.S. Army officer, after an argument at a Christmas party, led to the tragic outcome...(more) (12-26-19)

Opinion: When is it OK to wear, display Northwest Coast designs?
On cultural appropriation
By Rosita Worl
Juneau Empire
At our Sealaska Heritage Store, we often field questions regarding cultural appropriation. People worry about wearing apparel featuring Northwest Coast formline design. They are uneasy donning jewelry that depicts our art. The list goes on. I want to set the record straight...(more) (12-24-19)

Baby Raven Reads releases new books
By Sheli DeLaney
KTOO
On Wednesday’s show, Katrina Hotch of SHI’s kindergarten readiness program Baby Raven Reads, will share three new board books and sing...(more) (12-17-19)

Program offers art and museum studies scholarships
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute is offering scholarships to students majoring in art and museum studies under a program operated in partnership with the University of Alaska Southeast and the Institute of American Indian Arts in New Mexico...(more) (12-11-19)

Crystal clear: Subsistence and tradition influence new exhibition at city museum
Worl’s whirlwind world shapes her work
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Crystal Worl’s new exhibition is influenced by both her recent personal experiences and 10,000 years of history. “One Raven: Painting One Story at a Time,” a collection of artwork by Worl on display at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum through Dec. 28, is influenced by Worl’s Tlingit and Athabascan heritage, formline principals Worl continues to learn as an apprentice to Haida artist Robert Davidson and her experiences with nature while hunting and fishing...(more) (12-10-19)

Buy Native this holiday
Native America Calling
Before you fill up your Amazon cart with electronics, scented bath salts or chocolates, consider your Native gift options. The holidays are a great time to show your support for Native artists, tribally run businesses and Indigenous products. We’ll get few recommendations for stuffing your stockings with Native pride...(more) (12-10-19)

Player of the Week: Ezra Elisoff
Ezra Elisoff is the Juneau Empire’s player of the week.
By Nolin Ainsworth
Juneau Empire
Ezra Elisoff is the Juneau Empire’s player of the week. Elisoff, a sophomore at Thunder Mountain High School, won the Alaskan high kick at the Yukon Inter-Schools Arctic Sports Championship last week in Whitehorse...(more) (12-8-19)

A wound still bleeding: New exhibit lays bare war and peace in the Southeast
The cruelty and callousness of the past still linger
by Michael S. Lockett
The Sealaska Heritage Institute unveiled its newest exhibit, War and Peace, Friday for Gallery Walk. “The Tlingit word for war was also the Tlingit word for law,” said Chuck Smythe, the history and culture director for the SHI. Both the Russians and, later, the Americans would come to know the inhabitants of Southeast Alaska as fierce warriors, Smythe said, though that didn’t stop either from bringing violence to the Alaska Native tribes for slights both real and perceived…(more) (12-8-19)

Looking for Alaska’s ‘rural’ state police force? Check the fast-growing Mat-Su Borough
Many remote Alaska villages have no law enforcement at all. But state troopers can be found in some wealthier, mainly non-Native suburbs, where growing communities have resisted paying for their own police departments
By  Kyle Hopkins
Anchorage Daily News
WASILLA — The man appeared around dinnertime in the parking lot of the city police department, asking to see a cop. Another fight with his wife. Nothing violent, he said, but she threatened to carve a word in the paint of his luxury pickup: CHEATER. Maybe an officer could go talk to her? A routine request on a routine night here at Wasilla Police Department headquarters.But it wasn’t a city cop, paid by local sales taxes, who took the call. Instead, Alaska State Trooper Ryan Anderson hopped in his Ford Explorer. One of just 304 members of the elite, state-paid police force responsible for protecting all of Alaska, including remote towns and villages, Anderson motored 2 miles outside city limits to a subdivision of $400,000 houses...(more) (12-6-19)

Sealaska Heritage Institute to unveil new exhibit on Tlingit war and peace
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will unveil a new exhibit that delves into traditional Tlingit laws, the consequences for breaking them and the complex peace ceremonies that ended conflicts and restored balance. The exhibit, War and Peace, will debut at 4:30 pm, Friday, Dec. 6, at Sealaska Heritage during Gallery Walk. Visitors may view it free of charge during that time...(more) (12-3-19)

For Alaska Native cultural tour guides, the job is to carry the weight of the world
‘He who holds up the earth’
By Ryan Cunningham
KTOO
I want to tell you a story. It’s not really my story to tell, but I ran it by a few folks who know it a lot better than I do and know a couple different versions of it. This version is told by the Tsimshian people — other Southeast Alaska clans tell slightly different versions. It’s about a strong man. A very strong man. I met him in downtown Juneau, and there’s a good chance you’d meet him too if you stop by...(more) (11-28-19)

Sealaska Heritage to release new trilingual collection of lullabies as children’s book and CD
By Jeremy Hsieh
KTOO
Sealaska Heritage Institute announced Tuesday that it’s releasing three new children’s books, including its first trilingual one. “Cradle Songs of Southeast Alaska” features lullabies in the languages of three Southeast Alaska Indigenous groups...(more) (11-27-19)

Herring eggs subject of lecture
KINY
Dr. Thomas Thornton presented Herring Egg distribution in Alaska: Generosity, Reciprocity, and Benefit Flows for the final lecture as part of Sealaska Heritage Institutes Native American Heritage Month speaker series. Dr. Thornton is Dean of the Schools of Arts and Sciences at UAS. On December 6, Thornton will release a book on Sitka herring eggs...(more) (11-26-19)

Herring egg gathering in Southeast Alaska hangs on despite commercial fishing
The subsistence gathering practice is threatened by small crops, aggressive fishing
By Michael S. Lockett
Juneau Empire
The practice of harvesting and trading herring eggs for subsistence is an old one in Southeast Alaska. But it’s one that’s threatened by commercial fishing activity and shortened harvesting periods, a University of Alaska Southeast professor said during a presentation at the Sealaska Heritage Institute on Tuesday...(more) (11-26-19)

Study underscores value of herring, highlights threat to subsistence fishery
By Ari Snider
KCAW
A new study reveals previously unaccounted for economic and cultural benefits of herring. The extensive report also highlights threats posed by the current state management plan to the subsistence herring roe fishery in Sitka Sound...(more) (KNBA) (11-22-19)

New study shows social, cultural, ecological benefits of herring subsistence economy are at risk
Indian Country Today
A new study is recommending major changes to the way the State of Alaska manages the sac roe herring fishery in Sitka Sound and is predicting dire outcomes for the ancient subsistence herring roe fishery located there, which supports people across the state and Pacific Northwest, if things do not change. The study, The Distribution of Subsistence Herring Eggs from Sitka Sound, Alaska, touts the enormous, wide-ranging social and ecological benefits of Pacific herring from Sitka Sound and the unique Alaskan subsistence economy and ecosystem services which depend on their production and distribution...(more) (11-22-19)

Emil Notti speaks on Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971
KINY
Notti spoke at Sealaska Heritage Institute as part of the Native American Heritage Month lecture series. Notti cast the tie-breaking vote to enter Sealaska and Tlingit and Haida into the Alaska Federation of Natives...(more) (11-19-19)

Renowned Tsimshian artist David Robert Boxley shares tradition and culture at SHI
‘You can do anything once you know the rules.’
By Peter Segall
Juneau Empire
David Robert Boxley has been carving since he was six years old. As the son of renowned formline artist David A. Boxley, the younger Boxley spent his youth immersed in Tsimshian art and culture. In an interview with the Empire, Boxley said that he knew what he wanted to do from a young age. “I could have done better in school, I’m capable…but I just wanted to draw in the back of class,” Boxley said with a laugh. “My dad’s a carver, and I grew up carving. At this point, it’s just who I am. I often tell people I am what I do, and I do what I am"...(more) (11-19-19)

Watch: Visiting artist David R. Boxley creates in Juneau
Tsimshian artist carving and teaching this week for SHI.
By Michael Penn
Juneau Empire
Tsimshian Artist David R. Boxley talks about his work on an alder feast tray at the Walter Soboleff Building on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019. Boxley is spending the week demonstrating his craft for the Sealaska Heritage Institute...(more) (11-19-19)

Video: Former State Writer Laureate talks about importance of protecting aboriginal rights
Hayes speaks at Sealaska Heritage Institute
By Michael Penn
Ernestine Hayes, a Tlingit author and former Alaska State Writer Laureate from 2016-2018, talks about the persisting effects colonization after her lecture on Juneau’s Indian Village at the Walter Soboleff Building on Monday, Nov. 18, 2019. The lecture is sponsored by the Sealaska Heritage Institute...(more) (11-19-19)

Life in Juneau Indian Village recalled
KINY
Ernestine Hayes remembered her days as a child in the Juneau Indian Village as a series of lectures continued at Sealaska Heritage as part of Native American Heritage Month. Hayes recalled her grandmother telling her the Taku Winds were the voice of her grandfather telling her not to go out to play on dark winter days. She spoke about how natives were impacted by colonization and prevented from living a subsistence way of life...(more) (11-19-19)

‘We’re still here’: Ernestine Hayes shares Indian Village memories, hopes for the future
Alaska writer laureate recalls childhood during lecture
By Peter Segall
Juneau Empire
Ernestine Hayes grew up listening to the stories her grandmother told her. Stories that said the Taku Winds that blew over their wooden home were the voice of her grandfather telling a young Hayes not to come out and play on the days he spoke too loudly. Stories that bears were her cousins and spiders were friends that carried their own tales. Hayes spent her youth in the Juneau Indian Village, an area of downtown Juneau centered around what is now called Village Street. But it wasn’t always that way. The practice of having homes face a street, indeed even having homes for individual people or families were customs forced upon indigenous peoples by a colonial government, Hayes said...(more) (11-19-19)

Friends and family remember Walter Soboleff on his day
Lecture remembers an Alaskan icon
by Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Walter Soboleff wasn’t just a Tlingit scholar, religious leader, Alaska Native civil rights advocate and namesake for a state holiday. Soboleff, who passed away in 2011 at 102, was a friend and relative, who many still remember fondly. Some of those recollections were shared Thursday in the Sealaska Heritage Institute building named for Soboleff to mark Walter Soboleff Day, which was established by state law in 2014. “I want to bring my uncle alive to you today,” said Albert Kookesh, who is a former state senator in addition to being a relative of Soboleff...(more) (11-14-19)

Weekend Guide: Walter Soboleff Day, a ski sale, a string ensemble performance
Here’s what’s happening this week
Walter Soboleff Day: Reflections by Albert Kookesh, noon-1 p.m., Walter Soboleff Building, 155 S. Seward St. In this free and public lecture Albert Kookesh, a former Alaska senator and an Alaska Native leader who has served Native people in many capacities including as a board member of Sealaska Corp. and First Alaskans Institute and as a trustee for Sealaska Heritage, will share his recollections of his uncle, Walter Soboleff...(more) (11-14-19)

In Tlingit land-rights loss, a Native American rights attorney lays out injustice and hope for the future
By Rashah McChesney
KTOO
Walter Echo-Hawk is, essentially, a walking law library. It makes sense, given that he’s been practicing law since 1973. He rattles off cases from memory — from the WWII-era Korematsu case that was used to uphold internment of Americans of Japanese descent, to the Dred Scott decision from 1857, when the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Constitution didn’t include citizenship for black people...(more) (11-8-19)

How US reached ‘rock bottom’ of American Indian law
Tee-Hit-Ton case was a ‘miscarriage of justice’ but predictable
by Ben Hohenstatt
The Supreme Court case that denied a group of Tlingit people compensation for the sale of lumber from the Tongass National Forest was “an appalling miscarriage of justice,” said Walter Echo Hawk, but it was not inexplicable or unique. Echo-Hawk, a Native American speaker, author and attorney spoke at length about the Tee-Hit-Ton Indians v. United States case, which decided in 1955 that indigenous peoples did not have rights under the Fifth Amendment to compensation for lands taken by the U.S. government. “In short, this opinion placed the law into service of colonialism,” Echo-Hawk said...(more) (11-7-19)

The sounds and the furry: Sea otters are back, and they’re changing the environment
Resurgent sea otters are shaping ecosystems, stakeholder meeting focuses on possible solutions to growing sea otter population
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
A century after humans hunted sea otters to near extinction in Alaska, the otters are back, and it’s their turn to hunt. Sea otters were nearly wiped out because of fur trade-related hunting during the 1800s, according to framing documents for a Southeast Sea Otter Stakeholder Meeting held Wednesday at the Alaska State Library, Archives and Museum. In the 1960s, 412 otters from Amchitka Island and Prince William Sound were introduced to sites around Southeast Alaska...(more) (11-7-19)

Pivotal court case for Tlingit & Haida explained
KINY
Chris McNeil, the former president and CEO of Sealaska and the owner of Native Strategy Group opened the Native American Heritage Month lecture series. The case involved 17 million acres taken from the residents of southeast Alaska.  The damages awarded was $7.5 million, or about 43 cents per acre.  Work began in 1929 and the case wasn't completely litigated until 1968...(more) (11-1-19)

Important Alaska Native settlement case started as grassroots movement
It paid $7.5M to Tlingit and Haida
By Ben Hohenstatt
A 90-year-old grassroots movement is still shaping Southeast Alaska. Chris E. McNeil, Jr., the owner of Native Strategy Group and former president and CEO of Sealaska Corporation, said during a lecture Friday the roots of an important court case that ended with a $7.5 million settlement for Tlingit and Haida is rooted in ideas shared at a 1929 Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood meeting. McNeil’s talk is part of an ongoing series of lectures hosted by Sealaska Heritage Institute this month for Native American and Alaska Native Heritage Month...(more) (11-2-19)

Planning underway for Celebration 2020
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute is at work planning for Celebration 2020, a gathering of Native people from all over Alaska and the Lower 48. Carmaleeta Estrada, the operations officer for Sealaska Heritage Institute, is coordinating the event.  She said that the event is set from June 10 through the 13. She said it’s one of the largest events in the state and is still growing.  It has attracted over 6,000 in the past.  The participants include dance groups from across the state and the Lower 48.  Dance group applications open Friday and close March 27...(more) (10-31-19)

Arts campus proposed by Sealaska Heritage Institute outlined on Action Line
KINY
The Sealaska Heritage Institute is off and running on phase two of its goal to make Juneau the Northwest Coast arts capital of the world. Phase one was the construction of the Walter Soboleff Building.  The institute's president, Dr. Rosita Worl,  said on Action Line that they found that they didn't have the space for all of our art programming.  "So one day I was standing at my window and looking across at that Sealaska parking lot and saw our Sealaska arts campus there"...(more) (10-29-19)

Sealaska Heritage Institute to sponsor lecture on pivotal lawsuit that affected Tlingit and Haida, land claims
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will sponsor a lecture on a pivotal lawsuit that affected both Tlingit and Haida citizens and the trajectory of the final settlement of all Alaska Native land claims under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1971. he lecture, The Tlingit & Haida Indians of Alaska v. United States, will be given by Chris E. McNeil, Jr., the owner of Native Strategy Group and former president and CEO of Sealaska...(more) (10-28-19)

Sealaska Heritage Institute accepting applications for Juried Youth Art Exhibit, Native Artist Market
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is accepting applications for its biennial Juried Youth Art Exhibit and Native Artist Market, which will be held during Celebration 2020, scheduled June 10-13. The art exhibit is open to students in grades 6-12, who will compete in middle and high school divisions...(more) (10-25-19)

Burlesque, Northwest Coast art classes, Rasmuson awards: Arts news in brief
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Insitute, a nonprofit for protecting and promoting Alaska Native arts, culture and languages, is sponsoring a couple of upcoming classes at the Walter Soboleff Building...(more) (10-18-19)

An agenda every Alaskan would find interesting
Alaska Federation of Natives Convention blends politics, economics, culture and more
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Government is taking center stage at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention. The annual convention hosted by the statewide Native organization starts Thursday in Fairbanks with the theme, “Good Government, Alaska Driven"...(more) (10-16-19)

Peratrovich ceremony draws crowd
KINY
Karen Narasaki, a member of the U.S Commission on Civil Rights, spoke about the impacts Elizabeth Peratrovich made on civil rights at an Indigenous Peoples Celebration. The event was designed to unveil her new $1 coin at the Shuka Hit: Our Ancestors’ House, inside the Walter Soboleff Building. Narasaki said Peratrovich's story was an important milestone.  She said much of the struggles of Native Americans, Asian-Americans, and other groups are not widely known...(more) (10-14-19)

Sealaska Heritage Institute is accepting applications for art show
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute is seeking applications for its Juried Art Show and Competition. The show will be held during Celebration 2020...(more) (10-9-19)

International Lingít Spelling Bee brings together Alaska Native language learners in Juneau
By Zoe Grueskin
KTOO
Members of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian tribes and clans came together for the Sharing Our Knowledge Conference, held in Juneau Sept. 26-29. The jam-packed schedule included ceremonies, dozens of presentations — and the Fourth International Lingít Spelling Bee. here is no ready-made Lingít word for “spelling bee.” But Will Geiger was curious...(more) (10-3-19)

Blood simple: Is it time to rethink how Native is defined?
Sealaska Heritage president questions use of blood quantum by corporations
by Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
In Rosita Worl’s estimation, the time is coming to ditch or at least retool the requirements that tie being an Alaska Native Corporation shareholder to a specific percentage of Native heritage. The president for Sealaska Heritage Institute, a nonprofit for the preservation and perpetuation of Alaska Native culture and art, delivered a lecture Friday morning during the Sharing Our Knowledge Conference that focused on blood quantum and possible consequences of policies tied to a standard of 1/4 Alaska Native blood...(more) (9-30-19)

Second Phase of Epigenetics Study to Commence in Hoonah
Alaska Native News
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) and Hoonah Indian Association (HIA) will begin the second phase of a collaborative genetics study next week that explores how historical trauma associated with European colonization may have changed the DNA of Native people. The study, Epigenomic Effects of European Colonization on Alaska Native Peoples by the Malhi Molecular Anthropology Lab at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, is seeking to combine advances in technology with community-based research to study the biological basis shaping adverse health outcomes resulting from the many changes since European contact with Indigenous peoples of the Americas...(more) (9-25-19)

Sealaska Heritage secures federal grant for downtown arts campus
By Jeremy Hsieh
KTOO
Sealaska Heritage Institute announced Wednesday that it will receive a federal grant for $5.6 million to build out its vision for an arts campus in downtown Juneau. The cultural nonprofit estimates the project will cost $12 million and hopes to break ground in June 2020, during Celebration. It would turn the parking lot at the corner of Front and Seward streets into a plaza, connecting new buildings with the regional Native corporation’s headquarters and the institute’s Walter Soboleff Building...(more) (Alaska Public Media) (9-20-19)

The healing power of community: NYO coach leads the way in reviving healthy cultural traditions in Southeast Alaska
Coach Kyle Worl isn’t in it for himself. He isn’t in it for the recognition, either
Stock Daily Dish
Worl coaches Native Youth Olympics in Juneau, Alaska — in fact, he’s largely responsible for a renaissance in NYO participation in the state capital. He’s gotten a lot of positive feedback along the way, including winning the at the statewide NYO Games in. He’s also helped some kids turn their lives around — something that means more to him than any athletic victory or honor — and helped revive traditional sports for a new generation of Southeast teens...(more) (9-20-19)

New downtown arts campus could break ground by June 2020
Sealaska Heritage Institute awarded federal grant for project
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute is launching a fundraising campaign to build a new arts campus with most of the money needed already in hand. The nonprofit for protecting and promoting Alaska Native arts and cultures announced Wednesday it received a federal grant of more than $5.6 million to be used for the construction of the Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus to be located at the current Sealaska Corporation parking lot. The federal grant, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Education, along with donations and other grants means the project is now at slightly more than 70 percent — $8.5 million — of its $12 million funding goal, according to SHI…(more) (Video) (9-18-19)

SHI launches campaign to build arts campus, receives $5.6M grant
Sealaska Heritage has officially launched its fundraising campaign to build a Native arts campus at Heritage Square, kicking off what will become a cultural and educational space in downtown Juneau. The Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus is phase two of SHI’s vision to make Juneau the Northwest Coast art capital of the world and to designate Northwest Coast art a national treasure...(more) (9-18-19)

Savoonga artists bring blanket toss to Juneau
By Zoe Grueskin
KTOO
Around 70 people gathered outside the Sealaska building in downtown Juneau on a sunny afternoon. John Waghiyi, Jr. told them to grunt — and they did. “I feel like I’m on the ice pack!” he said. “(It sounds like) there’s a whole herd of walrus.”  As he spoke, young helpers hurriedly threaded a thick rope through the holes around the edge of the walrus-hide blanket, finishing the handles...(more) (9-3-19)

Photo: Up, up and away: Walrus skin used for blanket toss
A blanket that made them flip
By Michael Penn
Juneau Empire
A blanket made by visiting artists Arlene Annogiyuk Waghiyi and John Waghiyi Jr. from Savoonga was used for a blanket toss Thursday at the Sealaska Plaza...(more) (8-30-19)

Photos: Visiting artists wow Juneau on stage and outside
They brought their culture from 1,200 miles away
By Michael Penn
Juneau Empire
John Waghiyi, Jr. and his wife, Arlene Annogiyuk Waghiyi, from Savoonga were artists-in-residence at Sealaska Heritage Institute this week. Their visit included a song and dance performance as well as a demonstration of working with walrus skin...(more) (8-29-19)

Visiting Yupik artists get crowd involved in performance
Songs were about whaling, sailing and rock ‘n’ roll
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
He played the crowd as well as his drum made of walrus stomach. Visiting Yupik artist John Waghiyi Jr. drew big laughs, fun sounds and applause Wednesday during a presentation at Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Shúka Hít clan house. Waghiyi, who drew thunderous sounds from his drum via a hickory stick, was joined on stage by his wife, artist Arlene Annogiyuk Waghiyi, and niece, Rene Mokiyuk of Juneau. It was empowering,” said John Waghiyi Jr. in an interview after the show. “I feel incredible. It was so powerful. So much energy”...(more) (8-29-19)

From the far western reaches of Alaska, Yup’ik artists share their culture with Juneau
Visiting artists sew walrus blanket, will perform dances in Juneau
by Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Yup’ik artists are visiting Sealaska Heritage Institute this week, and they brought dance and walrus skin with them from the far western reaches of Alaska. John Waghiyi Jr. and his wife, Arlene Annogiyuk Waghiyi, are artists from Savoonga, which is a city on St. Lawrence Island, and through Thursday, they are artists in residence at Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff Building. ..(more) (8-28-19)

The healing power of community: NYO coach leads the way in reviving healthy cultural traditions in Southeast Alaska
Juneau’s Kyle Worl wants his teenage athletes to think of Native Youth Olympics as more than “just a hobby.”
Anchorage Daily News
Coach Kyle Worl isn’t in it for himself. He isn’t in it for the recognition, either. Worl coaches Native Youth Olympics in Juneau, Alaska -- in fact, he’s largely responsible for a renaissance in NYO participation in the state capital. He’s gotten a lot of positive feedback along the way, including winning the Healthy Coach award at the statewide NYO Games in both 2018 and 2019. He’s also helped some kids turn their lives around -- something that means more to him than any athletic victory or honor -- and helped revive traditional sports for a new generation of Southeast teens...(more) (8-27-19)

Scholar to study subsistence, university launches a new program and a rare book is donated
News briefs for the week of Aug. 22, 2019
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute, a Juneau-based nonprofit that protects and promotes Alaska Native arts and cultures, is sponsoring a visiting scholar who is studying how subsistence diets affect oral health. The scholar is Alyssa Bader, a Tsmishian anthropologist with expertise in ancient DNA, bioarchaeology and stable isotope analysis, who will research this fall and facilitate focus groups to identify the social, economic, environmental and political factors that shap subsistence in Southeast Alaska...(more) (8-21-19)

Southeast teachers learn to weave Northwest Coast arts into math lessons
By Zoe Grueskin
KTOO
Brita Steinberger had her hands full, weaving a small basket using a mix of traditional — and less traditional — materials: “This is spruce root here, and this is cedar bark right there,” she explained. “This is a tomato paste can with tape around it.” Steinberger is a special education teacher in Juneau. But last week she was the student, in a weeklong seminar for teachers put on by Sealaska Heritage Institute. ..(more) (KNBA) (8-12-19)

Eaglecrest brings back refined logo featuring formline design
Sealaska Heritage Institute artist improves formline elements of design
By Nolin Ainsworth
Juneau Empire
Eaglecrest Ski Area turned back the clock in coming up with its new logo. The ski area revealed on social media last month it would be swapping out its logo with an “old friend,” a revised version of Eaglecrest’s original logo from 1976...(more) (8-12-19)

Fur or food? To answer modern-day sea otter question, Alaska Native org looks to the past
Simple question has complicated answer
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Madonna Moss set out to answer a simple question, and through in-depth research she came up with a complex answer. The University of Oregon anthropology professor and curator of zooarchaeology for the Museum of Natural and Cultural History was asked by Sealaska Heritage Institute to determine whether Tlingit people historically harvested sea otters for food. I think they hunted sea otters primarily for pelts,” Moss said near the end of a lecture Friday at SHI’s Walter Soboleff Building. “I do not think they were a dietary staple”...(more) (8-6-19)

Douglas ice rink gets new lines featuring Northwest Coast art
Tsimshian artist and students design mid-ice artwork
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
What’s black and white and red all over? The new 85-foot-long design that stretches across of the center of the ice inside Treadwell Arena. This year, the red line that divides the rink in two, incorporates formline — a type of Northwest Coast art that uses ovoids, U forms and S forms — that was mostly drawn up by Tsimshian artist Abel Ryan and Body and Mind After School Program students...(more) (8-2-19)

Soboleff building gets gold for being green, music program receives a grant, CCS is on the move
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff Building was awarded a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold rating by the United States Green Building Council. LEED is the most widely used system for rating projects’ environmental impact, and LEED Gold is the second highest level of performance that can be achieved under the program...(more) (8-1-19)

Wrangell dancers preparing to lead the way at Celebration 2020
By Caleb Vierkant
Wrangell Sentinel
Celebration is a large, biennial cultural event for all Southeast Alaskan tribes across the region. For four days in June, according to the Sealaska Heritage Institute’s website, tribal citizens from all over Southeast Alaska and beyond come together in Juneau for traditional songs, dances, and crafts. It is one of the largest gatherings of Southeast Alaskan tribes in the state. Next year’s Celebration will be extra special, as members of Wrangell’s native community have been named 2020’s lead dance group...(more) (8-1-19)

Can trauma be passed down through DNA? Researchers and Hoonah residents search for answers
By Zoe Grueskin
Alaska Public Media
It’s well known that traumatic experiences can have lifelong impacts on health and well-being. But it’s possible that those effects can last longer than a single lifetime. A new study asks whether the effects of trauma have been passed down genetically in Tlingit families in Hoonah. Much of the history is familiar to rural Alaska Native communities anywhere in the state: children taken from their families and sent to boarding schools, language suppressed. But the Tlingit community of Hoonah has also experienced unique traumas, such as a fire that destroyed much of the town in 1944...(more) (7-31-19)

Sealaska Heritage’s Walter Soboleff Building wins LEED Gold certification
Indian Country Today
The United States Green Building Council has awarded Sealaska Heritage Institute’s (SHI) Walter Soboleff Building a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold rating, making it the second structure in Southeast Alaska to win gold status. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is the most widely used green building rating system in the world, and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold is the second highest level of performance that can be achieved under the program...(more) (7-31-19)

Photos: Latseen Hoop Camp
Youth attend basketball camp with a cultural twist
Juneau Empire
By Michael Penn
Youth from 6th to 12th grade participate in the weeklong Latseen Hoop Camp that mixes Tlingit culture and language with basketball at Dzantak’i Heeni Middle School on Monday, July 29, 2019...(more) (7-30-19)

Team Juneau medals big at World Eskimo-Indian Olympics
Indian Country Today
Team Juneau took 14 medals at the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics (WEIO) in Fairbanks this week, one of the largest showings ever captured by the capital city. The awards were given to seven local athletes and included five gold, four silver and four bronze medals for Juneau’s team, which is relatively new to the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics, a grueling, highly-competitive athletic event that requires skill, strength, agility and endurance...(more) (7-25-19)

‘We are not defined by our wounds’: Speakers talk about trauma’s effects on Alaska Native people
Breaking the chain and national efforts also addressed
by Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Trauma suffered by families and communities has a lingering and negative impact, said a pair of guest speakers Tuesday at the Walter Soboleff building. Brenda Thayer, program manager for Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium in Sitka, and Dan Press, who provides legal representation to Native tribes, organizations and businesses, spoke about the lasting effects of multi-generational trauma. They also spoke about things being done to address those effects. he talk was a companion piece to an ongoing study SHI is involved with that is examining whether historic trauma’s impact can be seen in Alaska Native genes...(more) (7-24-19)

Sealaska hears lecture on trauma
KINY
Brenda Thayer of Yakutat, Program manager for SEARHC in Sitka, spoke on Historical Trauma, An Overview and impact on Alaska Natives Tuesday. Historical trauma is defined as cumulative emotional and psychological wounding over the lifespan and across generations and involves unresolved grief.  It is transferred by the adoption of other cultures, loss of language, and discouragement of cultural practices.  Boarding schools that separated families was one of the causes...(more) (7-24-19)

Sealaska hears latest on trauma court cases
KINY
Attorney Daniel Press began his legal career working for the Navajo Reservation, saw the issues there, and has devoted much of his career to helping Native American causes. He became disturbed by high drop out rates, high rates of poverty, and high rates of suicide in the tribe.  He learned about the ACE study.  It stands for adverse childhood experiences.  He learned trauma turned out to be the root cause for these problems...(more) (7-24-19)

Juneau shows ‘amazing results’ at World Eskimo-Indian Olympics
Fairbanks event includes over 20 games based on Alaska Native skills
By Nolin Ainsworth
Juneau Empire
A contingent of Juneau athletes returned home this week with 14 medals from the World-Eskimo Indian Olympics, one of the largest-ever such tallies won by the capital city. Kyle Worl, a two-year leader of the Juneau School District’s Native Youth Olympics program, led a group of 14 athletes at the four-day event in Fairbanks. Started in 1961, the annual competition includes over 20 games based on Alaska Native traditional hunting and survival skills, and takes place at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks...(more) (7-23-19)

Cole introduces bipartisan, bicameral bill to safeguard Native American artifacts
By Ripon Advance News Service
U.S. Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) is cosponsoring bipartisan, bicameral legislation to improve protections for sacred Native American cultural heritage. “I am proud to join with my colleagues in the introduction of the STOP Act, which would preserve and safeguard the precious cultural property of Native Americans,” said Rep. Cole...(more) (7-23-19)

UAS Chancellor: UAS still has reason to celebrate, amid budget cut fears
It’s not all bad news
By Richard Caulfield
Juneau Empire
While headlines about the University of Alaska of late have focused on budget cuts and vetoes, as University of Alaska Southeast Chancellor I want to share some positive news. The accreditation of UAS — your hometown university — has been reaffirmed fully by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). This accreditation, based on nationally-recognized standards, allows UAS to grant degrees, award credit and provide financial aid. Reaffirmation of UAS accreditation is a big deal. In this time of uncertainty and budget challenges, it confirms that UAS is providing quality degrees, programs and services to its students and the communities we serve...(more) (7-19-19)

These books will keep kids reading this summer - and discovering Alaska in the process
By David James
Anchorage Daily News
Plenty of new Alaska-themed children’s books are on the shelves, providing fun and educational summer reading fodder for the younger set. Beginning reading books are a great way to introduce children in Alaska and beyond to our state and its many cultures and wonders, and none of the following half-dozen books disappoint. The first three are all part of the Baby Raven Reads series published by the Sealaska Heritage Institute. The books in this series are designed to explore and present Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures to the world’s children, as well as to encourage children within those cultures to become readers and improve academic performance...(more) (Fairbanks News-Miner) (7-6-19)

Can trauma be passed down through DNA? Researchers and Hoonah residents search for answers
By Zoe Grueskin
KTOO
It’s well known that traumatic experiences can have lifelong impacts on health and well-being. But it’s possible that those effects can last longer than a single lifetime. A new study asks whether the effects of trauma have been passed down genetically in Tlingit families in Hoonah. Much of the history is familiar to rural Alaska Native communities anywhere in the state: children taken from their families and sent to boarding schools, language suppressed. But the Tlingit community of Hoonah has also experienced unique traumas, such as a fire that destroyed much of the town in 1944...(more) (KNBA) (6-28-19)

Sealaska Heritage Institute offers free lecture, kids art show welcomes submissions and more
News briefs for the week of June 27, 2019.
by Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute is sponsoring a free lecture on the American flags in Alaska Native Brotherhood Halls before 1960 at noon Friday at the Walter Soboleff Building. Emily L. Moore, an assistant professor in the Department of Art and Art History at Colorado State University, will dive into the flags featured in many group portraits of the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood...(more) (6-27-19)

The Willoughby District in downtown Juneau has a new Native name
Downtown area’s new handle nods to its indigenous history
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
The Willoughby District won’t be called that any more. Monday night, the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly adopted a resolution renaming the downtown business area the Aak’w Kwáan Village District. Renaming the district which borders Willoughby Avenue acknowledges the historic Aak’w Kwáan settling of the area. The area was home to a neighborhood known as the “Indian Village” and was a traditional summer village site for Alaska Native people...(more) (6-25-19)

Museums awarded grants, fossil fun and summer theater camp deadline approaches
Juneau Empire
Six of Alaska’s collecting institutions, including Sealaska Heritage Institute, have been awarded a total of $33,350 in state grants. The awards will support the acquisition of artwork through a fund created by Rasmuson Foundation and administered by Museums Alaska. SHI, which is a nonprofit that perpetuates and protects Alaska Native art and culture, was awarded $12,000 for “Catcher of Souls” by John Hudson III...(more) (6-19-19)

DNA may show lasting impact of colonization
New study wants to see what historic stress means for Alaska Native genes
by Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Your blood might help researchers better understand how colonization may have changed Alaska Natives’ DNA. A new study taking samples in Juneau this week and later this summer in Hoonah will analyze the DNA of Hoonah residents and Hoonah people living in Juneau to determine how historical trauma may have changed indigenous people on a genetic level. “We might learn more about culture contact and what the effects of that are that persist to today"...(more) (6-18-19)

Sealaska Heritage announces participation in genetics study
Chicago Daily Herald
Sealaska Heritage Institute officials say they are collaborating with a university that is studying how the DNA of indigenous people might have been affected by trauma linked to European colonization. Researchers from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign will be at the Juneau-based institute next week for the project focusing on Tlingit people with ties to Hoonah...(more) (6-15-19)

Sealaska Heritage announces participation in genetics study
KTVA
Sealaska Heritage Institute officials say they are collaborating with a university that is studying how the DNA of indigenous people might have been affected by trauma linked to European colonization. Researchers from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign will be at the Juneau-based institute next week for the project focusing on Tlingit people with ties to Hoonah...(more) (6-15-19)

Sealaska Heritage Announces Participation in Genetics Study
U.S. News and World Report
Sealaska Heritage Institute officials say they are collaborating with a university that is studying how the DNA of indigenous people might have been affected by trauma linked to European colonization. Researchers from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign will be at the Juneau-based institute next week for the project focusing on Tlingit people with ties to Hoonah…(more) (Seattle Times) (6-15-19)

Marks receives SHI's Ruth Demmert Language Scholarship
KINY
A Ph.D. candidate who is pursuing a degree in linguistics with a specialization in revitalization is this year’s recipient of Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Ruth Demmert Language Scholarship. According to a Sealaska blog post, the $5,000 award, which is financed by the Sealaska Scholarship Fund and given to only one student each year, went to Joseph Marks, who is Tlingit from the Kaagwaantaan clan, Gaaw Hít in Klukwan. His Tlingit name is Koodéik'...(more) (6-7-19)

Check out this beautifully carved Raven hat, on public display Friday in Juneau
Here’s when and where you can see it
by Ben Hohenstatt
Sealaska Heritage Institute purchased a new Raven hat by master artist Nathan Jackson, and the nonprofit that protects and promotes Alaska Native art and culture will show it off First Friday. The red-cedar hat, which was carved this year, is traditional in form and similar to clan crest hats used in ceremonies. The hat tells of an event that happened during the migration of the Raven Lukaax.ádi clan...(more) (6-7-19)

Dance it out: Tlingit weavers create unique leggings made of cedar and mountain goat wool
Ceremony marks end of yearlong project
By Ben Hohenstatt
Their goal was to make it through the afternoon without crying. Tlingit weavers Anastasia Shaawaat Ku Gei Hobson-George and Lily Hope presented Chilkat leggings — a type of garment worn on the leg made with a labor-intensive Alaska Native weaving style — Friday as a formal close to Hobson-George’s two-year-long apprenticeship with Hope. “It feels real that it’s done, it’s over — the leggings and working with Lily,” Hobson-George said after the presentation in Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Shúka Hít clan house...(more) (6-2-19)

Ancient threads: Tlingit artist will study how to weave increasingly rare tunics
Award may have come at just the moment to preserve an ancient art form
by Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
A Juneau artist is working to become the fifth person alive who knows how to make an increasingly rare type of traditional clothing. Tlingit weaver Anastasia Shaawat Kah Gei Hobson-George was recently announced as a winner of a Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Award, and she plans to use the $7,500 grant that comes with her project award to learn how to make a sleeved tunic that incorporates two types of indigenous weaving...(more) (5-27-19)

‘These are the ones to cheer’: Ceremony recognizes students as future of Tlingit language, culture
Drums, dance and regalia featured in program graduation ceremony
by Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Forget flipping a tassel and throwing a cap, these graduating students donned vests and danced them to life. Tlingit Culture Language & Literacy, an optional program in the Juneau School District housed at Harborview Elementary that works indigenous tradition into its curriculum, held a fifth-grade promotion ceremony Wednesday morning in the Shuká Hít clan house at Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff Building...(more) (5-22-19)

Sealaska launches new scholarship program
KINY
Sealaska has launched a scholarship program adding eligibility for part-time students enrolled in colleges or vocational-technical schools. According to a Sealaska news release, the scholarships, which will be $1,424 per award in the initial year, will remove a financial barrier for Sealaska shareholders and descendants who are not able to attend school full time...(more) (5-16-19)

Culture in the schools
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
...Also during the school board meeting, the school board approved acceptance of gifted education materials from Sealaska Heritage Institute...That materials donated included $20,000 in carving and wood shop tools and supplies, $1,000 in Northwest Coast art basketry supplies...(more) (5-16-19)

NYO Games leave impression for Juneau participants
The event has been going on for decades
By Nolin Ainsworth
Juneau Empire
Team Juneau took home two medals — one bronze and one fifth-place honor — from the 2019 NYO Games at the Alaska Airlines Center in Anchorage this past weekend. It was the second consecutive year the team of capital city teenagers earned top-five placings at the statewide competition, which pits over 400 athletes against one another in 10 different games stemming from Alaska Native traditions...(more) (5-1-19)

Sealaska Heritage Institute Unveils New Exhibit on Celebrated Tlingit Artist Nathan Jackson
American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association
In early April 2019, Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) unveiled a new exhibit celebrating the work of Tlingit master artist Nathan Jackson, one of the most renowned and internationally recognized Tlingit artists of his generation. The exhibit, Yéil Yádi—Raven Child: A Nathan Jackson Retrospective, spans Jackson’s career from his earliest productions in the early 1950s to his most recent works...(more) (4-23-19)

Who owns aloha? Hawaii eyes protections for native culture
By Audrey Mcavoy
Associated Press
Last year, much of Hawaii was shocked to learn a Chicago restaurant chain owner had trademarked the name "Aloha Poke" and wrote to cubed fish shops around the country demanding that they stop using the Hawaiian language moniker for their own eateries. The cease-and-desist letters targeted a downtown Honolulu restaurant and a Native Hawaiian-operated restaurant in Anchorage, among others...(more) (4-16-19)

Ketchikan artist to open retrospective exhibit in Juneau
KRBD
By Leila Kheiry
Ketchikan master carver Nathan Jackson opens a new retrospective exhibit in Juneau this week. According to Sealaska Heritage Institute, the exhibit at Sealaska’s Walter Soboleff Building spans  Jackson’s career from the early 1960s to the present day. Jackson is highly esteemed for his mastery of Northwest Coast art. According to Sealaska, he learned to carve at a time when Native people were in danger of losing traditional knowledge...(more) (4-4-19)

Alaska Natives Honored for Secret Communications Work
Voice of America
American Richard Bean, Sr., died with a secret. He was a war hero, but nobody knew about it for years. Bean and four other Alaska Natives were recently honored in their home state for saving the lives of many soldiers during World War II...(more) (4-3-19)

All Sealaska Heritage Institute 2018 Baby Raven Reads books chosen for annual best-of-the-year list
Indian Country Today
All three Baby Raven Reads books published by Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) last year have been chosen for an annual “best-of-the-year” list compiled by a nationally-known literacy group. The Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC), which is affiliated with the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, chose Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Raven and the Tide Lady, Raven Makes the Aleutians, and Raven Loses His Nose for its Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices 2019, which identifies “excellent literature for children and adolescents,” according to its website...(more) (4-3-19)

‘A great honor’: Upcoming exhibit shines light on one of Southeast Alaska’s most acclaimed and prolific Tlingit artists
Collection will include dozens of pieces from private collections, museums to celebrate career spanning decades
by Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
There’s always been a lot of Nathan Jackson artwork in Juneau, and there’s about to be a lot more. Pieces by the prolific and acclaimed Tlingit artist can be found year-round at Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff Building, University of Alaska Southeast’s Egan Library, Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé among other places, but an upcoming exhibit will present an unprecedented and expansive collection of his work...(more) (4-2-19)

The art of Nathan Jackson
By Scott Burton
KTOO
Interview with Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Native Arts Curator Steve Brown on the Nathan Jackson retrospective exhibit opening at Sealaksa Heritage...(more) (4-1-19)

Tlingit Code Talkers feted in Alaska for World War II role
By Rachel D'Oro, The Associated Press
The Washington Post
Army veteran Richard Bean Sr. took his wartime secret to the grave, dying a hero without anyone knowing about it for decades. Now, Bean and four other long-deceased Alaska Natives are being hailed in their home state this month for their lifesaving efforts as servicemen. During World War II, they made good use of the Tlingit language they were forbidden to speak as schoolchildren in their southeast Alaska villages. They used their native language to help the military outsmart the Japanese with codes they could not break, as did their more well-known peers, the Navajo Code Talkers...(more) (Military Times) (KINY) (San Francisco Chronicle) (Fox News) (Kxnet) (WRAL) (The State ) (KTUU) (Fulton Sun) (Santa Fe New Mexican) (3-27-19) 

Tlingit students in Petersburg learn about their heritage
By Angela Denning
KFSK
Nine Tlingit students from Petersburg traveled on a four-day trip to Juneau and Sitka last month as part of a federal grant program to learn more about their heritage. The trip was presented at the school board meeting Tuesday night...(more) (3-20-19)

Silent in life, Tlingit code talkers finally getting recognition
State honors five who saved lives with language in World War II
By Alex McCarthy
Juneau Empire
Harold Jacobs hardly ever heard his father talk about the war. His father, Mark, and Mark’s brother Harvey had enlisted in the military on Dec. 9, 1941 — two days after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. They were shipped out without even going to basic training. All their family knew at the time was that the brothers were in the U.S. Navy. What they were really doing was much more secretive — the two were code talkers, developing ways for American soldiers to communicate clandestinely...(more) (3-19-19)

Here’s how Juneau athletes did at Traditional Games
Junior Matthew Quinto wins four events
by Nolin Ainsworth
Juneau Empire
Bethel and Whitehorse emerged with team titles as the 2019 Traditional Games came to a halt on Sunday night at Thunder Mountain High School. It was the second year in a row Sealaska Heritage Institute and others have put on the games, which are rooted in Alaska Native culture and celebrated every year at the NYO Games in Anchorage and World Eskimo-Indian Olympics in Fairbanks. Juneau athletes spent the last several months training for the games with after-school practices...(more) (3-18-19)

New House Tribal Affairs Committee aims to advance state relationships
By Andrew Kitchenman
KTOO
The Alaska House of Representatives has a new special committee to focus on tribal affairs. The committee will aim to advance relationships with tribes. Lawmakers spent the first few meetings getting an overview of how tribes are governed and reach compacts with the state...(more) (3-18-19)

Alaska youth rally together at Traditional Games
Teams came from as far as Arizona
By Nolin Ainsworth
Juneau Empire
The first day of the 2019 Traditional Games was rife with displays of unity and togetherness, as teams from across the state of Alaska (and one from Arizona) gathered for Native Youth Olympics. Around 60 Juneau athletes were joined by several dozen visiting athletes from such distant outposts of Utqiagvik, Bethel and even Arizona for the games, which are based on Alaska’s indigenous peoples’ hunting and survival skills. In the past, Juneau athletes would need to travel to Anchorage or Fairbanks for such competitions...(more) (3-16-19)

Getting air on a seal skin blanket: Juneau students learn Iñupiat tradition
Watch a blanket toss
By Nolin Ainsworth
Juneau Empire
For Friday’s lunch hour, some Thunder Mountain High School students put down their pencils and picked up a piece of Iñupiat tradition. Native Youth Olympics coach Kyle Kaayák’w Worl and approximately 50 high school students spent the noon hour “throwing” their peers 10-15 feet above a trampoline-sized seal skin blanket. Grasping loops of rope and bending forward and backward in unison, the five dozen teenagers watched gleefully as they shot their classmates into the air, and in some cases, had to reposition themselves to ensure for a safe landing...(more) (3-15-19)

Bill would make permanent Alaska Native Heritage Month
Law ensures every November would honor Alaska’s first people
by Alex McCarthy
Former Gov. Bill Walker issued multiple proclamations declaring November as Alaska Native Heritage Month, but those proclamations didn’t do anything permanent. Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska President Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson said he appreciated having the recognition and the chance to get more exposure for tribes around the state. Still, it didn’t feel like quite enough...(more) (3-15-19)

Alaska Honors Five Tlingit Code Talkers for their Heroic Contributions in World War II
Alaska state flags will fly at half-staff this week in their memory
Alaska Native News
Lieutenant Governor Kevin Meyer is leading the State of Alaska’s effort to honor the memory of five Alaska Natives for their heroic contributions to American victories in World War II. The five men, Robert “Jeff” David Sr., Richard Bean Sr., George Lewis Jr., Harvey Jacobs and Mark Jacobs Jr. served as Tlingit Code Talkers, using their native language to communicate information during combat that the Japanese military was never able to decode...(more) (3-12-19)

Alaska Legislature honors WWII Tlingit code talkers
By Megan Mazurek
KTVA
The Alaska State Legislature is posthumously honoring Tlingit code talkers and the role they played in helping to end World War II, by passing a citation. According to a statement from the Sealaska Heritage Institute on Wednesday, the citation passed by the Legislature specifically honors Robert Jeff David, Sr., Richard Bean, Sr., George Lewis, Jr., and brothers Harvey and Mark Jacobs, Jr...(more) (3-7-19)

Tlingit code talkers recognized by state legislature for their efforts during WWII
By Henry Leasia
KHNS
Any history buff would know of the Navajo code talkers that developed secret battle communications for the U.S. military. But until recently, few people knew that Tlingit soldiers also used their language to pass along secret information during WWII. Former state legislator and Sealaska Board Member Bill Thomas said he was friends with Robert Jeff David and George Lewis, two former Tlingit code talkers that lived in Haines. He didn’t know the role they played in the war until after they passed away...(more) (3-7-19)

Tlingit code talkers chalk up another honor
By Suzanne Downing
Must Read Alaska
The Alaska State Legislature on Wednesday honored Alaska’s Tlingit code talkers for their exemplary military service and the crucial role they played in helping to end World War II. Although the Tlingit code talkers have been recognized by Congress, this is the first official State recognition for their secret service in defeating Imperial Japanese Army and bringing the war to a close. The citation passed by the House and Senate posthumously honored Tlingit code talkers Robert Jeff David, Sr., Richard Bean, Sr., George Lewis, Jr., and brothers Harvey Jacobs and Mark Jacobs, Jr...(more) (3-7-19)

Alaska legislature passes proclamation honoring Tlingit code talkers
Indian Country Today
The Alaska State Legislature passed a citation March 6 honoring Alaska’s Tlingit code talkers for their exemplary military service and the crucial role they played in helping to end World War II. The citation, which posthumously honored Tlingit code talkers Robert Jeff David, Sr., Richard Bean, Sr., George Lewis, Jr., and brothers Harvey Jacobs and Mark Jacobs, Jr., passed with family members of the men and Native leaders watching from the House and Senate galleries...(more) (3-7-19)

Tlingit code talkers honored for WWII service
KINY
The Alaska State Legislature passed a citation Wednesday honoring Alaska’s Tlingit code talkers for their exemplary military service and the crucial role they played in helping to end World War II. The citation, which posthumously honored Tlingit code talkers Robert Jeff David, Sr., Richard Bean, Sr., George Lewis, Jr., and brothers Harvey Jacobs and Mark Jacobs, Jr., passed with family members of the men and Native leaders watching from the House and Senate galleries...(more) (3-6-19)

Sealaska Heritage sponsors horn spoon carving with Steve Brown
Sealaska Heritage Institution is sponsoring horn spoon carving classes with Steve Brown as part of its Northwest Coast art class. Applications are due by Feb. 28, and there is a $25 instruction fee...(more) (2-24-19)

Tribe takes state to court in attempt to protect herring
Tribe of Sitka members hope to change the way fishery is managed
By Alex McCarthy
Juneau Empire
More than a dozen people stood in front of Dimond Courthouse in Juneau on Tuesday, a cold sleet soaking their cardboard signs. They were there to bring attention to a court hearing going on inside the courthouse. In December, the Sitka Tribe of Alaska filed a civil case against the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, looking to get the department to take better care of the herring fishery in Sitka Sound...(more) (2-19-19)

Remembering Alaska Native civil rights leader Elizabeth Peratrovich
By Art Hughes
Native America Calling
A decade before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala. bus, Elizabeth Peratrovich and her husband were demanding equal rights for Alaska Natives. At the time Alaska Natives were lawfully excluded from theaters, hotels, restaurants and neighborhoods. Peratrovich made a famous speech in a territorial Senate hearing that spurred momentum to end discrimination against Alaska Natives. We’ll learn more about her story, her legacy, and the fight for civil rights in Alaska. Every year, the state sets aside a day to remember Peratrovich’s contributions...(more) (2-18-19)

Olson, Worl recognized during Elizabeth Peratrovich Day event
KINY
Elizabeth Peratrovich Day was celebrated Saturday in Juneau with an observance at the Tlingit and Haida Community Council Building. The opening address was offered by Alaska Native Brotherhood Past Grand President Sasha Sobeleff, and Jennifer Quinto spoke as the invited special guest speaker of Alaska Native Sisterhood Camp 2 Vice President Rhonda Butler...(more) (2-16-19)

February 16 in Alaska honors Tlingit activist on ‘Elizabeth Peratrovich Day’
Indian Country Today
By Leslie Logan
Nearly 20 years before the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, and ten years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, Elizabeth Wanamaker Peratrovich led the charge in passing the very first anti-discrimination law in the United States. Peratrovich, Tlingit, was described as “a fighter with velvet gloves” by fellow Tlingit leader Stella Martin for having challenged discriminatory practices against Alaska Native people...(more) (2-16-19)

2019 Traditional Games to draw athletes from across Alaska, Canada
Indian Country Today
Nearly a hundred athletes from Alaska and Canada are expected to compete in the 2019 Traditional Games in Juneau next month, marking the first time Southeast Alaska has hosted a statewide Indigenous sports event...(more) (2-12-19)

Tlingit artist has dispute with Facebook
KINY
Robert Miller hasn't been able to post advertising a sea otter fur hat for sale. The Anchorage Daily News reported the social media company has stated the problem has been fixed but so far no posts have been allowed. The Sealaska Heritage Institute and Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan urged Facebook to restore the posts...(more) (2-8-19)

Facebook removes fur hat posts by Alaska Native artist
KINY
A cultural group says Facebook is continuing remove posts by an Alaska Native artist selling items made of sea otter fur despite the social media company stating the problem had been fixed. The Anchorage Daily News reports the Sealaska Heritage Institute and Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan issued a statement last week, urging Facebook to restore the posts by Tlingit artist Robert Miller...(more) (2-8-19)

Alaska Native artist continues to have posts banned by Facebook, which said it would fix the problem
By Alex DeMarban
Anchorage Daily News
Facebook continues to ban posts by an Alaska Native artist trying to sell fur products made from sea otter, despite the company’s apology and statement that it had fixed the problem, a spokesperson with an Alaska Native cultural group said Wednesday. “It’s still not fixed,” said Lee Kadinger, chief operating officer at Sealaska Heritage Institute. “I’ve been pinging the site every three hours to check." In a public statement Friday, the group and U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, urged the social media giant to restore the posts from Tlingit artist Robert Miller...(more) (Tacoma News Tribune) (The Seattle Times) (Miami Herald) (Columbus Ledger-Enquirer) (KTOO) (Canoe) (2-7-19)

US Senator questions Facebook over policies surrounding ivory sales
Sullivan requested clarity on the scope of prohibited items for Alaska Native craftsmen
by Mollie Barnes
Kenai Peninsula Clarion
Alaska U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan targeted Facebook Tuesday in an open letter discussing questionable offenses by the social media giant against Alaska Natives selling art on Facebook Marketplace. Late last week, Sullivan said in a press release, he was made aware of the policy issue by the Juneau-based Sealaska Heritage Institute, which informed him that Sitka skin sewer Robert Miller posted a sea otter hat for sale on Facebook and received a message saying it was not approved because it didn’t meet Facebook’s commerce policies...(more) (2-5-19)

US Senator questions Facebook over policies surrounding ivory sales
Sullivan requested clarity on the scope of prohibited items for Alaska Native craftsmen
By Mollie Barnes
Juneau Empire
Alaska U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan targeted Facebook Tuesday in an open letter discussing questionable offenses by the social media giant against Alaska Natives selling art on Facebook Marketplace. Late last week, Sullivan said in a press release, he was made aware of the policy issue by the Juneau-based Sealaska Heritage Institute, which informed him that Sitka skin sewer Robert Miller posted a sea otter hat for sale on Facebook and received a message saying it was not approved because it didn’t meet Facebook’s commerce policies...(more) (2-5-19)

University of Alaska Southeast expands indigenous arts programs.
Sealaska Heritage Institute condemns Facebook’s animal products ban:
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Northwest Coast arts education continues to expand at the University of Alaska Southeast with a recent renewal of its agreement with the Sealaska Heritage Institute and the Institute of American Indian Art of Santa Fe, New Mexico. UAS has been working with SHI and IAIA since late 2016 and continues to enhance and grow its Northwest Coast Arts programs, most recently by hiring Tlingit master carver Wayne Price as associate professor of Northwest Coast Arts...(more) (2-4-18)

Alaska cultural group ‘condemns’ Facebook ban on animal-part sales
By Alex DeMarban
Anchorage Daily News
Sen. Dan Sullivan and a cultural preservation group from Alaska are urging Facebook to exempt Alaska Natives from its ban against legal sales of items made with animal body parts. Sealaska Heritage Institute said it was “condemning” the social media giant’s policy, according to a statement from the organization on Friday. The policy will have a “devastating” effect on Alaska Natives artists who make a living in remote villages by selling handicrafts made of legally harvested animals, Rosita Worl, the institute’s president...(more) (2-1-19)

SHI condemns Facebook for fur, pelt ban
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute is working with the Alaska Congressional delegation to advocate for a remedy. Sealaska Heritage Institute has condemned a Facebook ban on legal sales of products made from any “part, pelt or skin from an animal, including fur,” according to the site’s commerce policy. According to an SHI press release, the ban will have a "devastating effect" on Native artists throughout the state, who sell through Facebook and are dependent on the proceeds from arts and handicraft made from animal parts for their basic livelihood...(more) (2-1-19)

Sealaska condemns Facebook ban on sale of products with animal parts, fur
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is condemning a Facebook ban on legal sales of products made from any “part, pelt or skin from an animal, including fur,” according to the site’s commerce policy. The ban will have a devastating effect on Native artists throughout the state, who sell through Facebook and are dependent on the proceeds from arts and handicraft made from animal parts for their basic livelihood, said SHI President Rosita Worl...(more) (2-1-19)

UAS expands Northwest Coast arts program
KINY
UAS has renewed its agreement with the Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) and the Institute of American Indian Art (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. UAS has been working with SHI and IAIA since late 2016 and continues to enhance and grow its Northwest Coast Arts programs, most recently by hiring Tlingit Master Carver Wayne Price as Associate Professor of Northwest Coast Arts...(more) (1-31-19)

Photos: Preston Singletary’s indigenous funk band Khu.éex’ plays Juneau
By Annie Bartholomew
KTOO
The Seattle-based indigenous funk band Khu.éex’ played Juneau’s Centennial Hall Convention Center on Monday as part of their Alaska tour. The 11-person ensemble shared original and traditional music inspired by band founder Preston Singletary’s southeast Alaska roots. Their third album “Héen” — which translates to “water” in Tlingit — is being released this winter...(more) (1-30-19)

Native Youth Olympics Spring 2019 Season - open to all Juneau Students
Indian Country Today
The Native Youth Olympics is a statewide sport that includes 10 different events or games to test skills of strength, agility, balance, endurance, and focus. These games are based on hunting and survival skills of the indigenous people of Alaska and across the arctic going back hundreds of years. Each year, teams of high school and middle school athletes from across the state travel to Anchorage to take part in the Sr. Native Youth Olympics. More than 500 athletes from over 100 communities, split into male and female division, compete for 1st-5th place medals in the 10 events...(more) (1-30-19)

Photos: Khu.Eex of Seattle performs at Centennial Hall
Funk-rock band with Alaska Native roots rocks Juneau
By Michael Penn
Juneau Empire
...(more) (1-29-19)

Study: Alaska Native nonprofit contributed $10M to economy
By The Associated Press
The State
A Juneau-based Alaska Native nonprofit directly and indirectly contributed more than $10 million into the state economy last year, according to a study by a research and consulting firm. he McDowell Group found the Sealaska Heritage Institute generated the money through its employees, contractors, grants and the visitors it brought in, the Juneau Empire reported Monday...(more) (Tacoma News Tribune) (San Luis Obispo Tribune) (1-29-19)

Sealaska Heritage Institute means millions of dollars to Juneau, study finds
Scholarships, grants and school contributions make the nonprofit’s presence felt
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
A Juneau-based Alaska Native nonprofit directly and indirectly contributed $10 million into the Alaskan economy last year. McDowell Group found Sealaska Heritage Institute generated $10.4 million for the state through its employees, paying contractors, securing grants, attracting visitors and more. The bulk of that money, $9.2 million, was spent in the City and Borough of Juneau, the study found...(more) (1-28-19)

JOM Dancers at Baby Raven Reads
Wrangell Sentinel
Wrangell's JOM Dancers stopped by Head Start last Saturday to perform for the Baby Raven Reads group. Baby Raven Reads is a reading program that helps teach native children about their culture, and also helps them in school preparedness and mental development...(more) (1-24-19)

Study finds Sealaska Heritage is $10 million force in state
KINY
A new study by a Juneau research firm has found that Sealaska Heritage Institute’s economic impact on Alaska was more than $10 million in 2018 and that its impact on the City and Borough of Juneau was $9.2 million. A study in 2012 found SHI’s biennial Celebration has a $2 million economic impact on the city each year it is held, but this is the first time research has quantified the institute’s total economic impact on Juneau and beyond...(more) (1-24-19)

Ḵhu.éex’ Jan 28 Juneau concert: FREE tickets for furloughed government workers
Indian Country Today
Up to 200 tickets for Monday's Ḵhu.éex’ concert in Juneau are available for furloughed government employees, FREE with ID! Pick yours up at the furloughed federal employees event at the Juneau Arts Culture Center (JACC) Friday, January 25 (4-6 pm) or at the door before the show Monday (7:30 pm) at Centennial Hall...(more) (1-24-19)

Video: Flutist performs at clan house
Hear music by Armenian-American flutist Tigran Arakelyan
By Michael Penn
Juneau Empire
Armenian-American flutist Tigran Arakelyan, the Music Director of the Northwest Mahler Festival in Seattle and the Port Townsend Orchestra, performs a sound check in the Shuká Hít (Ancestors’ House) at the Walter Soboleff Center on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019...(more) (1-23-19)

Sealaska Heritage to host children's event, give away free Baby Raven books
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will host a turf night this week in partnership with an education group in Juneau and give away free copies of its award-winning Baby Raven Reads book Salmon Boy: Shanyáak'utlaax to families with young children. Turf night is a bi-monthly event for families sponsored by the Association for the Education of Young Children, which promotes high-quality learning for all children, birth through age 8, by supporting all who care for, educate and work on behalf of young children...(more) (1-23-19)

Kindred Post makes donation to Sealaska Heritage
Indian Country Today
Kindred Post of Juneau today donated ten percent of its profits from its Social Justice Hustle collection to Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) in recognition of the institute’s work to forge social change. In a letter, Kindred Post owner, artist and activist Christy NaMee Eriksen wrote that she chose SHI to receive its annual donation because the institute creates “positive change at every level, from baby raven reading roots to the fruit-bearing branches of public policy"...(more) (1-22-19) 

Sitka festival receives grant, Poetry Out Loud dates announced, Rasmuson Foundation accepting applications
Arts and culture news briefs for the week of Jan. 23, 2019
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Downtown Juneau store and postal office Kindred Post donated 10 percent of its profits from its Social Justice Hustle collection to Sealaska Heritage Institute in recognition of the institute’s work to forge social change. In a letter, Kindred Post owner, artist and activist Christy NaMee Eriksen wrote that she chose SHI to receive its annual donation because the institute creates “positive change at every level, from baby raven reading roots to the fruit-bearing branches of public policy”...(more) (1-21-19) 

Photos: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration
Scenes from the annual event celebrating MLK
By Michael Penn
Juneau Empire
Photographs from the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration held at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Juneau on Monday, Jan. 21, 2019...(more) (1-21-19)

What do you get when you cross Alaska Native culture with Parliament Funkadelic?
The answer is coming to Juneau
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Khu.Eéx means potlatch in Lingít, the Tlingit language, but Monday it will also mean a hefty dose of unique music for a Juneau audience. The jazz-rock-funk band with a Tlingit name and both Native American and Alaska Native roots is set to play Centennial Hall Monday, Jan. 28...(more) (1-21-19)

Flute concert brings classical, Armenian and indigenous music to clan house
Sealaska Heritage and Juneau Symphony collaborate for new event
by Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
There was harmony in the Shuká Hít. Artists from different backgrounds and their international, multicultural music mingled in the cedar clan house in Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff Building Saturday night for the Flutes From Around the World concert. “We are so happy to have everyone here,” said SHI President Rosita Worl. “We are so honored to have this first-ever concert here"...(more) (1-20-19)

He’s played in D.C., Arizona and Seattle, but he’s glad to share music at ‘home’
Tlingit flautist proud to perform in Juneau
by Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
George Montero’s journey with music started in Juneau. Decades before he learned to play and make Native American flutes, Montero played the French horn at St. Ann’s School beginning in third grade as part of a general musical appreciation curriculum. “We’d play anything but rock’n’roll —anything but Elvis Presley,” Montero recalled...(more) (1-20-19)

Kindred Post makes donation to Sealaska Heritage Institute
KINY
Kindred Post of Juneau has donated 10 percent of its profits from its Social Justice Hustle collection to Sealaska Heritage Institute in recognition of the institute’s work to forge social change. In a letter, Kindred Post owner, artist and activist Christy NaMee Eriksen wrote that she chose SHI to receive its annual donation because the institute creates, “positive change at every level, from baby raven reading roots to the fruit-bearing branches of public policy"...(more) (1-18-19)

Seattle band Khu.éex’ celebrates indigenous culture through music
By Annie Bartholomew
KTOO
Tlingit glass artist Preston Singletary is renowned for visual art. But later this month, he will showcase his musical side. His band Khu.éex’ blends genre and tradition to celebrate indigenous culture through music and storytelling. The Seattle-based band Khu.éex’ is a super group of indigenous artists with a keyboard player at the center of the sound, known as the “Wizard of Woo"...(more) (1-18-19)

SHI, UAS launch new opportunities for Native educators
KINY​
Sealaska Heritage Institute and the University of Alaska Southeast are offering new scholarships and opportunities to Alaska Native students enrolled in the Preparing Indigenous Teachers and Administrators for Alaska Schools program, known as PITAAS. SHI and UAS are offering the initiatives under a new memorandum of agreement through which the institute will be a full partner of PITAAS, a program founded by the university in 2000 to grow the number of Alaska Native teachers and administrators and improve educational opportunities for Alaska Native K-12 students...(more) (1-14-19)

Teaching artists needed, mystical music group comes to town
Community partnerships putting emphasis on art
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire​
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) and the Juneau School District have partnered to offer Northwest Coast art opportunities to high school students. They are looking for interested artists to add to a teaching artist roster, which will be used by educators seeking specialists to join their classrooms. These opportunities could be one class, semester-long or whatever fits best for the teacher and artist...(more) (1-14-19)

SHI, UAS launch new scholarships, opportunities for aspiring teachers
Indian Country Today
Initiative to fund Native language and culture programming for PITAAS students under new MOA
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) and the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) are offering new scholarships and opportunities to Alaska Native students enrolled in the Preparing Indigenous Teachers and Administrators for Alaska Schools program, known as PITAAS. SHI and UAS are offering the initiatives under a new memorandum of agreement through which the institute will be a full partner of PITAAS, a program founded by the university in 2000 to grow the number of Alaska Native teachers and administrators and improve educational opportunities for Alaska Native K-12 students...(more) (1-14-19)

Even long-time carvers can learn from masters
Experienced Tlingit-style carvers have a place to talk shop
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Teaching is at the center of Saturday Carving Practice at Gajaa Hit. It provides a network that allows someone like Henry Hopkins with a decade of experience carving in the Tlingit style to learn from artists such as Donald Gregory, Ray Watkins and Steve Brown, whose combined carving experience is close to 100 years. “I’m just lucky to get to carve with these great carvers here,” Hopkins said. “I’ve been carving all of my life, but probably only the last 10 years of my life in the Tlingit traditions. It’s very challenging,” he added. “Formline doesn’t come naturally to those who didn’t grow up with it”...(more) (1-14-19)

Sealaska Heritage Institute donates exhibit to schools
By The Associated Press
The Seattle Times
The Sealaska Heritage Institute is donating copies of an exhibit featuring Alaska Native place names to schools across the region. The interactive exhibit called “Our Grandparents’ Names on the Land” also features indigenous fishing tools...(more) (KTVA) (1-12-19)

Centuries later, a Tlingit artist’s work still inspires woodcarvers — and entices private collectors
By Henry Leasia
KHNS
A rare wooden rattle attributed to a famous Tlingit artist sold at an art auction in California last month. The 230-year-old piece came from a private collector and sold for over half a million dollars. When Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Native arts curator Steve Brown first laid eyes on the shaman’s rattle, he was amazed by the piece’s excellent condition. “Nobody had ever seen this before,” Brown said. “It had just kind of come out of the woodwork”...(more) (1-11-19)

Khu.éex’ to perform live in Juneau!
Indian Country Today
Juneau Arts and Humanities Council, Sealaska Heritage, and KTOO Public Media present Ḵhu.éex’ in concert January 28...(more) (1-11-19)

Photos: Best of 2018 in Juneau
The Juneau Empire’s best pictures of the year
By Michael Penn
(more) (1-10-19)

SHI to donate interactive exhibit to schools in Southeast Alaska
Students in Southeast Alaska will be able learn about ancient place names and innovative Native inventions
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is donating a copy of its interactive exhibit, Our Grandparents’ Names on the Land, to schools across the region so students in Southeast Alaska may learn about ancient place names and the innovative inventions that Native people engineered to catch halibut and salmon sustainably. SHI staff will make the donation this week during the board meeting of SERRC—Alaska’s Educational Resource Center, whose board is comprised of school superintendents from across the region and which has partnered with the institute in recent years on education programs...(more) (1-10-19)

Flute event coming to Sealaska Heritage’s clan house
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
There will be woodwinds in the cedar room. Juneau Symphony and Sealaska Heritage Institute are collaborating to bring an orchestral performance Saturday, Jan. 19, to the Walter Soboleff Building’s clan house. “It’s really a neat opportunity and a first for Juneau,” said Juneau Symphony Vice President Beth Pendleton. “This is the first time Sealaska Heritage Institute and Juneau Symphony have worked together.”..(more) (1-9-19)

The 7 stories that shaped Juneau arts and culture in 2018
Cultural appropriation, historic firsts and living languages made the year that was
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
The drama from this chaotic year didn’t skip arts and culture in Juneau. There were financial scares for the longtime professional theater, single-vote decisions that shaped the appearance of downtown and how the arts are seen in Juneau, fiery discussions about cultural appropriation and a state emergency was declared for Alaska Native Languages. But there were also plenty of feel-good developments throughout the year, too...(more) (12-25-18)

Alaska Made: Sea otter pelts are highly prized, tightly regulated
By Angela Denning
KFSK
Alaska is one of the few places with a legal sea otter fur trade. The species is listed as endangered in some areas, but in Southeast Alaska they’re booming. As part of CoastAlaska’s “Alaska Made” series, here’s a closer look at the tight restrictions on who can work with the prized pelts and how...(more) (12-24-18)

JAHC announces New Year’s Eve gala, SHI accepting scholarship applications
News briefs for the week of Dec. 19, 2018
Juneau Empire
…A Sealaska shareholder donated an old ceremonial fire bowl that dates to circa late 1800s to Sealaska Heritage Institute for its ethnographic collection. Fire bowls, called gankas’íx’i in Tlingit, historically were used to transport food to the spirit world and to ancestors during ceremonies, such as 40 Day Parties and ḵu.éex’...(more) (12-19-18)

SHI to accept applications for college, voc-tech Sealaska scholarships
Indian Country Today
The enrollment period for Sealaska scholarship applications will open on Saturday, Dec. 15, for the 2019-2020 school year. The deadline to apply is March 1, 2019. However, Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is offering a $50 incentive to those who complete their scholarship application on or before Feb. 1 and who are accepted as scholarship recipients; if selected as a recipient, the $50 will be included in their scholarship award...(more) (12-14-18)

Revved up for Raven Reads
SHI hosts storytime during Gallery Walk
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Laughter bounced off the wooden walls of the clan house. Despite dark skies, about a dozen children had excitement and energy for Baby Raven Reads storytime in Sealaska Heritage Institute's Walter Soboleff Building. Readings highlighting the ongoing and award-winning series of culture-based early literacy program open to families with Alaska Native children 5 and younger were part of SHI's Gallery Walk activities...(more) (12-13-18)

Sealaska Shareholder donates authentic Tlingit Fire Bowl to Sealaska Heritage
Indian Country Today
A Sealaska shareholder has donated an old ceremonial fire bowl that dates to circa late 1800s to Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) for its ethnographic collection. Fire bowls, called gankas’íx’i (dishes over the fire) in Tlingit, historically were used to transport food to the spirit world and to ancestors during ceremonies, such as Forty Day Parties and ku.éex’, sometimes known as potlatches or memorial parties...(more) (12-13-18)

Sealaska Heritage releases how-to videos for endangered art practices
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has released a series of videos on how to weave spruce-root baskets and make horn spoons, both ancient but endangered Northwest Coast art practices...(more) (12-12-18)

Native stories at Baby Raven Reads this Saturday
By Caleb Vierkant
Wrangell Sentinel
Baby Raven Reads is a program sponsored by the Sealaska Heritage Institute giving native children an opportunity to learn about their history and culture through stories, activities, and music, according to community liaison Delila Ramirez. The monthly program is in its second year, she said. The next reading day will be Sat., Dec. 8 at Head Start from 10 a.m. to noon...(more) (12-6-18)

SHI welcomes second-graders
By Ben Hohenstatt
...(more) (12-5-18)

Sealaska Heritage Institute releases new Baby Raven Reads books
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) this week will release three new culturally-based children’s books through its award-winning Baby Raven Reads program. The books, Raven and the Tide Lady,Raven Loses His NoseandRaven Makes the Aleutians are based on ancient Northwest Coast Raven stories but are adapted for children, said SHI President Rosita Worl. “The original Raven stories are complex, humorous and sometimes filled with raucous adventures. Raven stories are not about what is viewed as proper behavior, but what is not acceptable behavior,” Worl said. “Raven the Trickster is found in oral traditions throughout North America and elsewhere in the world and teaches people how to exist in society"...(more) (12-3-18)

Photos: Best photos of the Week
By Michael Penn
Juneau Empire
Lily Hope tells a story of raven, king salmon and the birds to second grade students from Harborview Elementary, Montessori Borealis and Juneau Charter Community School at the Walter Soboleff Center on Friday Nov. 30, 2018. The Storytelling Excursion for all Juneau School District second graders is part of the Any Given Child programming sponsored by the Juneau School District, Mayor’s office, University of Alaska Southeast, Sealaska Heritage Institute and the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council...(more) (12-3-18)

SHI Lecture Presents History of Yakutat Seal Camps
KINY
As the final lecture of Native American Heritage Month at SHI, two experts in Alaskan Native history presented clips from the Yakutat Seal Camps Project that combined oral history with archaeology to establish over 1,000 years of history.
Aron Crowell, who works for the Smithsonian Institution as an archaeologist and anthropologist, was the principal investigator for the examination of the Yakutat seal camps. He was assisted by many different scholars, as well as Judy Ramos who is an Assistant Professor with the University of Fairbanks in the Department of Alaska Native Studies and Rural Development. The group was able to piece together stories shared by elders with artifacts and leftover structures of the camps…(more) (11-29-18)

SHI Hosts Juneau Second Graders for Native Arts Exposure
By Alex McCumbers
KINY
The Sealaska Heritage Institute hosted Juneau School District second graders for a national arts initiative. The visit was a part of the Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child initiative that was established by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Stories, music, and culture were all shared with the children in an effort to expose them to the rich heritage found in Juneau and Alaska at large...(more) (11-29-18)

SHI announces new books; library shares bookmark winners
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute released three new culturally-based children’s books through its award-winning Baby Raven Reads program. The books, “Raven and the Tide Lady,” “Raven Loses His Nose” and “Raven Makes the Aleutians” are based on ancient Northwest Coast Raven stories but are adapted for children...(more) (11-28-18)

Raven Explored at SHI Lecture with Lance Twitchell
KINY
Continuing the lecture series put on by SHI, UAS Associate Professor of Alaska Native Languages X’unei Lance Twitchell spoke on the multiple layers involved with stories surrounding Raven in a talk titled "Gwál Yisikóo Yá Yéil: Maybe You Know This Raven". These stories often come in different flavors as some storytellers have different ways of telling the same narrative. This is why Twitchell described studying these tales as finding an interpretation rather than determining an exact translation into English…(more) (11-27-18)

First-ever Artists and Authors Market a success
Public Market is a valuable fundraiser for nonprofits and organizations
By Ben Hohenstatt
Four Juneau venues were bustling marketplaces Friday afternoon. Centennial Hall, Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall, Alaska State Library, Archives and Museum and Juneau Arts & Culture Center were filled with buyers and sellers during the opening hours of Public Market, Juneau’s annual holiday market...(more) (11-27-18)

Giving Tuesday: How you can help Alaskans
By Elizabeth Roman
KTVA
It's Giving Tuesday! If you're looking for a way to help, here's a list of some local groups that are accepting donations today...(more) (11-27-18)

Sealaska Heritage Institute Holds Two Lectures This Week
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute will host two lectures this week in Juneau in recognition of Native American Heritage Month. The first, Gwál Yisikóo Yá Yéil: Maybe You Know This Raven, will be presented on Tuesday, Nov. 27 by X’unei Lance Twitchell, an associate professor of Alaska Native Languages at the University of Alaska Southeast...(more) (11-25-18)

Otterskin sewing workshops promote ‘sustainable cottage industry’ in coastal Alaska
By Adelyn Baxter
KTOO
A series of workshops in communities around Southeast Alaska aims to expand the practice of traditional Alaska Native skin-sewing with seal and sea otter fur. Sealaska Heritage Institute hopes the classes can promote cottage industries in smaller communities and maybe even offer a sustainable solution to the region’s fast-growing sea otter population...(more) (11-23-18)

Lecture questions Western names for Native places
Willoughby District name singled out as 'colonial urge'
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
...(more) (11-23-18)

Ernestine Hayes Speaks on Power of Native Names at SHI
KINY
Alaska Writer Laureate and UAS Professor of English and Creative Writing Ernestine Saankaláxt Hayes spoke at SHI on the power of Native names, their ties to the history of the land, and how some places were renamed and could be changed in the future. Place names are incredibly important in Southeast Alaskan Native culture and the places can often take on characteristics like a character would in other types of storytelling...(more) (11-20-18)

Cellphone, recess, cray cray: How Tlingit speakers are coining new words in an ancient language
Old languages need new words
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
...(more) (11-20-18)

New summit gathers many of the world’s fluent Alaska Native language speakers
Voices of Our Ancestors makes sure Alaska Native languages are spoken and heard
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
Centennial Hall echoed Tuesday with the sound of centuries-old languages. The first-ever Voices of Our Ancestors language summit brought together dozens of speakers fluent in Lingít, Xaad Kíl and Sm’algyax — the respective languages of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people — for three days of focus on Alaska Native languages. “Our Native languages define us as a people and a culture,” said Sealaska Heritage Institute President Rosita Worl. “Our languages contain our history, our way of living, our ancient knowledge and values.” Worl spoke passionately about the importance of the fluent speakers present, many of whom were elders...(more) (11-17-18)

Reconnecting with roots at Alaska Native languages summit
By Zoe Grueskin
KTOO
Thursday marks the end of a three-day language summit in Juneau that brought together nearly 80 speakers of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian languages: Lingít, X̱aad Kíl and Sm’algyax. For some, the Voices of Our Ancestors summit was one of their first opportunities to talk with other fluent speakers. That was the case for Jim Thomas, whose Tlingit names are Khatsati and Shaayegun...(more) (11-15-18)

Rosita Worl Reflects on Voices of Our Ancestors Language Summit 2018
KINY
Topics Worl touched on include the initial reaction of the event, the strength and survival of Native language, meeting the needs of fluent speakers, and things to keep in mind...(more) (11-15-18)

Storytelling a Focus on Last Day of Language Summit
KINY
There was a focus on storytelling on the third and final day of the Voices of Our Ancestors language summit that was held at Centennial Hall. Elders shared traditional tales in their language ranging from fun adventures of loved ones to more fantastical narratives about a mischievous wren. Many of the fluent language speakers talked about not having others to talk to in their language and they were excited to share the stories...(more) (11-15-18)

'Profound gathering' aims to fuel revival of Tlingit language
By Paul Tukker
CBC
Fred White feels as though he's spent his life watching Tlingit — his first language — slowly inch toward extinction. "It's a pretty sad situation — like even myself, as fluent speakers, we have hardly anyone to converse back and forth with," he said. White is a Tlingit translator and instructor who works with the Goldbelt Heritage Foundation in Juneau, Alaska. He's considered to be the youngest fluent speaker of Tlingit...(more) (11-15-18)

Sea otter skin sewing class
Petersburg Pilot
Guylynn Etcher sewing a pillbox hat with a sea otter pelt on Friday. Sealaska and Petersburg Indian Association hosted a sea otter skin sewing class from Oct. 31 - Nov. 3. The six students who signed up made hats, gloves and scarves...(more) (11-15-18)

Family shares items and stories for Dr. Walter Soboleff Day
Soboleff’s sons and daughter loan collection to Sealaska Heritage Institute for display
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
...(more) (11-14-18)

Day Two Recap Of Language Summit in Juneau
CHON-FM
Lance Twitchell started the second day of the summit by commenting on the difficulties Indigenous people face regarding learning their own native languages
Discussions around difficulties facing Indigenous people to learn their respective Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian languages started off Day Two at the language summit. Lance Twitchell, a Professor of the Tlingit language in Alaska Southeast,spoke in Tlingit and said while young people are learning their language in the Pacific northwest, many are having issues speaking it fluently in everyday life...(more) (11-14-18)

Photos: Voices of Our Ancestors Native Language Summit
By Michael Penn
Juneau Empire
...(more) (11-14-18)

DNA, oral tradition indicate 10,000 years of Native history in Southeast
Paleogenomics connects ancient ancestors to present people during lecture
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
...(more) (11-13-18)

Alaska Native summit to bring fluent speakers together
By Rachel D'Oro
Associated Press
An upcoming summit will bring together the last remaining speakers of three indigenous languages of Alaska, organizers said Friday. Nearly 70 speakers of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian are expected to attend the three-day event in Juneau that begins Nov. 13, according to Sealaska Heritage Institute officials. The institute has counted 133 speakers of those languages who live in the region or who are affiliated it. The summit is among multiple language revitalization efforts by the non-profit organization, institute President Rosita Worl said in a phone interview...(more) (Washington Post) (Anchorage Daily News) (Seattle Times) (The Tribune) (KDHN News) (The Cordova Times) (11/11/2018)

DNA, oral tradition indicate 10,000 years of Native history in Southeast
Paleogenomics connects ancient ancestors to present people during lecture
DNA science lent credence to thousands of years of Alaska Native oral history, and tradition allowed that to happen.Ripan S. Malhi, a professor for the Department of Anthropology at University of Illinois, spoke about studying ancient DNA and what insights Shuká Káa, a Native man found in Southeast Alaska in the ’90s, offered about the regions’ Native population, during a lecture Thursday at the Walter Soboleff Building...(more) (11-9-18)

Origin of the Kaagwaantaan and Culture Shared at SHI for Heritage Month
KINY
The first in many of these lectures were led by David Kanosh who told stories and migratory history of the Kaagwaantaan peoples. The Natives sadly had to leave their homeland due to lack of resources and climate change, moving south into parts of Washington. Once the weather turned, they began to move back north, following markers left by their ancestors and making villages and houses along the way. There were many clan members in attendance, marking a connection between them. There were many acknowledgments and thanks for the stories told...(more) (11-1-18)

Tlingit speakers travelling to 'historic' gathering in Alaska in effort to preserve language
By Philippe Morin
CBC News
Speakers of Tlingit are preparing for what they're calling a historic conference in Alaska. It will be a rare occasion to have a room full of people speaking the language. Fewer than 200 people speak Tlingit around the world, with speakers spread across different communities in the United States and Canada. The meeting means a lot to Duane Gastant Aucoin, the chair of the language and culture oversight committee with the Teslin Tlingit Council in Teslin, Yukon. "This is the first time coming together of all our fluent speakers"...(more) (11-6-18)

Get ready for a busy Native American and Alaska Native Heritage Month
November is filled with events
November is Native American and Alaska Native Month, and there’s no shortage of local events commemorating it. Sealaska Heritage Institute, libraries, museums and more are all organizing and hosting events in November...(more) (11-1-18)

The Halibut Hook Revival
An ingenious Indigenous fishing technology with spiritual significance is making a comeback
by Raina Delisle
Hakai Magazine
Jonathan Rowan lowers his handmade wooden halibut hook into the tranquil early-morning water off Klawock, Alaska, and urges it to go down and fight: “Weidei yei jindagut,” he says in the Tlingit language. From his skiff, the tribal leader, who is joined by two friends, watches the V-shaped hook about as long as his forearm slowly sink and hopes the imagery he carved on the seafloor-facing arm—a beaver perched on a chewed stick—entices a halibut. Rowan, a master carver, is acting on an omen...(more) (10-23-18)

Sealaska Heritage Institute: Lectures, Events for Native American Heritage Month

Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will sponsor the following lectures and special events in honor of Native American Heritage Month and Walter Soboleff Day. All lectures are free and open to the public...(more) (10-16-18)

Photo: Best Pictures of the Week September 28
By Michael Penn
Juneau Empire
Nancy Barnes drums as about 30 people from the Walter Soboleff Center and Sealaska Corporation stand Monday, Sept. 24, 2018, in support of victims of sexual violence. The National Walk Out was in support of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez in their statements of being sexually assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh decades ago. Supporters were asked to dress in black and photograph themselves for social media using #BelieveSurvivors at 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday...(more) (10-3-18)

Sealaska Heritage Institute sponsoring skin-sewing workshops
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is launching a region-wide program to teach skin sewing in an effort to perpetuate the traditional art practice of using sea otter fur and to create cottage industries in Southeast Alaska. Through SHI’s Sustainable Arts Program, offered through the institute’s Jinéit Art Academy, the institute will sponsor 11 workshops in ten communities across the region, said SHI President Rosita Worl...(more) 9-28-18)

Opinion: Why I support the vision behind the new Juneau Arts and Culture Center
by Rosita Worl
Juneau Empire
I want to publicly express my support for the effort by the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council to build a new Juneau Arts and Culture Center (JACC). Fifty years has passed since the old JACC was built, and Juneau’s art and culture programming have outgrown the facility, which is deteriorating and has substandard features. We should be proud that Juneau recently ranked sixth in the country for creative vitality. The new JACC will build on that and help mark Juneau as an arts and culture center and a destination for art lovers...(more) (9-27-18)

The ultimate travel guide to Juneau, Alaska
Thrillist Travel
Here you can acquaint yourself with the ancient and modern history of the diverse Native populations who have sustainably occupied these lands for thousands of years. Of the 573 federally recognized Native tribes, 229 are in Alaska; Juneau lies in Tlingit territory, a Pacific Northwest coastal tribe known for their elaborate art and totem poles. The exhibits at Sealaska Heritage Institute highlight an incredibly cool mix of traditional and modern indigenous art from the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian tribes, and your $5 entrance fee contributes to the perpetuation of these ancient peoples. The gift shops at the Sealaska Heritage Institute, State Museum, and Mount Roberts Tramway are some of the best places in town to buy traditional Tlingit jewelry, glasswork, and art...(more) (9-24-18)

National Museum Day 2018: Best Museums to Visit for Free in All 50 States
By Nicole Rojas
Newsweek
The Smithsonian is hosting its annual Museum Day on Saturday, September 22, along with more than 1,500 museums across the country. Visitors with a Museum Day ticket will get free entry for two people to any participating museum or cultural institution ... Newsweek has chosen some of the most interesting museums to visit on Saturday in all 50 states. Alaska: Sealaska Heritage Institute—Museum seekers in Alaska should head over to the Sealaska Heritage Institute, which was founded in 1980 to highlight the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures. One of its exhibits, "Our Grandparents’ Names on the Land," looks at 3,500 ancient place names...(more) (9-21-18)

Downtown intersection renamed to reflect Juneau’s rich culture
By Adelyn Baxter
KTOO
The downtown intersection of Front and Seward streets has been named Heritage Square, paying homage to Juneau’s cultural history. The Juneau Assembly approved the name unanimously on Monday with a resolution. Sealaska Heritage Institute recently installed three bronze house posts on the intersection’s southeast corner. SHI President Rosita Worl said she wants the new name to represent pride in every culture, not just that of Alaska Natives...(more) (9-21-18)

Free Lecture Explores How Alaska Natives could have been the first Polynesians
KINY
The Sealaska Heritage Institute is sponsoring a free lecture next week that will explore the idea that Alaska Natives could have been the first Polynesians after Tlingit, Haida, and Hawaiians sailed across the Pacific in ancient times. "Discovery: Alaska to Hawaii and the Pacific" will be held at the Walter Soboleff Building on Wednesday, September 26th at 12 pm. It will be hosted by author and scientist Louise Riofrio and will be based on the work in her book of the same name...(more) (9-19-18)

City of Juneau name Area around SHI Heritage Square 
KINY
The City and Borough of Juneau passed a resolution on Monday night that names the intersection of Front and Seward Streets "Heritage Square" in an effort to further recognize the Sealaska Heritage Institute's efforts to make Juneau the Northwest Coast art capital of the world. Juneau Mayor Ken Koelsch was excited to have the resolution on the consent agenda. 
"The area bordered by Sealaska, Heritage Coffee, and Juneau Drug is now called Heritage Square. It is very cool"...(more) (9-18-18)

Summit invites fluid speakers of Southeast Alaska Native languages
By Tripp Crouse
KNBA
About 100 fluent speakers of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian languages are left in Alaska and Canada’s Interior. And a Southeast Alaska cultural center invites them to Juneau for an Alaska Native language summit. “Voices of Our Ancestors” will invite fluent speakers of Lingit, Xaad Kil and Sm’algyax. The three-day regional summit will be Nov. 13-15...(more) (9-14-18)

Recommended! BABY RAVEN and BABY EAGLE by Crystal Worl 
American Indians in Children’s Literature
If there is a basket (or shelf) of board books in your home, classroom, or library, you best get Baby Eagle and Baby Raven...(more) (9-9-18)

Program effort to perpetuate endangered Northwest Coast art form
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is kicking off a horn-spoon carving class in Juneau today in an effort to save the ancient but endangered Northwest Coast art practice. SHI sought funding for the program, which the institute also will offer in Sitka and Ketchikan, after artists at a regional gathering sponsored by SHI in 2015 identified horn-spoon carving as an endangered art practice and a priority, said SHI President Rosita Worl...(more) (9-3-18)

Spruce Root Weaving: Reviving An Ancient Art 
By Lauren Greene
Lindblad Expeditions
For Alaska Natives like the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian, their deep-seated artistic traditions hold a sacred place in their cultural and social lives. But as the older generation passes on, they’re taking with them their wealth of knowledge and skills, and many precious art forms are in danger of being lost forever. That’s especially true for spruce-root basket weaving, one of the most at-risk Northwest Coast Native art traditions...(more) (8-29-18)

SHI to Display Traditional Native Armor and Weaponry for First Friday
KINY
The Sealaska Heritage Institute will be exhibiting a traditional set of armor and weapons that a Tlingit warrior would use during the 1800s with some pieces being recreated by artists. As part of First Friday, SHI will be unveiling the pieces as a rotating lobby display. Items include fearsome war helmets, collars, slat chest armor, a copper dagger, and an iron spear. Chuck Smythe, who is the Director of the Culture & History Department of SHI, gave us more insight on what that time looked like through the eyes of a warrior...(more) (9-5-18)

Program effort to perpetuate endangered Northwest Coast art form
Sealaska Heritage Institute kicks off the first horn-spoon carving class in Juneau, in Sitka September 7 to 10
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is kicking off a horn-spoon carving class in Juneau today in an effort to save the ancient but endangered Northwest Coast art practice. SHI sought funding for the program, which the institute also will offer in Sitka and Ketchikan, after artists at a regional gathering sponsored by SHI in 2015 identified horn-spoon carving as an endangered art practice and a priority, said SHI President Rosita Worl...(more) (9-3-18)

Nonprofit buys final Chilkat blanket by renowned weaver
Jennie Thlunaut’s final work will be examined by scholars, artists
By Alex McCarthy
Juneau Empire
When she sold her final Chilkat blanket in 1985, famed Tlingit weaver Jennie Thlunaut wrote a notarized note to the buyer, Dr. Robert Page. In the note, Thlunaut wrote that she was “the last of the authentic traditional Chilkat Blanket weavers,” and stated that this blanket would be the final one she would weave. A year later, Thlunaut died at the age of 94. Page and his wife Winni have held onto the prized blanket since then...(more) (8-30-18)

Master carver joins UAS faculty
Tlingit carver Wayne Price brings more than 40 years of experience
By Alex McCarthy
Juneau Empire
Already a well known name in Southeast Alaska and in Alaska Native artwork, Tlingit Master Carver Wayne Price is preparing to pass on his knowledge to university students in Juneau. The University of Alaska Southeast announced this month that Price is joining the school as an associate professor of Northwest Coast Arts. Price, a member of the Wooshkeetaan clan, has carved more than 30 traditional and non-traditional totems. He’s also worked extensively on canoes, paddles, masks, drums, regalia and more...(more) (8-28-18)

New bronze posts preserve Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian art
Artists debut posts outside Walter Soboleff Building in downtown Juneau
By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
The three bronze posts unveiled under sunny skies Sunday afternoon also double as pillars. They hold up and support the vibrancy and resilience of the Tsimshian, Tlingit and Haida cultures. “We are not just a part of history, we are here and living our way of life,” said Rosita Worl, Sealaska Heritage Institute president, during a ceremony held in front of the Walter Soboleff Building. “These bronze posts are symbols of our past and symbols of our future”...(more) (Capital City Weekly) (8-27-18)

Standing tall: Three new totem poles unveiled in Juneau
By Steve Quinn
KTVA
Downtown Juneau has a new look. Standing in the heart of the capital city are three bronze totem poles – each about 8 feet tall. Sealaska Heritage Institute commissioned three Southeast Alaska artists to create the poles -- each representative of a different heritage: Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian. The poles were first carved out of red cedar then shipped to Seattle where they were cast in bronze. Artists involved say the totem poles symbolize cultural resilience...(more) (8-26-18)

Bronze puts contemporary spin on traditionally carved Native house posts
By Scott Burton
KTOO
Three bronze house posts will be installed at the Walter Soboleff Building on Sunday. Each of the 8-foot posts were carved from cedar, then cast in bronze. They weigh close to 1,000 pounds each. Three bronze house posts will be installed at the Walter Soboleff Building on Sunday. Each of the 8-foot posts were carved from cedar, then cast in bronze. They weigh close to 1,000 pounds each...(more) (8-24-18)

Bronze house posts to be unveiled Sunday downtown
Juneau Empire
Three bronze house posts will take their place in front of the Walter Soboleff Building in downtown Juneau this Sunday. 
Each post is made by a different emerging Alaska Native artist — Tlingit Stephen Jackson, Haida TJ Young and Tsimshian David R. Boxley — and the Sealaska Heritage Institute is holding a public ceremony to unveil them at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. The ceremony is open to anybody, and will be streamed live on SHI’s Facebook page. The posts will be at the former of Front and Seward streets...(more) (8-23-18)

Sealaska Heritage Institute Bronze Post Unveiling
Capital Chat
KINY
A conversation with SHI Chief of Operations Lee Kadinger about the institute's upcoming bronze house post ceremony...(more) (8-22-18)

Sealaska Heritage Institute Bronze Post Unveiling
A Juneau Afternoon
By Scott Burton
KTOO
A conversation with SHI Chief of Operations Lee Kadinger about the institute's upcoming bronze house post ceremony...(more) (8-22-18)

Native artist, musician Archie Cavanaugh dead at 67
He tangled with Fish and Wildlife Service over use of feathers
By Suzanne Downing
Must Read Alaska
Archie Cavanaugh, Tlingit Raven from the G̱aanax̱teidí clan of the Xíxch’I Hít (Frog House) in Klukwan, has died, it was reported by the Sealaska Heritage Institute. He was 67. Cavanaugh was a gifted jazz musician with three compact disc albums. He recruited and played jazz with the late Jim Pepper, another legendary Native American musician who made the music scene in Alaska in the 1970s with his smooth saxophone and his classic song Witchi Tai To...(more) (8-20-18)

Award-winning Tlingit artist dies
Archie Cavanaugh’s battle with federal government could provide protections for Native artists
By Alex McCarthy
Juneau Empire
Award-winning Tlingit artist and musician Archie Cavanaugh died last week at the age of 67, leaving a long legacy of ambitious and meaningful art and music. Cavanaugh is well known for the smooth, jazzy music he has released and performed for decades. His debut album, “Black and White Raven,” was released in 1980 and blended jazz, funk and soul into a distinctive blend that earned him an audience...(more) (8-20-18)

Sealaska Heritage reveals hidden details on century-old Tlingit box drum with infrared scans
By Tripp J Crouse
KTOO
A Southeast Alaska cultural center will study a Tlingit bentwood drum that’s more than 100 years old. By scanning the box drum in infrared, century-old details are returning to the surface. The bentwood box drum is downstairs at Sealaska Heritage Institute in the cultural center’s collections room. 
Chuck Smythe is the director for the cultural and history department at Sealaska Heritage Institute. “We have the drum pulled out. You can see what it looked like what we were starting with,” Smythe said...(more) (8-19-18)

Native Youth Olympics team shares season highlights
Program already showing impact on youth
By Nolin Ainsworth
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute held a celebratory lunch for Juneau’s Native Youth Olympics team on Friday at the SHI offices. SHI was one of the co-sponsors of the team, which competed in the statewide NYO Games in May and earned a bronze medal in the Eskimo stick pull. Kyle Worl and Kaytlynne Lewis coached the team in its inaugural year. Worl, who held weekly practices during the school year, introduced the team and shared some of their accomplishments at the event...(more) (8-14-18)

SHI offering horn spoon carving workshops
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute is offering horn spoon carving workshops in Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan in an effort to ensure the endangered art of goat horn spoon carving are passed on to future generations. The workshop is a four-day course, that teaches technical skills and techniques required to create the goat horn spoon. It’s a complex process, so the course will touch on the basics of carving the horn, but will focus primarily on molding the horn into the traditional horn spoon shape. Also, because of the rarity of goat horns, SHI wll use similar horns from bulls and sheep as well...(more) (8-9-18)

Cedar posts to be unveiled downtown
Capital City Weekly
Three new bronzed cedar house posts will soon be part of the downtown Juneau streetscape. Sealaska Heritage Institute announced on Thursday that the posts — carved by renown Southeast Alaska Native artists — will be displayed prominently outside on the corner of Front and Seward Streets near the SHI Walter Soboleff building. SHI President Rosita Worl called the posts exquisite and “stunning"...(more) (8-9-18)

Spreading ‘mental hygiene:’ Spiritual leader visits Juneau
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar brings meditation into the modern world 
By Alex McCarthy
Juneau Empire
People were out of their seats even before they saw him, ready to give the meditation guru a standing ovation. When Sri Sri Ravi Shankar appeared on the Juneau-Douglas High School auditorium stage moments later, a thunderous applause greeted him. He smiled and waved as he walked in a flowing white robe with a purple trim. When he sat down on his wide yellow towel that was placed on a couch in the middle of the stage, his white tennis shoes were visible...(more) (8-1-18)

Educators explore role of culture in the classroom at conference
By Adelyn Baxter
KTOO
A conference on culturally responsive education kicked off in Juneau on Wednesday with more than 200 educators expected to attend. This is the second year Sealaska Heritage Institute has held the Our Cultural Landscape conference. They invited teachers, experts and school administrators from across the region and country to Juneau-Douglas High School for three days of discussion and learning...(more) (8-1-18)

Conference aims to increase cultural, trauma awareness
Experts, educators from all over the world to share ideas
By Alex McCarthy
Juneau Empire
This week, educators from all around Alaska and the world will be in Juneau for a conference to learn more about culturally aware approaches in classrooms. The conference, called “Our Cultural Landscape,” is sponsored by the Sealaska Heritage Institute and other organizations in town. This is the second conference that the nonprofit has put on, and SHI Education Director Kevin Shipley said this one will be much larger than the one last year...(more) (8-1-18)

Sealaska Heritage Institute to digitally preserve spruce-root basket weaving
By June Leffler
KSTK
Sealaska Heritage Institute will digitally preserve the Alaska Native art form of spruce-root basket weaving. With some outside help, the organization will produce how-to videos that show the entire Tlingit basket-making process. 
“It was just something that really connected with me,” said Juneau-based spruce-root weaver Hans Chester. “I enjoy being outside, and I enjoy digging in the dirt"...(more) (7-31-18)

Program will document how to make spruce-root basketry
Video aims to preserve, spread knowledge about important art form 
By Alex McCarthy
Juneau Empire
Years ago, Hans Chester watched as the late Tlingit scholar Nora Keixwnéi Dauenhauer wove a spruce-root basket. Chester, who now works with the Sealaska Heritage Institute as a Tlingit language and culture assistant, said he couldn’t quite make out what Dauenhauer was doing because she was doing it so quickly. He knew it was a different style than he had ever seen...(more) (7-30-18)

SHI Invites Fluent Native Language Speakers to Juneau for November Summit
KINY
In an effort to further promote the survival of Native languages, the Sealaska Heritage Institute are searching for remaining fluent speakers of Lingít (Tlingit), Xaad Kíl (Haida) and Sm’algyax (Tsimshian) living in Southeast Alaska and among the Interior Tlingit who share clan membership with the coastal Tlingit to bring them into Juneau for a language summit. The event is being called the "Voices of Our Ancestors" and is scheduled for November 13th-15th...(more) (7-24-18)

Sealaska is bringing culture into the classroom!
Capital Chat
KINY
Here's all the details with Phyllis Carlson and Kevin Shipley...(more) (7-20-18)

Celebration
C-SPAN
Rosita Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, shared the history of the Native people of southeastern Alaska...(more) (7-18-18)

WEIO’s kneel jump more challenging than it looks
By Danny Martin
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
The motions Kyle Worl went through Wednesday afternoon to prepare for the kneel jump were as fascinating as his execution in the event of the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics at the Carlson Center. The motions helped the 27-year-old Juneau resident win for at least the third straight title in the men’s division of the event that’s based on the speed and agility a person needs when hunting on the ice or moving from an ice floe during spring break...(more) (7-18-18)

Yakutat undergraduate, mental-health advocate chosen for Judson Brown Scholarship
Juneau Empire
An undergraduate student at the Alaska Pacific University who is pursuing a degree in counseling psychology won Sealaska Heritage Institute’s 2018 Judson L. Brown Leadership Award. Sharnel Yaqagal Vale, a Tlingit Raven from the Kwaashk’I Kwáan Clan and the Half-Moon House in Yakutat, was chosen by Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI), a private nonprofit that perpetuates and enhances Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska, by its scholarship committee...(more) (7-8-18)

SHI Acquires Unique Eskimo Doll
KINY
Sealaska Heritage Institute were recently given a unique item. They received a stone doll that was donated by Theo Ferguson. Chuck Smythe, who is the Director of the Culture and History Department at SHI, said that this was unusual to the other types of dolls that they've seen, which are normally made with animal fur and bones...(more) (7-4-18)

SHI Historian Describes the Value of Donated Woven Items
KINY
The Sealaska Heritage Institute were able to acquire some new artifacts that will be used to teach new students, enrich the skills of educators, and be scanned into a digital form for potentially a more global sharing of knowledge. The collection includes four spruce-root baskets; three bottles with spruce-root weaving wraps; seven spoons, including five horn spoons; two pairs of beaded moccasins; one model canoe; and one bone piece that was possibly used to hold a napkin...(more) (7-3-18)

This is Who I Am"--Southeast Alaska's Tlingit embracing Native language
By Christine Gordon
KCBX
In July 2017, correspondent Christine Gordon traveled to Juneau, Alaska to find out what’s happened in the state since advocates and local officials succeeded in their campaign to make 20 Native Alaskan languages official state languages along with English...(more) (7-3-18)

Forest Service webpage features Native pronunciations of wildlife
By Liam Niemeyer
KRBD
The U.S. Forest Service launched a webpage Friday featuring audio recordings and pronunciations of various wildlife such as “beaver” or “fish” in different Alaska Native languages. For example, the pronunciation for “black bear” is “s’eek” in the Tlingit language. These pronunciations are just some of the audio recordings the U.S. Forest Service has published on a webpage detailing how to say common names for wildlife in the languages of the Haida, Tlingit and Tsimshian peoples...(more) (7-2-18)

Sealaska announces Alaska Native language summit
By Clara Miller
Capital City Weekly
Summit gathers fluent elders of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian for three-day event Sealaska Heritage Institute on Thursday announced it will be hosting an Alaska Native language summit, geared toward fluent elders speakers of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian languages. There’s about 100 fluent remaining speakers of Lingít (Tlingit), Xaad Kíl (Haida) and Sm’algyax (Tsimshian), said a press release from SHI. The summit will be called “Voices of Our Ancestors"...(more) (6/29/18)

In Alaska, family separations evoke past trauma
By Jacob Resneck
Alaska Public Radio Network
The sights and sounds of children being taken from their families by federal immigration agents is reopening decades-old wounds for some Alaska Natives. “When I first saw them I was just absolutely appalled,” Rosita Worl said. Worl was forcibly taken from her parents at the age of 6. It was the 1940s and like many Tlingit children, she was sent to live in a federal boarding school run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs...(more) (Native National News) (6-21-18)

Walker urges Trump administration to stop splitting children from parents
Alaska Native leader also opposes concept, compares practice to federal boarding schools
By James Brooks
Juneau Empire
Gov. Bill Walker has joined opponents of the Trump administration’s effort to separate illegal immigrant children from their families. In a statement Tuesday, Walker called for an immediate halt to the practice. “I understand that border security is a complicated policy discussion. However, frightening children by separating them from their parents in order to deter adult conduct is cruel and counter-productive. This policy should end today,” Walker wrote in a statement shared on social media. “Children belong with their families. Period.”..(more) (6-19-18)

Letter: Border family separations reopen old wounds
by Rosita Worl
Anchorage Daily News
I want to express my appreciation to U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski for opposing the separation of families at the U.S. border and demanding an immediate halt to this "cruel, tragic" practice. I also want to recognize Sen. Dan Sullivan for requesting a more deliberate bipartisan approach to this issue. For me and for many, many other Alaska Natives, this issue is personal and resurrects old wounds. As Alaska Natives, we suffered the kidnapping of our children who were interned in boarding schools under the assimilationist policy of the United States...(more) (6-20-18)

Border family separations open old wounds
By Rosita Worl
Juneau Empire
I want to express my appreciation to U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska for opposing the separation of families at the U.S. border and demanding an immediate halt to this “cruel, tragic” practice. I also want to recognize U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska for requesting a more deliberate bipartisan approach to this issue. For me and for many, many other Alaska Natives, this issue is personal and resurrects old wounds...(more) (6-20-18)

C-SPAN visit strives to promote local, nationwide education
Stop in Juneau includes interviews with political, cultural leaders
By Alex McCarthy
Juneau Empire
As the sun beat down on the large C-SPAN bus in Juneau on Monday afternoon, C-SPAN Marketing Manager Heath Neiderer greeted a crowd with words that don’t often get said about Southeast Alaska. “We love your weather,” Neiderer said, as Juneau residents in the crowd chuckled. 
Neiderer is part of a crew from C-SPAN that is taking the 45-foot educational bus to all 50 U.S. state capitals this year. Juneau is the 38th stop, and the C-SPAN crew is trying to make the most of its visit to Alaska. They’re making stops in Haines, Anchorage and Fairbanks after this...(more) (6-18-18)

Thank you for making Celebration 2018 a success
By Rosita Worl
Juneau Empire
Thank you to everyone who helped to make Celebration 2018 happen. This year’s gathering was one of our most successful to date. On behalf of Sealaska Heritage Institute, I thank all of the people, organizations and businesses who helped make it come together...(more) (6-17-18)

Celebrating cultural diversity in Southeast Alaska 
By Kate Troll
Anchorage Daily News
In 1982, the Alaska Federation of Natives started Quyana Alaska, an indigenous dance festival. Twenty-six years later, Quyana Alaska is a treasured highlight of every AFN convention. We have the same here in Juneau — every other year, Sealaska Heritage hosts Celebration, the largest gathering of Southeast Alaska Native people. This dance event also got started in 1982 and now draws about 5,000 people, including more than 2,000 dancers...(more) (6-17-18)

What you wore to Celebration 2018
By Kerry Howard
Juneau Empire
Juneau Empire fashion photographer Kerry Howard hit the streets during Celebration 2018 to capture what you wore to the four-day biannual festival that honors and celebrates Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian culture. Celebration 2018, sponsored by Sealaska Heritge Institute, is one of the largest gathering of Southeast Alaska Native peoples...(more) (6-14-18)

Celebrating cultural reclamation through dance, song and art
By Steve Quinn
KTVA
As soon as dance leader David A. Boxley strikes his deer-hide drum, he’s ready to celebrate. 
What follows is one of nearly 50 dance group performances spanning four days on the main stage at Juneau’s Centennial Hall. The shows represent a journey led by nearly 2,000 dancers into this region’s Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures and centuries-old histories. These stories get told with subtle differences from one group to the next, and they are conveyed through dance, song and art. The biennial event is called Celebration, and it’s the state’s – and some believe, the nation’s – largest cultural Native event...(more) (6-12-18)

Opportunity abounds with New JACC
By Bud Carpeneti
Juneau Empire
Juneau has heard a lot recently about the campaign to build a New Juneau Arts &Culture Center (New JACC) — a campaign that at this point more than 1,200 individuals, organizations and businesses have signed on to support. Recent developments suggest that now is a good time for those of us deeply involved in this effort to bring the community up to speed on the project...(more) (6-10-18) 

A downriver homecoming
Sit News
By Mary Catharine Martin
The Taku Kwáan Dancers have been traveling from Atlin, British Columbia to Juneau’s biennial Celebration for years. This year, for the first time, seven of them did it the traditional way: paddling a canoe down the Taku River. The trip, said Taku River Tlingit First Nation master carver Yaan Dekin Yeíl (Flying Raven) Wayne Carlick, a Raven of the Xooxhitan House who grew up on the Taku River, is “the first part of revitalizing this part of our culture"...(more) (6-9-18)

Weavers share traditional knowledge, stories behind textiles
By Tripp J Crouse
KTOO
Weavers and weaving historians were among the about 50 people who attended the event in the Shuka Hit clan house in the Walter Soboleff Building. One presenter, Della Cheney, stressed the importance of learning those traditions. “There’s those things that I enjoy about our ways of life that are so rich and so dynamic because it’s life,” Cheney, who is Haida and Tlingit, said. “It’s our way of life that creates these things that are with us today"...(more) (6-9-18)

‘Light and love’: Native Fashion Show gets ‘electric’ response from full house
Designs include everything from wedding dresses to leggings, from traditional to ‘intergalactic’
By Alex McCarthy
Juneau Empire
At early Celebrations in the 1980s, Dorothy Grant’s clothing designs were already a crowd favorite. Grant remembers women asking her about the clothes she was wearing, not knowing that Grant had designed the clothing herself. “Women were pulling me into the bathroom wondering where I got my clothes from,” Grant recalled, “and then buying it off my back"...(more) (6-9-18)

At toddler review, the story’s in the regalia
Celebration event steeps young people in culture
By Kevin Gullufsen
Juneau Empire
Five-year-old McKayla Paul, of the Deisheetaan (Beaver Clan), took to the stage naturally at Thursday’s Celebration 2018 Toddler Regalia Review. Her face wide with a smile, she twirled in a red-and-black traditional blanket made by her auntie, holding down front and center stage with confidence, her expecting mother Erica George behind her...(more) (6-9-18)

Celebration food contest highlights traditional staples
Donald Bolton, of Metlakatla, wins best seaweed, best seal oil with cracklings awards
By Gregory Philson 
Juneau Empire
Seal oil with cracklings — crunchy seal fat — reminds Joe Nelson of early fall mornings growing up in Yakutat.  Nelson, Board Chair of Sealaska Corporation, was a judge in the Celebration 2018 Food Contest held at Centennial Hall Thursday afternoon. Nelson said he did not know he was going to be asked to be a judge in the contest but was happy it turned out that way...(more) (6-8-18)

Dance groups come from far and wide for Celebration
Group leaders work to involve younger generation to help preserve culture
By Alex McCarthy
Juneau Empire
Tiny Barril waited seven years for the song to come to him. In 2010, Barril — a Tlingit dance leader who lives in the Seattle area — was telling his auntie that he wanted to write a song and knew what he wanted to say. He just didn’t know how to say it. “Tiny, don’t think about it too hard,” she told him. “One day, you’re going to be by yourself and it’s going to come to you. You’re just going to go pick up the drum and the song is going to come to you"...(more) (6-7-18) 

Celebration food contest highlights traditional staples
Donald Bolton, of Metlakatla, wins best seaweed, best seal oil with cracklings awards
By Gregory Philson
Juneau Empire
Seal oil with cracklings — crunchy seal fat — reminds Joe Nelson of early fall mornings growing up in Yakutat. Nelson, Board Chair of Sealaska Corporation, was a judge in the Celebration 2018 Food Contest held at Centennial Hall Thursday afternoon. Nelson said he did not know he was going to be asked to be a judge in the contest but was happy it turned out that way...(more) (6-7-18)

Sisters continue weaving, teaching after mother’s death
Daughters of Chilkat Ravenstail weaver Clarissa Rizal lead same Celebration weaving presentation their mother did
By Alex McCarthy
Juneau Empire
Long before they started weaving, Lily Hope and Ursala Hudson were woven into an ancient artform without knowing it. Their mother, the late weaver Clarissa Rizal, put a meaningful signature on each of her Chilkat and Ravenstail robes, garments historically worn as status symbols in Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures that were also given as gifts ceremonially. Rizal wrapped three bands of string around part of the fringe in one corner, with each band of string carrying a different meaning...(more) (6-7-18)

Spruce root basket wins Best of Show at Native art show
Sealaska Heritage Institute announces winners of Juried Art exhibits
By Gregory Philson 
Juneau Empire
Ariane Xay Kuyaas may take months or even a year designing and constructing a spruce root basket. All that time was worth it, she said, after she received the “Best in Show” prize at the Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Juried Art Show competition at the Walter Soboleff Building Wednesday afternoon...(more) (6-6-18)

Meet Native Art Market artists
By Clara Miller
Capital City Weekly
Every two years, Celebration brings the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people together, and this year, about 40 different artists will share their work at the Native Art Market. “It’s really great for the artists,” said president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute Rosita Worl. “A lot of them come from communities where there is very little economy and the sale of their arts and crafts is one way that they are able to earn an income so that they can continue to live in the villages.”..(more) (6-6-18)

Weaving the Future, Carving the Past
By Ray Friedlander 
Capital City Weekly 
It is a couple weeks shy of Father’s Day but TJ Young is not waiting for the holiday to share what a proud dad he is of his daughter. Having begun weaving at the age of 11, the now 13 year old Kinsie Young will be showcasing two of her pieces — a headband and a ravenstail weaving medicine pouch — at the Juried Youth Art Exhibit hosted today through Saturday at this year’s Celebration. This will be the first time she has ever entered her work into a big art exhibit.(more) (6-5-18)

‘Spiritual and powerful’: Canoes land at Douglas Harbor for Celebration
One People Canoe Society members gather from Southeast Alaska for festival celebrating Alaska Native culture 
By Gregory Philson 
Juneau Empire
Drums and traditional songs filled the air at Douglas Harbor on Tuesday afternoon as Alaska Natives from all over Southeast Alaska made their way into the boating dock. One People Canoe Society gathered together nine canoes filled with anywhere between 13-17 paddlers from Ketchikan, Sitka, Kake, Angoon, Hoonah, Yakutat and the Taku River in Canada, who each paddled their way into the harbor from their hometowns. It was the unofficial start to this year’s Celebration, the four-day biennial festival celebrating Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures...(more) (6-5-18)

Growing group of Native veterans paddles to Celebration while raising awareness
By Adelyn Baxter
KTOO
In the waters of Southeast, the members of the One Paddle Canoe Society will reach Juneau the same way their ancestors would have thousands of years ago. On Tuesday, canoes representing six Southeast communities and Canada will arrive in Juneau. Their landing will kick off Celebration, a four-day gathering of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples...(more) (6-4-18)

Celebration 2018 starts Wednesday
Biennial four-day festival celebrates Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures 
By Gregory Philson
Juneau Empire
Starting Wednesday, songs, art and regalia from Alaska Native people from Southeast Alaska and beyond will fill the streets of Juneau as the biennial festival celebrating Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures, Celebration, begins. While the event officially starts Wednesday, the unofficial beginning will occur when Alaska Natives from Ketchikan, Sitka, Kake, Angoon, Hoonah, Yakutat and Canada arrive in canoes at Douglas Harbor between 2-3:30 p.m. Tuesday...(more) (6-4-18)

Kind year celebrates Alaska Native youth and culture
By Taylor Shae and Becky Roth
Juneau Empire
R.O.C.K. Juneau’s (Raising Our Children with Kindness) effort to host 2018 as the Year of Kindness for Kids, dedicates the month of June to celebrate Alaska Native youth and culture, and recognizes Celebration 2018 hosted by Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) as a kick-off to support tribal youth in our community. The keystone of R.O.C.K.’s partner work is to co-create a community where children are loved, equipped and empowered...(more) (6-3-18)

The creation of a button blanket
By Jack Scholz
Capital City Weekly
The button blanket that 11-year-old Leah Nelson will wear at Celebration this year is a symbol of firsts and lasts: the first time she’s ever danced at the event, and the first and last button blanket her grandma Lynn Alme ever made. Michael Nelson, Leah’s father and Lynn’s son-in-law, first knew that his daughter would need her own button blanket when she decided that she wanted to dance for her grandfather at Celebration...(more) (5-30-18) 

Celebration 2018 brings 45 dance groups to Juneau
By Ed Schoenfeld
KRBD
It can be hard to fully describe Celebration. You can talk about its expected 2,000 or so dancers and 5,000 participants. Or the language, the oral traditions and the regalia. But that just doesn’t fully capture the experience. Rosita Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, describes one year’s grand exit, when all the groups danced out of the performance hall. “And it was like we were one people, one being, and we were all dancing. And it reminded me of a swarm of fish coming in. But everybody was kind of in unison, it was like we were part of a whole spiritual essence,” she said...(more) (KTOO) (5-29-18)

As first Alaska Native police chief in Juneau, Ed Mercer strives to be role model
Native leaders express pride in Mercer’s appointment to position 
By Alex McCarthy
Juneau Empire
Nearly a quarter-century later, Ed Mercer still remembers the night vividly. It was near midnight on a January night in Sitka in 1994, and Mercer was in his second year working for the Sitka Police Department. He was driving near the harbor when the call came in: a baby had been found in a bathroom at the harbor. Mercer was the closest officer and arrived on the scene first. There he found the harbor employee Kelly Warren, holding a small newborn in his arms. “I think that was touching,” Mercer recalled, “and told me a lot about humanity.”..(more) (5-20-18)

Alaska Native Anthropology: Review of Menadelook, edited by Eileen Norbert
By Lisa Alexia
Denali Sunrise
Eileen Norbert has raised the bar for documenting history and culture. Born in the northwestern Alaskan town of Wales in the late 1800s, her grandfather Charles Menadelook developed a passion for photography as a teen and later became one of the first Alaska Native classroom teachers. He traveled with his family to multiple communities in Northwest Alaska to teach in the early 1900s, documenting the integration of new materials and technology into Inupiat daily life, including subsistence traditions. Norbert began collecting and researching her grandfather’s photos and the stories behind them as an anthropology student, “. . . determined to demonstrate that a member of an indigenous society can provide significant information and understanding of one’s own culture and history.” (from the foreword by Rosita Worl). In this, she has succeeded...(more) (4-27-18)

Juneau, Alaska: 5 Things We Love
Alaska’s capital city has an abundance of great scenery and attractions, plus local-harvest eateries
By Renee Brincks
AAA
Framed by the placid Gastineau Channel and steep, spruce-covered slopes, Juneau has long welcomed day-tripping cruise passengers sailing up the Inside Passage. Now, fresh eateries and attractions encourage explorers to linger longer in Alaska's capital city...A 40-foot-high cedar facade adorned with sculptures by Haida artist Robert Davidson greets all comers at the Sealaska Heritage Institute. Inside, the Native Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian artifacts on display include glasswork, halibut hooks, and masks. Don't miss the Shuká Hít, a hand-carved clan house featuring a stunning black-and-amber glass screen...(more) (May 2018)

Juneau team brings home medal from Native Youth Olympics
By Adelyn Baxter
KTOO
The Native Youth Olympics wrapped in Anchorage on Saturday, with Juneau athletes setting new personal records and placing in one event. It’s the first team from Juneau to compete at the statewide competition in almost 30 years. Juneau sent 10 athletes. The games celebrate Alaska Native culture, but middle and high school students from all backgrounds compete...(more) (4-30-18)

Southeast lands voice Tlingit history in new place name exhibit
SHI’s new, interactive Tlingit place-name exhibit combines the ancient and cutting-edge 
By Kevin Gullufsen
Juneau Empire
On a drive from the Mendenhall Valley to downtown Juneau, one would pass the “Hand of Moldy Top” and the “Beautifully Adorned Face” before arriving at the “Trails Above Each Other.” That’s Katlaax Jíni (Blackerby Ridge), Yadaa.at Kalé (the face of Mount Juneau) and Wooshkeenax Deiyí (on Mount Roberts), respectively. Those and 3,500 other place names can be heard and explored at a new exhibit at the Sealaska Heritage Institute. “Our Grandparents’ Names on the Land” opens May 1 at 9 a.m. in the Nathan Jackson Gallery...(more) (4-29-18)

‘Baby Raven Reads’ series of Alaska children’s books are a treasure worth sharing
By David A. James
Anchorage Daily News
Baby Raven Reads is a program launched in 2014 by the Sealaska Heritage Institute to improve the academic performance of Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian students in Southeast Alaska. Part of the program involves publishing a series of books aimed at these children that highlight their culture while helping establish early reading skills. Written and illustrated by Southeast Alaskan writers and artists — most of them Alaska Native — the books include words from Native languages alongside the English text, an important addition for keeping these languages alive and vital. The resulting series of board and beginning reading books has drawn national attention and a couple of awards, and deservedly so...(more) (4-29-18)

Muktuk and ice cream: Exchange brings Noorvik students to Juneau
By Adelyn Baxter
KTOO
Four middle school students from Noorvik Aqqaluk School visited Juneau this week as part of the statewide Sister School Exchange program. The program promotes understanding between Alaska’s rural and urban communities by setting up cultural exchanges for middle and high school students. The Northwest community of Noorvik was paired with Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School...(more) (4-26-18) 

Alaska Olympic games pay homage to hunting, survival skills
By Mark Thiessen
Associated Press
To most spectators, the term “Olympics” means world-class swimming competitions, downhill skiing or the 100-meter dash. But near the Arctic Circle, a different type of Olympics for young people pays homage to the region’s subsistence hunters and the methods they’ve used for centuries to feed their families and stay alive in harsh conditions. This week, more than 400 high school students from across Alaska will gather in Anchorage for the Native Youth Olympics state championships, where 10 events will test their strength, endurance and agility...(more) (The Brownsville Herald) (KPVI News 6) (The Christian Science Monitor) (KTOO) (The Spokesman-Review) (4-25-18)

Young aims to protect Native crafters from federal restrictions
By Erica Martinson
Anchorage Daily News
Legislation aimed at protecting the rights of Alaska Natives to use protected bird parts in craft work, sponsored by Rep. Don Young, advanced out of committee last week, the first step to becoming law. It now has to advance to the House floor and make it into Senate legislation too — most likely as an amendment to a larger bill. Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan has introduced a Senate version of the bill...(more) (4-25-18)

Spring events enhance Alaska's cultural fabric
By Renee brincks
Travel Weekly
Alaska's summer tourism season traditionally ramps up in May and peaks during the summer months as cruise ship visitors and independent adventure travelers descend upon the state. While companies such as AdventureSmith Explorations and Alaskan Dream Cruises have been expanding their spring schedules, this time of year still provides a quieter opportunity to explore and engage in local events that celebrate everything from classical music to culture to king salmon...(more) (4-24-18)

Book series explores Southeast Alaska Native heritage 
By David James
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Baby Raven Reads is a program launched in 2014 by the Sealaska Heritage Institute to improve the academic performance of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian students in Southeast Alaska. Part of the program involves publishing books aimed at these children that highlight their culture while helping establish early reading skills. Written and illustrated by Southeast Alaskan writers and artists, most of them Native, the books include words from Native languages alongside the English text, an important addition for keeping these languages alive and vital...(more) (4-23-18)

Juneau school board contemplates creating Tlingit Language Revitalization Task Force
By Gregory Philson
Juneau Empire
The Juneau school board on Tuesday heard plans to create a Tlingit Language Revitalization Task Force. Ted Wilson, Director of Teaching and Learning Support, presented the idea to the board at its regular meeting at Juneau-Douglas High School Tuesday evening. Wilson explained he worked with Barbara Cadiente-Nelson, Juneau School District Indian Studies Program Coordinator, Hans Chester, JSD Indian Studies Cultural Specialist and Jessica Chester, JSD Tlingit Culture, Language &Literacy (TCLL) teacher, on who would be on the task force and the hopeful outcomes...(more) (4-20-18)

Young athletes prepare to represent Juneau at statewide traditional games competition
By Adelyn Baxter
KTOO
Juneau is getting ready to send its first team to the statewide Native Youth Olympics competition in almost 30 years. At least 10 middle and high school athletes will travel to Anchorage in late April to compete, but as their coach says, their biggest opponent will be themselves...(more) (4-4-18)

Native Youth Olympics draws wide spectrum of teens
Quinto wins kneel jump, one-foot high kick
By Nolin Ainsworth
Approximately two dozen Juneau youths took to the University of Alaska Southeast Recreation Center gymnasium Friday night for the Native Youth Olympics Tradition Games. It was the first of two days of friendly competition among middle and high school students in a sport that up until this year was only practiced at the elementary school level in town. Juneau-Douglas High School football team members Bubba Stults and Derrick Roberts were there. But many competitors had no sports background and attended the after-school practices that started in November through word of mouth...(more) (3-31-18)

Literacy program encourages reading and culture
Wrangell Sentinel
Published by Sealaska Heritage Institute, "Baby Eagle" is an illustrated book aimed at teaching youngsters about the different clans of the Tlingit Eagle moiety. It was one of 19 educational reads produced during the Baby Raven Reads program's first three-year grant cycle. Wrangell's Head Start program will be opening its doors to families Friday evening as part of a recent educational collaboration between Sealaska Heritage Institute and the Tlingit and Haida Central Council (CCTHITA)...(more) 

The Art of Baby Raven Reads: Featuring Janine Gibbons and Michaela Goade
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast (a blog about books)
Last week over at Kirkus, I talked here with Dr. Rosita Worl, President of Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau, about Baby Raven Reads, the Institute’s groundbreaking, culturally-based program promoting early literacy and school readiness for Alaska Native children. Today, I’m following up that Q&A with a bit of art from some of their 2017 titles...(more) (3-22-18)

This halibut hook is an innovation for the past, present and future
By Elizabeth Jenkins
KTOO
The Alaska Innovators Hall of Fame recently inducted its first indigenous tool. Few people still use the hand-carved halibut hook, once popular with Southeast tribes. But there’s a push to make sure the tradition sticks around for future generations. Standing on a stage with his grandson at the Juneau Innovation Summit a few weeks ago, Thomas George accepted an award. “I’ve been trying to get help to keep this part of our heritage alive for years or decades,” George said...(more) (3-17-18)

Sitka tribe donates canoe replica to Sealaska Heritage Institute
Capital City Weekly
Sitka’s tribal government has donated to Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) a small replica of a full-size dugout canoe carved through a project sponsored by SHI, the National Park Service, Alaska State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and a private foundation in 2016...(more) (3-16-18)

Sharing Stories of Alaska Natives
By Julie Danielson
Kirkus
It’s a pleasure to speak today with Dr. Rosita Worl, President of Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau. In 2014, as you will read below, the Institute developed Baby Raven Reads, a culturally-based program promoting early literacy and school readiness for Alaska Native children. You will also read below, in Dr. Worl’s own words, why this was groundbreaking. I’ve seen a selection of their 2017 picture books, vividly-illustrated traditional tales by writers and illustrators from the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. For Alaska Native children in that region, they are stories that reflect their cultures and lives. For me, a white reader in Tennessee, it was a rewarding introduction to cultures I’d not been exposed to in my traditional public school education...(more) (3-15-18)

Hope for the Future: Alaskan Community Works to Revive Native Languages
By Talia Wiener
Pulitzer Center
Terri Burr hopped in her car, turning on the wipers to sweep the rain from her windshield. She began to drive and talk, barely looking down at the road she takes each morning to meet with her language mentor, John Reese, the 95-year-old, last fluent speaker of the native Alaskan language Shm’algyack in Ketchikan. Burr stepped out of her car and into a creaking elevator in a fading teal apartment building. She pressed the button for the 11th floor where Reese lives alone in what he and his brother nicknamed the Eagle’s Nest, a nod to their family’s clan. The two have an agreement that before Burr enters the apartment, she calls out to Reese to let him know she has arrived...(more) (3-13-18)

Derogatory internet definition drives students to move on from Thunder Bear mascot name
Student representatives decide by 5-4 vote to select new mascot for consolidated football team 
By Alex McCarthy
Juneau Empire
The process of consolidating Juneau’s high school football teams is off to a bumpy start. In November 2017, the Alaska School Activities Association voted to consolidate Juneau’s two high school football teams (at the Juneau School District’s request). On Feb. 7, JSD announced that the new football team’s mascot would be the Thunder Bears — a mixture of the Thunder Mountain High School Falcons and Juneau-Douglas High School Crimson Bears. The transition to the new mascot name had barely begun when a post from 2004 on an internet dictionary brought the process to a halt...(more) (3-13-18)

Haida weaver Delores Churchill replicates ancient hat
By Maria Dudzak
KRBD
Sealaska Heritage Institute earlier this year acquired a spruce-root hat made by Haida weaver Delores Churchill. The hat is a replica of one found with ancient remains. The original hat was found in 1999 in a melting glacier by three hunters in a British Columbia park. Mummified human remains were found with it, and a helicopter was sent to retrieve the remains and artifacts. Churchill says when she heard about the hat, she wanted to learn more. “When the helicopter was landing, the first thing they saw was this hat, this spruce root hat. They didn’t know it was spruce root at that time, but they saw this hat, and I became so excited. I felt an instant connection because I’m a weaver and I needed to see that hat"...(more) (KTOO) (3-8-18)

Early Literacy Prospers with Baby Raven ReadsKINY
While the children's book publications are a big part of Baby Raven Reads, there is a huge program component that instills early reading skills. We talked to two women involved in the programming. While most probably recognize the name Baby Raven Reads as associated with the various children's books that have been published under that name, many may not realize that the book series is only a part of the program. Baby Raven Reads is a Sealaska Heritage education program that targets Alaska Native children of five-years-old or younger in an effort to promote literacy, enhance attitudes towards reading, and teach some cultural values along the way. This is achieved through the publication of books, family events, mail out lessons, and now community outreach...(more) (2-27-18)

Sealaska is building a Native Art Park in its downtown parking lot
Native Art Park set for 2022 Celebration
By Gregory Philson
Sealaska Heritage Institute is planning on building an Alaska Native “art park” in the Sealaska Plaza parking lot in downtown Juneau. Rosita Worl, President of Sealaska Heritage Institute, made the announcement Thursday during the annual Juneau Economic Development Council Innovation Summit at Centennial Hall. She presented conceptual drawings of the park, which is slated to be built ahead of the 2022 Celebration, the biennual event in Juneau that celebrates Alaska Native culture...(more) (2-25-18)

Traditional halibut hook stands test of time, inducted into Alaska Hall Of Fame
Annual Innovation Summit kicks off in Juneau
By Gregory Philson
Juneau Empire
The hook on the first day of the Juneau Economic Development Council Innovation Summit was exactly that. The halibut hook, a wooden fishing tool created centuries ago and used by Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian tribes, became the first-ever item inducted into the Alaska State Committee for Research Innovators Alaska Hall of Fame at a ceremony Wednesday...(more) (2-22-18)

Young halibut fisherman, grandfather, to accept award today
By Capital City Weekly
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has invited a young Tlingit fisherman and his grandfather to accept an award from the Juneau Economic Development Council and the Alaska State Committee for Research (SCoR), which announced the induction of the traditional wood halibut hook into the Alaska Innovators Hall of Fame last week. Thomas George, a master fisherman and hunter, and his grandson, Thomas Barlow, both of Klawock, will accept the award on behalf of northern Northwest Coast people...(more) (2-21-18)

Klawock elder, grandson, to accept halibut-hook award
By Leila Khery
A Klawock teenager and his grandfather have been chosen to accept an award during a ceremony this week in Juneau. The award comes from the Juneau Economic Development Council and Alaska State Committee for Research. Those groups chose the traditional wooden halibut hook for induction into the Alaska Innovation Hall of Fame....(more) (2-20-18)

Art as a means to self-discovery
By Rhonda Lee McIsaac
Council of the Haida Nation
Janine Gibbons, a Haida illustrator from Petersburg Alaska recently came to Haida Gwaii to share her illustrations from two children’s books; The Woman Who Married a Bear and The Woman Carried Away by Killer Whales. Both stories have roots in Haida and Tlingit oral traditions and are illustrated and adapted for young children. One young reader, a baby, and 15 adults jammed into the Queen Charlotte Senior Centre beside the Queen Charlotte Public Library to listen and learn about the Gibbons’ illustrations and books. The path to an artistic career has had many side trails, Gibbons said...(more) (2-15-18)

Initiative looks to promote Native art, make it economic driver for Southeast
Sealaska Heritage Institute spearheading movement, looking for help from Southeast Conference
By Alex McCarthy
Juneau Empire
Watching the Winter Olympics this past week, Sealaska Heritage Institute Executive Vice President Rick Harris saw something that surprised him.The Canadian snowboarding team was on screen, wearing jackets that carried designs inspired by Tlingit and Kwakiutl artwork. Millions of viewers around the world were being introduced to formline designs of ravens and bears, thanks to the artwork of Canadian artist Corrine Hunt (who is of Tlingit and Kwakiutl heritage). The appearance of that artwork further established what Harris already knows. Native art of the Northwest is not only culturally valuable, but it is also popular and could be an economic driver for Southeast Alaska...(more) (2-15-18)

Art of Place: Conveying spirit
By Clara Miller
Capital City Weekly
Northwest Coast Art is an easily distinguished and recognizable art form, and formline is its foundation, seen on cultural objects from blankets to screens. So what is formline and how does it work? Professor of Alaska Native Languages and Tlingit formline artist Xh’unei Lance Twitchell answered these questions at the Art of Place series on Friday, Feb. 9 at the University of Alaska Southeast. Twitchell led a small workshop on formline, alternating between discussing the basics of the art form to having participants practice. The participants themselves came from a variety of backgrounds. Some wanted to learn more about their heritage. Others, wanted to learn more about the art of this place where they now live...(more) (2-13-18)

A watery world: Michaela Goade-illustrated ‘Shanyaak’utlaax: Salmon Boy’ wins ‘best picture book of the year’ from the American Indian Library Association
By Clara Miller
Capital City Weekly
How should a person visually tell the story of Salmon Boy, the traditional Tlingit tale of the child who flung away a moldy piece of salmon offered to him by his mother, offending the Salmon People — who, in response, swept him into their world? “In watercolor” was the answer of Juneau artist Michaela Goade, whose Tlingit name is Sheit.een. She is from the Raven moiety and Kiks.ádi Clan of Sitka, and she was selected to illustrate three of the Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Baby Raven Reads books, designed to promote language development in Alaska Native children...(more) (Juneau Empire) (2-14-18)

Etsy.com stops letting Alaska Native artists sell ivory, sea otter work
By Rachel D'Oro
Associated Press
A policy intended to deter the illegal trade of ivory and items made with the parts of endangered or threatened animals led the online sales website Etsy to remove such artwork sold by Alaska Native artists, who can legally use ivory in their pieces. President of Sealaska Heritage Institute Rosita Worl said SHI was contacted by multiple artists who were alarmed that Etsy had banned their products made of ivory and marine mammals...(more) (2-14-18)

Etsy policy decision affects Alaska Native artists locally, statewide
By Leila Kheiry
KRBD
A Ketchikan-based fur artist has had some of her pieces removed from her page on the national handcraft-selling website Etsy. The website recently started enforcing a policy that prohibits items made from ivory and endangered or threatened animals. Alaska Natives are allowed under federal law to use those items in their artwork, and sell them...(more) (2-13-18)

Etsy policy ‘discriminates’ against Native artists, Alaskans say 

By Alex DeMarban
Anchorage Daily News
The e-commerce site Etsy said last week it will no longer allow Alaska Natives to sell crafts made with ivory or parts from threatened or endangered animals, despite urging from a U.S. senator and a cultural preservation group to change its policy. But the company backed down in one area: A blanket approach that affected Native artists in Southeast Alaska, where the northern sea otter is not listed as threatened like its Southwest Alaska cousin...(more) (2-12-18)

Winners of 2018 American Indian Library Association's Youth Literature Award!
American Indians in Children's Literature
Every two years, the American Indian Library Association's Youth Literature Award committee selects books to receive its awards in three categories: Picture Book, Middle Grade Book, and Young Adult Book. From books published in 2016 and 2017, these are the winners! An important note: every single one is from a small press--where editors know what they're doing. In 2016 and 2017, "the Big Five" published a lot of books that purport to be about Native peoples, but they are not written by Native people. In one explicit or subtle way or another, they fail to provide Native children with mirrors...(more) (2-11-18)

Shamanic retreat leads to Juneau controversy

By Maria Downey
KTUU
For some, a Shamanic retreat appears to be just a peaceful and spiritual getaway. But for the Sealaska Heritage Institute, the retreat – planned by a California group – is disrespectful and a commercial exploitation of shamanism. KTOO-TV News Director Jeremy Hsieh filled us in on what led to this controversy over the Dance of the Deer Foundation's Shamanic Retreat...(more) (2-8-18)

Juneau shamanism retreat leader’s financial, cultural and spiritual legitimacy challenged
By Scott Burton
KTOO
A shamanic retreat in Juneau led by a Californian has caught Sealaska Heritage Institute’s attention. SHI learned about the Dance of the Deer Foundation’s retreat and asked them not to come to Juneau. Despite Sealaska Heritage’s objections, the company’s owner, Brant Secunda, continues to advertise for the June retreat. Part of the advertising includes a video on his website titled “Alaska: A Living Dream.” In the video, Secunda, wearing his signature dark felted cowbow hat, leads his clients through Juneau: They’re sitting on a beach with the Chilkat mountains in the distance, hiking on fern-edged trails and visiting Nugget Falls at the Mendenhall Glacier....(more) (2-8-18)

Etsy Suspending Alaska Native Accounts for Ivory Works, SHI President Responds
Some Alaska Native artists have a problem with the popular hand-made sales website Etsy. Sealaska Heritage Institute President responds
KINY
Etsy has suspended the accounts of a few artists for their work with ivory. According to the Associated Press, Etsy has a policy intended to protect against the illegal trade of ivory. Yet, Native artists can legally use ivory from walrus tusks or from petrified woolly mammoth remains in their work. U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan has asked the chief executive officer of Etsy to reconsider its policy to allow Alaska Natives to continue to sell their products. Sullivan spokesman Matt Shuckerow Sullivan heard about the issue from Alaska Native leaders and a handful of artists whose accounts were terminated. SHI President Rosita Worl’s responded to the Etsy issue via email...(more) (Juneau Empire) (The Washington Post) (Chicago Tribune) (American Press) (2-7-18)

Recommended: How Devil's Club Came to Be
American Indians in Children's Literature
Library bookshelves virtually overflow with “retellings” of Native American traditional tales “adapted” (stolen) by non-Native writers who then profit from something that’s intrinsically Muscogee, Lakota, Tsimshian -- something that’s not theirs to share. You may know that’s an abuse of tribal intellectual property, and that many Native nations now safeguard their traditional stories so that they (or many of them) can’t be shared with the general public...(more) (2-6-18)

First Friday features Mack Provisions, Tsimshian carver and sea creatures
Juneau Empire
Samuel Sheakley, one of SHI's featured artists for First Friday, works on a piece of jewelry...(more) (2-1-18)

Spruce-Root Hat Replica Reverse Engineers Lost Haida Weaving Art
KINY
The Sealaska Heritage Institute has received a replica of a Haida Spruce-Root hat that was crafted after a design found in a melting glacier. The replica was created by master Haida weaver Delores Churchill that is a near perfect representation of one found on the ancient remains of an indigenous man discovered in that melting glacier in 1999. Tribes gave him the name Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi (“Long Ago Person Found” in Tutchone, a First Nations language). SHI and the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations (CAFN) sponsored a program to test 250 Native people for DNA matches, and the DNA results showed 9 people from Alaska and 8 people from Canada are related to Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi...(more) (1-30-18)

Interview: SHI President Rosita Worl on shamanism event planned in Juneau
First Voices Radio
WPKN...(more) (1-30-18)

Shamans and Shenanigans
By Geoff Kirsch
Juneau Empire
Some news events stick with you forever: 9/11, Fall of the Berlin Wall, the expansion of Subway’s Sub-of-the-Day to include both six-inch and foot-long options. Me? I’ll never forget where I was when I first heard that shaman, healer and traditional ceremonial leader Brant Secunda would be hosting a nine-day retreat in Juneau...(more) (1-28-18)

This Poser Shaman Mess Named Brant Needed a Huge Cultural Smackdown and Sealaska Gave it to Him 

One Hot Mess
Oh, Brant. Brant Brant Brant Brant Brant. I just love saying that name. BRANT. Brant is the quarterback of your high school football team. Brant is the mean rich kid in an 80's brat pack movie who throws a house party while his parents are out of town. Brant is the ne'er do-well leader of a surfer gang. And now Brant is a Johnny Cash lookalike Rachel Dolezal-type cultural appropriating huckster mofo who's trying to get rich quick--Lyle Lanley a.k.a. monorail guy from the Simpsons style--by charging people $1,700 $1,500 a head (EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT!) to say a few magic words and eat quinoa in the woods...(more) (1-21-18)

A capital place for shamans and charlatans
By Suzanne Downing
Must Read Alaska
Juneau has hosted a plethora of New Age charlatans throughout the years. They come with Buddhist beads and all manner of amalgamated spiritual teachings: Eckankar, aura balancing, crystal healing, astrologers, numerologists, wiccans, warlocks, and Hare Krishna acolytes. At one time or another, they’ve all traipsed through Juneau, a wealthy and liberal enclave with a weak tether to religious traditions, a place ripe for neo-spiritual movements. They hold workshops and retreats, and then move on...(more) (1-21-18)

This New Jersey-raised man wants to hold expensive ‘shamanic retreat’ in Juneau. Alaska Native leaders are not having it
Sealaska Heritage leader Rosita Worl says the Dance of the Deer Foundation is engaging in cultural appropriation
By Kevin Gullufsen
Juneau Empire
An Alaska Native leader has asked a non-indigenous shaman to cancel a pricey retreat to Juneau which she says amounts to cultural theft and the commercialization of Alaska Native cultures. In a letter sent to the Dance of the Deer Foundation, Sealaska Heritage Institute President Rosita Worl asked the foundation and its leader, Brant Secunda, to “not come into Aak’w Ḵwáan,” the traditional territory of Juneau’s Tlingit people....(more) (1-20-18)

Alaska Native group slams planned shamanism event
By The Associated Press
An Alaska Native group is speaking out against a shamanism retreat as an event it says commercializes and exploits the spiritual healing practices of indigenous people. The Juneau-based Sealaska Heritage Institute voiced its opposition to the pricey June retreat in a letter emailed Friday to the event sponsor, Dance of the Deer Foundation. The event — billed as the 24th in Alaska — is scheduled at an undisclosed lodge outside Juneau...(more) (The Washington Post) (Houston Chronicle) (Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce) (WTOP) (1-20-18)

As budgets tighten, community partnerships key in arts education
Chair of statewide arts agency says partnerships help schools benefit from arts grants 
By Alex McCarthy
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Speaking at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Thursday, Juneau School District Superintendent Mark Miller was frank about the school district’s current budget situation. Statewide funding per student has remained flat in recent years, Miller explained, not taking inflation into account. Meanwhile, the amount of money the school district is spending per student is rising...(more) (1-12-18)

Rotary awards local individuals, organizations for community contributions
Honorees range from high school senior to organizations with national ties
By Alex McCarthy
JUNEAU EMPIRE
When Thunder Mountain High School senior Lillian Bannerman heard she had won an award for her volunteer efforts, she was a bit confused at first. “When you volunteer, you don’t expect anything from it,” Bannerman said…(more) (1-10-18)

Fish Trap Stake to be Replicated for SHI Museum Exhibit
KINY
The Sealaska Heritage Institute is commissioning a replica of a fish trap stake that was collected in Wrangell in the early 1900s and was later added to the museum's collection. The stake depicts an ancient Tlingit story, known as Aak’wtaatseen (“Alive in the Eddy” in Tlingit), and will be carved by master Tsimshian artist David A. Boxley. The piece will be featured in the institute's new exhibit, Aan Yátx’u Sáani  (“People of the Land” in Tlingit), which scheduled to open on May 1st...(more) (1-2-18)

Artists, writers and community members choose their “bright moments” of 2017

Capital City Weekly
Each year in the Capital City Weekly, we continue a tradition started by former managing editor Amy Fletcher — asking artists, writers and community members around Southeast Alaska for the “bright moments in the arts” that stand out to them. This year we’ve got contributors from Juneau, Wrangell, Petersburg, Skagway, Gustavus — and the Governor’s Mansion...(more) (12-27-17)

​Klawock High School to offer expanded Native art classes

By Leila Kheiry
KRBD
Klawock High School students will have improved opportunities to learn Northwest Coast art in 2018. A new three-year program is the result of a cooperative effort between the Klawock City School District and Sealaska Heritage Institute. According to Sealaska, the groups have agreed to work together to develop the district’s existing Northwest Coast art courses into a career-pathways course...(more) (12-26-17)

Local athletes hope to represent Juneau at Native Youth Olympics
By Adelyn Baxter
KTOO
Every year, hundreds of students from around the state gather in Anchorage for the Native Youth Olympics. But Juneau hasn’t sent a team in more than 30 years. Recently, athletes gathered in a gym on the University of Alaska Southeast campus to test their skills. For the Alaskan high kick, one of the main events in the Native Youth Olympics, athletes position themselves one by one beneath a small, furry ball hanging from a pole about 5 feet off the ground, squatting on one foot while holding the other with their hand...(more) (APRN) (12-18-17)

SHI seeks goat horns to help revive traditional art
By Riley Woodford
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute is reaching out to hunters to help revitalize the endangered art of Tlingit mountain goat horn spoon carving. Davina Cole is the art project coordinator at Sealaska Heritage Institute, based in Juneau. She’s hoping to find mountain goat hunters that can provide goat horns for traditional carving. “It’s a very endangered art form, and before it’s completely gone we are trying to stabilize it,” Cole said...(more) (12-13-17)

Goat Horns Sought for Traditional Art
By Riley Woodford
Alaska Fish & Wildlife News
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI), an Alaska Native nonprofit, is reaching out to hunters to help revitalize the endangered art of Tlingit mountain goat horn spoon carving. Davina Cole is the art project coordinator at Sealaska Heritage Institute, based in Juneau. She’s hoping to find mountain goat hunters that can provide goat horns for traditional carving. “It’s a very endangered art form, and before it’s completely gone we are trying to stabilize it"...(more) (December 2017)

Petersburg library offers painting, reading with book illustrator
By Joe Viechnicki 
KFSK
Petersburg Public Library has two chances coming up to learn from local artist Janine Gibbons. She illustrated two books published this year by the Sealaska Heritage Institute as part that cultural organization’s Baby Raven Reads program. Gibbons will be teaching a painting class Saturday, December 9 at the library based on one of the illustrations from the book “The Woman Who Married the Bear”...(more) (12-7-17)

A new book called "How Devil's Club Came to Be" is being published under the Baby Raven Reads program
KINY
The story was written by Tlingit author Miranda Worl and illustrated by Tlingit artist Michaela Goade. Worl wrote the story when she was a freshman in high school and submitted it to SHI's young writer program. This will be her first children's book. Goade has illustrated two other Baby Raven titles for SHI. Both Worl and Goade will be available to sign books at the Gallery Walk, while Education Program Manager Katrina Hotch will be reading from SHI's Baby Raven Books...(more) (11-30-17)

Educational partnership mixes math with Native design
By Adelyn Baxter
KTOO
A program mixing Alaska Native art with high school math is part of Sealaska Heritage Institute’s latest efforts to promote culture and foster the next generation of Native artists. The partnership seeks to encourage the next generation of artists in the Northwest Coast art traditions of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian. Sealaska Heritage Institute, the University of Alaska Southeast and several Southeast school districts have signed on...(more) (U.S. News & World Report) (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner) (KFQD) (12-1-17)

Digitizing 30 Years of Alaskan Tribal Heritage
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Every two years, in Juneau, Alaska, thousands of people wrap themselves in the bright colors of Native American regalia and share the traditions that symbolize the indigenous culture of Southeast Alaska. For more than 30 years, the biennial Celebration event has evoked statewide tribal pride for the three Alaska Native cultures that have survived in Alaska for 10,000 years. The vibrant colors, poetic languages, and array of traditions showcase the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures that have endured throughout tribal history and continue to represent a significant portion of the state’s population...(more) (11-30-17)

Haa Aaní, Haa Latseen, Haa Shuká, Wooch Yax: Cultural values panels promote diversity, understanding
By Clara Miller
Capital City Weekly
On the day before Thanksgiving, Floyd Dryden Middle School’s gymnasium floor filled with students dancing to a Tlingit song — sung by other students— about respecting elders and community members. Elders and school administrators joined in. This was at the close of the “Transfer of Core Cultural Values Panels Ceremony.” Sealaska Heritage Institute donated eight panels originally displayed in the Nathan Jackson Gallery for the middle school’s main hall. SHI’s gallery will host a new exhibit in May 2018 called Aan Yátx’u Sáani (“People of the Land” in Tlingit). It will include an interactive exhibit on place names, halibut hooks, and intertidal salmon traps, and will be on display for three to five years...(more) (Juneau Empire) (11-30-17)

Library of Congress Literacy Awards Best Practice Honorees: Sealaska Heritage Institute
Library of Congress
A profile of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, an honoree for best practices in the 2017 Library of Congress Literary Awards. The Sealaska Heritage Institute is one of five honorees in the category of "Culturally Relevant Books and Literacy"...(more) (11-28-17)

he West grapples with history through its place names
A growing number of places have been renamed to honor their first inhabitants
By Tim Lydon
High Country News
At a talk this October, Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan recounted how President Donald Trump offered to switch the name of Denali, the state’s highest peak, back to Mount McKinley. Sullivan boasted that he and fellow Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski quickly nixed the idea. It was only two years ago, in a move that state residents supported, that former President Barack Obama had changed the name from McKinley to Denali...(more) (11-28-17)

Global movement coming to Juneau this week
Juneau Empire
The holiday season has begun in Juneau, with the annual shopping rush in full swing. Local organizations are joining forces with others around the world to help remind people that the season is about more than shopping. Giving Tuesday is a follow-up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, seeking to inspire people to collaborate in giving back in their communities...(more) (11-26-17)

Field trip to Sobeloff Building gives Juneau students exposure to Tlingit culture
By Adelyn Baxter
KTOO
At the Walter Sobeloff Building on Thursday, Sealaska Heritage Institute Culture Bearer Daaljíni Cruise started off a visit from Juneau second graders by reviewing some concepts they learned in class. “And what usually happens in our Tlingit culture, we have what we call moieties,” Cruise said. “Say moiety.” “Moiety,” replied the students gathered around her. 
“Moiety means half. OK? So we have two moieties. We have the Eagle and the …”“Ravens!”...(more) (11-21-17)

SHI to transfer Native values panels to Floyd Dryden
Juneau Empire
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will donate eight large panels depicting ancient Southeast Alaska Native core cultural values to Floyd Dryden Middle School. The panels, which stand 5 feet wide and nearly 7 feet tall, were a main feature of SHI’s first exhibit at the opening of its Walter Soboleff Building in 2015...(more) (11-20-17)

Juneau as the Northwest Coast Art Capital: Why it should matter to you
By Rosita Worl
Nearly 100 years ago, the small town of Santa Fe, New Mexico, held its first Santa Fe Indian Market. The market, though humble at first, has grown into an economic goliath for the town, drawing an estimated 100,000 people from around the world every year. Over four days each August, the event brings in more than $100 million in revenues to the region...(more) (11-19-17)

Second-grade students get front-row seats to Native storytelling on annual tour
Event takes young Juneauites on educational excursion
By Alex McCarthy
Juneau Empire
Fifty second-graders watched with wide eyes as Lily Hope talked about urine buckets. Hope, a Tlingit artist and storyteller, was explaining to students in the Any Given Child Juneau program about the process of dying yarn for Chilkat robes. The process involves using urine, moss and other substances depending on the desired color, and snickers arose from the group of students occasionally as Hope mentioned the buckets of urine used in the process. “We also wash it really well after we dye it,” Hope ensured the students...(more) (11-17-17)

Sleuthing historian connects the dots on uncredited Alaska Native cartographers
Dr. John Cloud’s work over the past 12 years strives to give credit where it’s rightly due
By Kevin Gullufsen
JUNEAU EMPIRE
In 1869, two years after the United States purchased Alaska from Russia, a U.S. Coast Survey’s George Davidson departed Sitka with a small party of men in large cedar boats. His task was to observe a total solar eclipse, predicted to take place Aug. 8 of that year, between the mountains and glaciers of the Chilkat Valley. As the oldest scientific organization continued by the federal government, the U.S. Coast Survey observed all kind of natural phenomena. Davidson was given instructions to observe the eclipse no matter what, but he knew he needed help. So he enlisted celebrated Tlingit leader Kohklux — known as Shotridge to much of the world — to lead the expedition...(more) (11-16-17)

Native cartographers instrumental in mapping pre-statehood Alaska
By Tripp J. Crouse
KTOO
Six different historic maps by Alaska Natives inspired one independent historian to look into the significance of Alaska’s pre-statehood cartography. During a project that began in 2007, John Cloud scanned historical maps and charts of NOAA predecessor, the Coast and Geodetic Survey. “I’ve just been trying to trace the history of the people who made the maps and the stories of the maps they made … and so it turned into all the stuff with collections all over the country literally from one end of the country to the other”...(more) (11-15-17)

Indian Cove boat now in Hoonah, cause of sinking still unknown
After environmental concerns, Coast Guard says there’s no more danger 
By Alex McCarthy
JUNEAU EMPIRE
The boat that nearly sank in Indian Cove was towed to Hoonah earlier this week, Coast Guard spokesperson Petty Officer 1st Class Bill Colclough said Tuesday ... When the vessel began to sink, the discharge of diesel fuel had at least one local organization concerned. Chuck Smythe, culture director at the Sealaska Heritage Institute, sent a message to the Coast Guard on Wednesday, Nov. 1. Indian Cove is adjacent to Indian Point, which is one of the original village sites of the Auk’w Kwáan. Indian Point was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. Smythe wrote that with the boat was sinking (and leaking fuel) near Indian Point, a sacred and historic site, the Coast Guard should have taken more urgent efforts...(more) (11-9-17)

A glance at the Weekly’s book shelf
Capital City Weekly
...Native Values - Living in Harmony, by Rosita Worl, 2017, Sealaska Heritage Institute. “Explore the four core cultural values of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsishian people in this photo-based children’s book. These four values —which include living in harmony with the land and the importance of balance and reciprocity — have guided Native peoples in Southeast Alaska for more than 10,000 years and remain central in these cultures today.” Shanyaak’utlaax: Salmon Boy, edited Johnny Marks, Hans Chester, David Katzeek, Nora Dauehauer, and Richard Dauenhauer and illustrated by Michaela Goade, 2017, Sealaska Heritage Institute...(more) (11-9-17)

For the first time since the 1980s, Juneau will compete at the Native Youth Olympics
By Kevin Gullufsen
JUNEAU EMPIRE
His body curled like a pretzel, Kyle Worl focused his eyes on a ball dangling from a string more than 6 feet in the air. He prepared to execute an Alaskan high kick, one of 10 events at the Native Youth Olympics, by balancing on one foot and one hand, his planted hand behind him and his backside just a few inches off the ground. Balanced just so, he pushed hard off his right foot while holding his left foot in his hand, lifted his hips above his head and kicked the ball with his right foot...(more) (11-8-17)

November First Friday features Tsimshian story and more
Capital City Weekly
November’s got some great events scheduled for Juneau’s First Friday. Here’s what people have let us know about...(more) (11-1-17)

Symbols of success in Juneau, Alaska — Indigenous arts ecology convening
By Sarah Elisabeth sawyer
First Peoples Fund
Mist settled over the pine trees clustered on the mountainside backdrop of the stunning Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau, Alaska. First Peoples Fund’s Indigenous Arts Ecology (IAE) program regional convening was underway, though not in the way we’d planned. Mechanical issues on the ferry and too much fog for a plane ride prevented us from visiting the Chilkat Indian Village in Klukwan…(more) (10-31-17)

Southeast Alaska Native literacy program expands
By Joe Viechnicki
KFSK
A Southeast Alaska Native cultural organization is expanding a children’s literacy program into nine other communities in the region. The Sealaska Heritage Institute announced this week it will be partnering with the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Tribes of Alaska’s Head Start to offer the Baby Raven Reads program in communities around Southeast. Baby Raven Reads promotes literacy, language skills and school readiness for Alaska Native pre-school aged children. A pilot program in operated in Juneau for three years but ended this year....(more) (KTOO) (10-25-17)

Re-discovering a shaman’s drum
By Mary Catharine Martin
Capital City Weekly
In the basement of the Sealaska Heritage Institute is very old box drum belonging to the Mount Fairweather (Snail) house of the T’akdeintaan clan in Hoonah. In mid-October, it got some long-needed care, and the Capital City Weekly visited with those working on it to hear a bit more about its fascinating history. The drum, which was repatriated in 2011 from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, is unique in several ways. First, it’s very old; it’s most likely the same drum depicted in geographer Aurel Krause’s 1882 book, called “The Tlingit Indians” in English, and could have been carved decades before that...(more) (Juneau Empire) (10-25-17)

UAS to develop Northwest Coast arts program
By Clara Miller
Capital City Weekly
The University of Alaska Southeast is working with Alaska Native artists and the Sealaska Heritage Institute to increase its offerings in Northwest Coast art. One of the first ways that’s visible is through classes with Tlingit and Unangan multi-disciplinary artist Nicholas Galanin, the first artist-in-residence at the University of Alaska Southeast’s Juneau campus. He’ll teach two classes over the 2017-18 academic year, give an Evening at Egan lecture, and assist the university in developing its Northwest Coast Arts program...(more) (10-25-17)

Educators Try New Methods to Save American Indian Languages 
By Phil Dierking
Voice of America
The United States is home to 562 federally recognized American Indian Nations, each with its own language. Yet the number of Native Americans with the ability to speak their tribe’s language has decreased over the past century. Now, Indian Nations are trying different ways to expand the number of native speakers, and increase interest in their communities to learn tribal languages...(more) (10-24-17)

After almost a century absence, sacred objects return to the Tlingit people of Hoonah
Cedar bark ceremonial headband, a “Raven the Pilgrim” rattle, and a blanket with Chilkat trim make its way home from the University of Pennsylvania
By Mary Catharine Martin
Juneau Empire
Almost 100 years ago, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology acquired 46 at.óowu, sacred objects belonging to the Mount Fairweather house (Snail house) of the Tlingit T’akdeintaan clan in Hoonah.  After a long battle over the objects’ ownership, museum representatives on Wednesday hand-carried three of those at.óowu back to Southeast Alaska for repatriation. Eight were returned in recent years, and the rest — 35 more — will return to the people of Hoonah in the coming months...(more) (10-13-17)

Photos: New traditional canoe
Daily Sitka Sentinel
Photos by James Poulson
The Dachxanx'ee Yaagu, grandchildren's canoe, is paddled to shore near Harrigan Centennial Hall after being launched at a ceremony hosted by the Sitka Tribe of Alaska on the UAS/MEHS Ramp Thursday afternoon...(more) (10-13-17)

Photo: Grandchildren's Canoe
Raven Radio
(10-12-17)

Baby Raven Reads honored nationally
Mackenzie Fisher
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute’s early literacy program, Baby Raven Reads, has been recognized by the Library of Congress for the work it has done. Some of that work includes publishing 17 books so far (though some of those have been released since the award was announced), holding monthly programs for Alaska Native families with children up to age five, and promoting language development and school readiness overall...(more) (10-11-17)

SHI releases new books
Mackenzie Fisher
Capital City Weekly
Seven new books are appearing this fall through the Sealaska Heritage Institute’s early literacy, Library of Congress-recognized program, Baby Raven Reads. Launched in 2014 in Juneau, the program encourages adults in the lives of Alaska Native children ages 0-5 to speak, listen, and read to their children to get them ready for kindergarten and be successful in school. Part of this mission is achieved through the culturally-relevant books SHI releases through the program, which usually feature Northwest Coast art, language, and stories...(more) (10-11-17)

A Tribe Called Red comes to Juneau
By Clara Miller
Capital City Weekly
A Tribe Called Red, a Canadian indigenous DJ group from Ottawa, Ontario, will be taking the stage of Centennial Hall on Oct. 19.
Members Ian Campeau “DJ NDN” of the Nipissing First Nation, Tim Hill “2oolman” of the Six Nations of the Grand River, and Ehren Thomas “Bear Witness” of the Cayuga First Nation will put on a show featuring their unique blend of traditional powwow vocals and drumming with electronic music which has been called powwow-step, a term originating from one of the group’s early singles...(more) (Juneau Empire) (10-11-17)

First Friday Book Signing Features Traditional Tlingit Stories
KINY
There was a special book signing at Juneau's First Friday event on October 6, 2017.  Frank Katasse adapted traditional Tlingit stories for a pair of books called, "The Woman Who Married the Bear,"  and "The Woman Carried Away by Killer Whales". News of the North caught up with Katasse at the Sealaska Heritage Institute Walter Soboleff Building...(more) (10-6-17)

Ancient Threads, Modern Fabric: Highlights from Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Tináa Art Auction
By Geoff Kirsch
Capital City Weekly
Southeast Alaska is many things: a natural wonder; a wildlife hotspot; an outdoorsman’s paradise; an epic forest; a seafood lover’s dream; a drainage engineer’s nightmare. But in a part of the world largely defined by wilderness, for thousands of years it has also been a jewel of human culture, rich in the history, art and heritage of its indigenous people. Today, where the mountains meet the sea, contemporary meets traditional to create a truly unique aesthetic. This melding of old and new was on brilliant display this past Friday night at Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Tináa Art Auction, an elegant fundraising gala at Centennial Hall supporting SHI’s endowment fund, named after the Tlingit copper shield symbolizing wealth and status...(more) (Juneau Empire) (10-4-17)

Photos: Native Art Auction and Fashion Show
By Michael Penn
JUNEAU EMPIRE
(9-29-17)

Miss Alaska USA 2017 Alyssa London’s final farewell
(9-27-17)

Top artists return to Juneau for Sealaska Heritage auction
Gala event was last held in 2014 
By James Brooks
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Three years ago, Sealaska Heritage Institute organized an art auction to partially pay for construction of the Walter Soboleff Center in downtown Juneau. Today, that building with the cedar facade stands on Front Street, and the art auction is returning with a new goal: Keeping SHI and the Soboleff Center operating. “With this one, we’re starting our new endowment, so this is kind of kicking all of that off,” said auction organizer Carmaleeda Estrada as she showed some of the items that will be on the block Friday evening in Centennial Hall....(more) (9-28-17)

Native American artifacts change hands
By Adelaide Feibel
Yale Daily News
Andover Newton Theological School, an affiliate of the Yale Divinity School, announced Thursday that it has transferred ownership of a collection of more than 1,000 cultural and artistic works — including 156 Native American items — to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts...(more) (9-26-17)

Native scholar, writer laureate Nora Dauenhauer dies at 90
Nora Ke̱ixwnéi Dauenhauer was a giant of Tlingit letters
By Kevin Gullufsen
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Former Alaska writer laureate and influential Tlingit scholar Nora Ke̱ixwnéi Dauenhauer died Monday at the age of 90. Dauenhauer, of the Haines-Yakutat Lukaax̱ádi (sockeye) clan, was a giant of Tlingit language scholarship and literature. She is preceded in death by husband Richard Dauenhauer, a former Alaska poet laureate who died in 2014. The Sealaska Heritage Institute, which published some of Dauenhauer’s work, announced her death Monday…(more) (9-26-17)

Seattle teen calls out her dad’s Native American art. He learns she’s right 
By Ann Dornfeld
KUOW
Sara Jacobsen, 19, grew up eating family dinners beneath a stunning Native American robe. Not that she gave it much thought. Until, that is, her senior year of high school, when she saw a picture of a strikingly similar robe in an art history class. The teacher told the class about how the robe was used in spiritual ceremonies, Sara Jacobsen said. "I started to wonder why we have it in our house when we’re not Native American"...(more) (9-25-17)

Tlingit poet and scholar Nora Marks Dauenhauer, 90, was culture bearer
By Scott Burton
KTOO
Tlingit poet, scholar and culture bearer Nora Marks Dauenhauer has passed away at age 90. A fluent Tlingit speaker, Dauenhauer made countless contributions to the study and preservation of the language and oral tradition. In 2012, she was the Alaska State Writer Laureate, and is the winner of an American Book Award among other honors...(more) (9-25-17)

Sealaska Heritage Institute: Tináa Art Auction and Pop-Up Boutique with Carmaleeda Estrada and Jennifer Treadway
Juneau Afternoon
(at the 38:30 mark)...(more) (9-25-17)

Native infused fashion and art event in downtown Juneau
KINY
Downtown Juneau is getting a taste of modern fashion blended with Native designs at the end of the week. Sealaska Heritage will be hosting a pop-up boutique, giving shoppers the chance to buy the fashions directly from the designers who will be featured in SHI's upcoming Tináa Art Auction Native Fashion Show...(more) (9-25-17)

Native American Artifacts Transferred to Museum 
A theological college is transferring ownership of its collection of Native American artifacts to the Massachusetts museum that has housed them for decades amid an ongoing effort to return some of items to the tribes linked with them
Associated Press
U.S. News & World Report
A theological college is transferring ownership of its collection of Native American artifacts to the Massachusetts museum that has housed them for decades amid an ongoing effort to return some of items to the tribes linked with them...(more) (9-22-17)

Museum Receives Ownership Of Native American Artifacts
By Adam Lidgett
Law360
The ownership of more than 150 artifacts of Native American tribal communities will be transferred to the Salem, Massachusetts-based museum that has stored the collection for more than 70 years...(more) 9-22-17)

Peabody Essex Museum gains ownership of controversial collection
By Malcolm Gay
Boston Globe
The Peabody Essex Museum has agreed to take ownership of a controversial collection of objects from the Andover Newton Theological School, whose handling of the items has drawn repeated warnings from the federal government for its failure to adhere to a law governing the return of sacred cultural objects to Native American and native Hawaiian peoples. 
The Salem museum has also agreed to complete the seminary’s work to comply with the law, negotiating the possible return of some of the more than 150 Native American and native Hawaiian objects to their rightful tribal heirs...(more) (9-21-17)

Ownership Of Controversial Native American Artifacts Transferred To Peabody Essex Museum
By Amy Gorel
WBUR
A controversial collection of about 150 Native American artifacts are staying at the Peabody Essex Museum. The Andover Newton Theological School announced Thursday it was transferring ownership of the collection to the museum where it's been housed since 1946. The seminary has come under fire in recent years for not engaging in the repatriation process despite a law requiring federally funded institutions to inventory cultural items...(more) (9-21-17)

Peabody Essex Museum Gets Set of Native American Artifacts
By Leslie MacMillan
New York Times
A noted collection of more than 150 Native American artifacts, including wampum belts and finely beaded ceremonial garb, will stay – for now — where it has been housed for almost 70 years, at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., officials announced Thursday. The collection is owned by the Andover Newton Theological School, the country’s oldest seminary, but has long been housed at the museum...(more) (9-21-17)

Treatment of homeless a salient question for Assembly candidates
By Rosita Worl
JUNEAU EMPIRE
The sad truth is, the number of people living on Juneau’s streets is rising. The City and Borough of Juneau Assembly’s move last winter to give homeless people tickets did nothing at all to get people housed. It did create makeshift camps —first at Marine Park, then on the Mental Health Trust’s property. And now winter is approaching again, as it does every fall, and we have candidates running for the Assembly. That happens every fall, too, and it’s no surprise Juneau residents are asking what they plan to do...(more) (9-19-17)

Sealaska Heritage Institute: Tináa Art Auction with Carmaleeda Estrada and Jennifer Treadway
Capital Chat
(9-18-17)

No end to learning in Juneau
By Guy Unzicker
JUNEAU EMPIRE
We spend anywhere from 8-24 years of our lives attending school and doing homework, but when the bell has run and school’s out, is there any reason learning can’t still be fun?...(more) (9-16-17)

City of Juneau recognizes National Arts in Education Week
By Adelyn Baxter
KTOO
It’s National Arts in Education Week across the country, a time for communities to recognize the importance of arts education in schools. Local officials signed a proclamation Monday highlighting the occasion. The proclamation says arts education plays a vital role helping students develop creativity, communication and critical thinking skills....(more) (9-12-17)

Juneau's inmates create art
By Mackenzie Fisher
Capital City Weekly
A remarkable project has taken shape inside of the Lemon Creek Correctional Center (LCCC). The Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) initiated the Haa Latseen Community Project in 2015 with a pilot project that had a goal to bring the necessary tools and instruction for those who are incarcerated to try their hands at art. Since then, a floodgate of artistic creativity has been opened to a range of talented artists whose work might have otherwise never been seen. In the spring of last year, SHI received a $100,000 Our Town grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. These grants are set up to support creative placemaking projects. SHI’s plan was to use the $100,000 award to create the Haa Latseen Community project...(more) (Juneau Empire) (9-6-17)

30,000 Benches
By Guy Unzicker
JUNEAU EMPIRE
I was recently looking back on one of my articles from last year, published a year ago to the day, called 30,000 Maps of Juneau. I’ve never wanted particularly much to revisit an article, especially as a column is by nature not so much an aggregation of material as an ephemeral word of the day ... Another great example is the new Sealaska Heritage Institute building. It’s big, it’s beautiful, and it’s right in the middle of everything. In our memory maps it serves as a reminder of our values by occupying metaphorical space...(more) (9-3-17)

Yale declines Andover Newton’s Native American artifacts
By Adelaide Feibel
Yale Daily News
As Andover Newton Theological School — now known as Andover Newton Seminary at Yale — relocates to the Yale Divinity School’s Sterling Quadrangle, its controversial collection of Native American artifacts will not travel with the school. In May, just two months before Andover Newton and the Divinity School established their formal affiliation, the 210-year-old seminary made national news when the United States Department of the Interior faulted the school for its failure to comply with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, a federal law intended to help return Native American cultural artifacts to their rightful owners....(more) (9-1-17)

‘Our ancestors returned home’: How a Chilkat robe made its way back to Southeast Alaska
By Tripp J. Crouse
KTOO
Southeast Alaska tribes celebrated the return of a long lost ancestor Saturday, when a Seattle couple donated back a hundred-plus-year-old sacred Chilkat robe. Drumming, dancing and telling stories over an afternoon, representatives from three Southeast Alaska tribes celebrated the return of their Chilkat blanket. Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian members held a homecoming ceremony in the Shuká Hit clan house in Juneau. For more than 20 years, the sacred object hung on the wall in the Seattle home of Bruce and Gretchen Jacobsen. Gretchen said her husband bought the blanket from a store in Seattle’s Pioneer Square....(more) (8-31-17)

Does your Native American artwork belong to you — or to its tribe?
By ANN DORNFELD
KUOW, Seattle
When Bruce Jacobsen moved to Seattle in 1986, he fell in love with the Pacific Northwest. He wanted to express his appreciation with a piece of Native art, and found one at a gallery Pioneer Square: an antique Chilkat robe. "I just thought it was so beautiful, and it was like nothing I had seen before," Jacobsen said...(more) (8-29-17)

Robe weaves its way back home
Sealaska Heritage Institute celebrates the return of a rare Chilkat robe
By Kevin Gullufsen
JUNEAU EMPIRE
It’s been gone for more than 100 years, but now it’s home. Tradition, love and healing filled the clan house at the Walter Soboleff Building of the Sealaska Heritage Institute on Saturday as a more than 100-year-old Chilkat robe — lost for decades to the clan that made it — was given to SHI to preserve and study. “This is for healing, for those who are not feeling well. This is for strength, for those who are not feeling strong,” said Native elder Paul Marks during the ceremony. Marks, joined by generations of his clan on stage, then stomped his feet to clear out any negative energy...(more) (8-28-17)

As Heard on Morning Line: Gathering of Alaska Natives Training for Boarding School & Home Survivors
By Frank Chythlook
KNBA-KBC
Our guests on Morning Line today were retired Professor James Labelle Sr and Dr. Inez Larsen, talking about an intensive workshop happening September 7- 9th - intended to help boarding school survivors and their descendants begin or continue a healing journey ... Labelle says the effect of boarding school trauma can last for generations, and it's important to recognize these things, and identify "This is why I feel the way I do."  He says a dynamic panel of indigenous leaders from around the state will be involved, including Rosita Worl, Fred John from the Interior, as well as Yaari Walker and the plan is to have a traditional healer on hand as well...(more) (8-25-17)

UAS offers low cost Alaska Native language, arts courses
By Annie Bartholomew
KTOO
This fall, the University of Alaska Southeast is opening up some of its Alaska Native language and Northwest Coast arts classes to the community at-large at reduced rates. UAS Chancellor Rick Caulfield said with few fluent speakers left, there’s an urgent need to create language learning opportunities....(more) (8-25-17)

Sealaska Heritage to celebrate Chilkat robe’s homecoming
By Tripp J Crouse
KTOO
A 100-year-old Chilkat robe has come home to Southeast Alaska. A Seattle couple originally purchased the robe in 1995. Upon realizing its significance, they began reaching out to experts about its origins.
Alaska Native weavers, historians and area residents are eager to see the return of the sacred clan object....(more) (8-25-17)

Rare Chilkat robe returns to Juneau after donation
Piece could prove valuable to keeping art form alive
By Alex McCarthy
Haida weaver Delores Churchill’s hand hovered a few inches above the 100-year-old fabric, her finger outstretched. She was pointing at a small circle woven into the middle of a rectangle on the back of a newly-donated Chilkat robe, admiring the craftsmanship. “Those women were such geniuses to make a circle from a square,” Churchill said. “The only people in the world who achieved that when weaving. Nobody else ever achieved that"...(more) (8-14-17)

Alaska Needs More Alaska Native Teachers
University of Alaska Southeast offers scholarship to train more Alaska Native teachers
Indian Country Today
In Alaska schools, Alaska Natives make up 25 percent of the student body, but less than 5 percent of the teaching force. PITAAS—Preparing Indigenous Teachers and Administrators for Alaska Schools—is a scholarship program offered at the University of Alaska Southeast which is designed to train more Alaska Native teachers and administrators in Alaskan schools. “What inspired me to go and become a teacher was knowing that we had so many teachers that leave,” says Heather Dickens, a PITAAS student, in a video by the Sealaska Heritage Institute...(more) (8-14-17)

Sealaska Heritage Institute Welcomes ‘One of a Kind’ Ancestor Home
Seattle family donates Chilkat robe to Sealaska Heritage Institute
Indian Country Today
A Seattle family has donated a valuable Chilkat robe to the Sealaska Heritage Institute in an effort to return it to its ancestral home and repatriate it to tribal people, SHI announced in a press release. “These donors easily could have sold the robe for thousands of dollars to a private collector, and it would have been lost to us. Instead, the family elected to return it to the tribes,” said Rosita Worl, Sealaska Heritage Institute president. “We believe the Chilkat robe is imbued with spiritual dimensions, and because of this noble family, we are welcoming an ancestor home"...(more) (8-11-17)

Thanks to a culturally conscious teen, a rare Chilkat robe returns to Alaska 
By Tamara Ikenberg
Alaska Dispatch News
When Sara Jacobsen, 19, saw a Chilkat robe in her high school art history textbook similar to the robe hanging in her family's dining room, the Seattle teen launched her own repatriation campaign. "She thought it was an important cultural item for the people who made it so it belonged with them, not us. (We're) of European heritage mostly," said Sara's father Bruce Jacobsen, who purchased the robe at a Seattle gallery in 1995. "It took her about a week to convince us. She was pretty relentless." Sealaska Heritage Institute is the beneficiary of Sarah's power of persuasion...(more) (8-11-17)

Sealaska Heritage Institute: Tináa Art Auction with Carmaleeda Estrada and Christopher Smith
Capital Chat
(8-9-17)

As world fights elephant poaching, Alaska tries to stay out of the crossfire
By James Brooks
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Alaska’s Native ivory carvers could be collateral victims as global governments attempt to protect African elephants from poachers. In a Thursday address to the Juneau Chamber of Commerce, Mary Aparezuk, chief of staff for Rep. Zach Fansler, D-Bethel, said Alaska’s ivory industry is beginning an outreach campaign to distinguish its products from items now illegal....(more) (7-14-17)

Sealaska adds to Tlingit language app
New games, quizzes coming to ‘Learning Tlingit’
By Alex McCarthy
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Though most students cringe at the thought of a test or quiz, young Tlingit learners actually have been asking for more quizzing. Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is adding to its “Learning Tlingit” app, including quizzes and two interactive games. SHI President Rosita Worl said children were actually requesting more testing in the app. “This is the magical thing about these interactive games,” Worl said in a release. “Students have fun learning, they retain the information and score highly on the tests — so they want to take the quizzes.”...(more) (7-13-17)

The Muskeg Connection: Bringing The Fleet together
By Chelsea Tremblay
Capital City Weekly
It happens fast. When the fishermen go to the grounds and leave empty harbor stalls, I find myself imagining Petersburg in the wintertime. I know! It’s too early! But part of a successful winter is laying groundwork in summer. Artist Janine Gibbons, originally from Petersburg, is renting a space in downtown Petersburg with exactly that in mind. She’s calling it The Fleet. The details are still coming together, but she’s hoping to turn it into a collaborative art space to bring together community talent and resources for creative pursuits. Everyone’s invited. The shop stands at the corner of Main Street and Fram. It has two display windows, currently bedecked with a collection of flags interspersed with planters of flowers. The space stretches deep into the building where an office awaits...(more) (7-12-17) 

Peratrovich dollar coin will either have her likeness or a symbolic Tlingit raven
By Tripp Crouse
KTOO
The 2020 dollar coin honoring Elizabeth Peratrovich will either have a literal image of the Alaska Native civil rights leader on it, or a Raven holding a key — a symbol of her Tlingit Raven moiety and her role in agitating for an anti-discrimination law...(more) (7-11-17)

Sealaska Heritage Institute Chooses Native Education Advocate for Scholarship
Sealaska Heritage Institute scholarship recipient wants to bring Native education into the present
Indian Country today
Through its Scholarship Committee Sealaska Heritage Institute has chosen a Native education advocate as the recipient of its annual Judson L. Brown Leadership Award. Jordan Craddick, a graduate student working toward his doctorate in history from the University of Washington, plans on becoming a teacher and is passionate about changing educational systems that continue to portray Native American people as relics from the past, he wrote in an essay submitted to Sealaska Heritage Institute...(more) (7-10-17)

Alaska Natives, Non-Natives Gather to Learn Tlingit Language
U.S. News & World Report
A group of Alaska natives and residents have been gathering to learn about the Tlingit language, which only about 100 people can currently speak fluently. The non-structured workshop studies the complicated sounds and structure of the Tlingit language, KTOO.org reported (http://bit.ly/2sK8xhI). The group is gathering on Mondays at the Juneau Public Library to learn different greetings and responses. They study with a book that the Sealaska Heritage Institute recently published, called the "Beginning Tlingit Workbook." The book was created as part of an ongoing effort to revitalize the language...(more) (Fairbanks Newsminer) (KTVA) (Ketchikan Daily News) (7-7-17)

It Only Took Two Years: Andover Newton Begins Returning Native Artifacts to 396 Tribes
Andover Newton Theological School warned by feds repeatedly to inventory and return Native artifacts
By Frank Hopper
Indian Country Today
In what may be one of the largest collections of Native artifacts to be repatriated yet, Andover Newton Theological School (ANTS) recently announced it is reaching out to 396 “Native American, Native Alaskan, and Native Hawaiian tribes and nations to request a consultation with each regarding objects in Andover Newton’s on-deposit collection that might belong to them.” David Guarino, a public relations spokesman for the school, told ICMN, “School leaders have made steady progress in their efforts to repatriate sacred objects from its collection to the descendants of their rightful owners.”...(more) (7-6-17)

Free Tlingit workbook part of language revitalization
By Carter Barrett
KTOO
This isn’t a class, and there is no teacher. About 15 people are participating in a Tlingit language workshop at the Juneau Public Library on a Monday night. The group of Natives and non-Natives are learning a language that only about 100 people speak fluently. The non-structured workshop studies the complicated sounds and structure of the Tlingit language. On this particular night, they are using pages from a new workbook to teach different greets and responses. Sealaska Heritage Institute recently published the “Beginning Tlingit Workbook.” It is part of the ongoing effort to revitalize Tlingit, and the workbook is available free online...(more) (7-5-17)

Sealaska Heritage Institute Releases Haida Children’s Books
Two culturally-relevant children’s books follow nine others released by Sealaska Heritage Institute
Indian Country Today
As part of the Baby Raven Reads program, Sealaska Heritage Institute has released two children’s books based on the Haida culture that reflect the Native worldview. The program is meant to promote language development and school readiness for Alaska Native families with children up to age 5....(more) (6-28-17)

Latseen running camp will be on trails this week
JUNEAU EMPIRE
The Sealaska Heritage Institute Latseen Running Camp, starting Tuesday and running through Friday, will be using the Kaxdigoowu Heen dei (Brotherhood Bridge Trail) and Treadwell Historic Trail from 1:30-3:30 p.m. this week. Sealaska Heritage Institute sponsors an annual Latseen Running Camp in Juneau to strengthen body, mind and spirit and to further connect Alaska Native people to Haa Aani — “our land"...(more) (6-26-17)

Smithsonian representatives wrap up information meetings for Native veterans memorial 
By Tripp Crouse
KTOO
In 2013, Congress authorized the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian to establish a national veterans memorial for Natives. The Alaska community consultations of that national effort wrapped last week...(more) (6-19-17)

Improving Native American Education
Programs aimed at Native students draw on the unique culture, traditions and history of tribal communities
By Steve Moore and Max Williams
M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust and The Oregon Community Foundation
At a time when communities of color are challenged at every level of education, the problems facing Native American communities stand out. The high school graduation rate for Native Americans is barely above 50 percent. Of the few who do attend college, less than 40 percent earn a Bachelor’s degree in six years. There’s never been a magic fix for Native American issues because each community is unique. What works in Montana might not work in Alaska, and what’s effective in Alaska won’t necessarily be effective in Oregon or Washington. Furthermore, within each community the solution that might seem obvious isn’t always the best solution...(more) (6-16-17)

Alyssa London Will Speak to Native Graduates in Seattle
Miss Alaska USA Alyssa London’s message: ‘Be Confident In Your Identity’
By Richard Walker
Indian Country Today
Miss Alaska USA Alyssa London, Tlingit, has ties to the state she represents but grew up in the Seattle area. And on June 17, she returns to the Emerald City to speak at the Urban Native Education Alliance’s 10th annual Rites of Passage Graduation Ceremony...London, who was profiled at ICMN on March 8, is a graduate of Stanford University and is an entrepreneur, motivational speaker, radio talk show host and cultural ambassador for Sealaska Heritage Institute. As Miss Alaska USA, she is promoting the empowerment of women through entrepreneurship, and challenging limiting beliefs among Native youth...(more) (6-14-17)

Can a Podcast Revitalize an Endangered Alaska Native Language?
One Juneau-based non-profit has decided to give it a try
By Wewsley Yiin
Pacific Standard
Like so many other indigenous languages spoken around the world, Alaska Native languages are in danger of dying out. ... Recently, advocates who have been establishing means of revitalizing Alaska Native languages have created new opportunities for the preservation of Tlingit. Perhaps the most creative effort has been that of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, a non-profit based in Juneau that promotes understanding of Southeastern Alaska Native cultures...(more) (6-8-17)

With new Chilkat robe, Juneau weaver hopes art form becomes globally recognized
By Scott Burton
KTOO
Close to 50 people joined a ceremony Tuesday in the clan house at the Walter Soboleff Building to help celebrate the completion of Lily Hope’s Chilkat robe. The robe was commissioned by the Portland Art Museum for an exhibit that honors Hope’s lineage of weavers including Cora Benson, Jennie Thlunaut, and Clarissa Rizal. Rizal is Hope’s mother who passed away in December....(more) (5-31-17)

SHI releases Beginning Tlingit Workbook    
Volume extension of Dauenhauers’ landmark work
Alaska Business Monthly
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has published a workbook for students studying Tlingit that teaches words and concepts through imagery. The volume, Beginning Tlingit Workbook, was written and compiled by Lance (̱X’unei) A. Twitchell, a member of Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Southeast Regional Language Committee and assistant professor of Alaska Native languages at the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS). It is an extension of the landmark book Beginning Tlingit—which was edited by the late linguist Richard Dauenhauer and his wife, Nora Dauenhauer, a fluent Tlingit speaker and scholar, and published by SHI....(more) (5-25-17)

Opinion: Return Native American objects to their rightful home
By Russell Thornton
Newsweek
How ironic that a Massachusetts theological school has not returned a sacred fishhook to the Tlingit Indians of Southeast Alaska! Christian missionaries took the object from the Tlingit in the 19th century.  The halibut fishhook, carved with the form of a wolf, is one of 158 Native American objects in the possession of the Andover Newton Theological School in Newton, Massachusetts, but stored in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem...(more) (5-23-17)

‘I am Tlingit’: Miss Alaska brings Tlingit culture to national stage
Alyssa London wows in Tlingit robe, speaks Tlingit on national TV • London reflects on Miss USA competition, top-10 finish
By Alex McCarthy
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Forty-eight hours after she wore a Tlingit-inspired robe and a flowing red evening gown on national television, Alyssa London wore a gray zip-up hoodie and black leggings, sitting on a gravelly hill near the Mendenhall Glacier. London, the first person of Tlingit descent to be crowned Miss Alaska USA, finished in the top 10 at the Miss USA competition last Sunday and was in Juneau two days later on her way back to her home in Anchorage...(more) (5-19-17)

More evidence of Original Peoples of Turtle Island
By Jim Windle
Two Row Times (Israel)
The Haaretz News out of Israel recently published a report that would indicate humans have been in what is today known as the Americas, as far back as 100,000 to 150,000 years. The article is entitled “Native Americans Have Actually Been There Since the Beginning, Say Archaeologists” written by Elizabeth Sloane. In it, she builds a case from archaeology and oral history. “Oral histories are usually considered fabulous. Now ancient skeletons and a genetic study proves that the Tlingit and Haida tribes’ oral history of being there from the beginning is based on fact,” writes Sloane...(more) (5-17-17)

Can Native research codes avoid culture clash?
The San people of southern Africa seek to encourage mutually beneficial collaborations with scientists with an official code of research ethics. Can lessons from past conflicts help bypass future battles?
By Charlie Wood
The Christian Science Monitor
Knowledge is power, and the San people want to wield it as such.
In March, the long-studied San people joined other indigenous groups in asking that scientific study be a two-way street, carrying benefits back to their communities as it shares their information with the world. Such guidelines seek to bridge the divide between scientific pragmatism and traditional values, in hopes of making painful legal battles a thing of the past. More than ten distinct nations spread across five countries make up the San, an indigenous people of southern Africa who have drawn ample scientific attention for their genetic diversity, botanical knowledge, and unique linguistic consonants. But decades of sustained research traffic through their communities has created a culture clash…(more) (5-16-17)

Miss Alaska stuns with transforming, Tlingit-style robe at Miss USA pageant
By Tamara Ikenberg
Alaska Dispatch News
Traditional Tlingit formline design and high fashion merged in Miss Alaska Alyssa London's Miss USA evening gown. London, a top 10 finalist in the pageant held last weekend in Las Vegas, walked onstage wearing a robe based on Tlingit regalia draped over her shoulders, then threw back the garment to reveal her red, Swarovski crystal-beaded evening gown. The material of the robe became the dress's long train....(more) (5-1517)

The Seminary and the Wanted Relics
A New England seminary about to merge with Yale University is under fire over Native American relics in its collection—part of a long history of mistreatment
By Candida Moss
The Daily Beast
In Newton, Mass, a struggling seminary is coming under attack this week for failing to return religious artifacts in its collection to the Native American tribes to which they belong. Andover Newton Theological School possesses a collection of 158 Native American artifacts that, for roughly 70 years, have been housed at the nearby Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass. In 2015, when Andover was attempting to raise funds to cover a shortfall in enrollment, the institution attempted to sell the artifacts. This, they soon learned, would violate the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA); the federal law governing the return of sacred items to tribes that produced them. As of last week, Andover Newton had not complied with federal requests that they produce and send inventories of their holdings to Native American tribes…(more) (5-14-17)

US warns Newton seminary over native artifacts
By Malcolm Gay
Boston Globe
Federal officials have again warned the Andover Newton Theological School over its failure to comply with a law that governs the return of cultural objects deemed sacred to Native American or native Hawaiian peoples. At issue is a collection of roughly 160 Native American and native Hawaiian objects the school has housed at the Peabody Essex Museum since the late 1940s. The collection was largely unknown to tribal leaders until about two years ago, when PEM director Dan Monroe warned them the Newton seminary planned to sell roughly 80 of the collection’s most valuable objects...(more) (5-12-17)

With help of infrared photography, institute hopes to repair timeworn Tlingit drum
By Tamara Ikenberg
Alaska Dispatch News
A timeworn Tlingit shaman's box drum dating back to at least the late 1800s may get new life. The nonprofit organization Museums Alaska just granted Sealaska $3,868 to get the repatriated object in exhibit-worthy condition and have it scanned by an infrared photographer. The leader of the T'akdeintaan Clan loaned the instrument to the Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau in 2016. "It's a very old piece that is deteriorating so the clan is interested in putting it in a facility like ours that can look after it," said Sealaska History and Culture Director Chuck Smythe, who added the drum is most likely made of red or yellow cedar....(more) (5-11-17)

Rep. David Eastman Censured By Peers Over ‘Abortion Vacation’ Remark
Abortion remark aimed at Alaska Native women gets David Eastman a slap on the wrist
By Frank Hopper
Indian Country Today
In a 25 to 14 vote, members of the Alaska House of Representatives voted yesterday to censure one of their own, Rep. David Eastman (R. Wasilla), for comments he made disparaging women in Alaskan villages. In an Associated Press interview on May 2, Eastman alleged poor women in rural Alaskan villages will get pregnant so they can become eligible for Medicaid-paid trips to Anchorage or Seattle to receive abortions...(more) (5-11-17)

Perspectives, sashes, and crowns with Miss Alaska
By Richard Perry
Anchorage Press
You may have heard Alyssa London was recently crowned Miss Alaska USA. She has had local, state, and national level public appearances. Several days ago, London traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada for the Miss USA competition. The event is May 14 and will be the 66th Miss USA pageant. Her schedule has been noticeably busy....(more) (5-11-17)

New Yale Partner Faulted for Handling of Tribal Artifacts
By Leslie MacMillan and Tom Mashbergmay
New York Times
A 210-year-old seminary here that is in the process of joining Yale Divinity School is coming under fire from federal regulators for failing to follow a law designed to ensure the return of sacred and other special artifacts to Native American tribes. The Newton Andover Theological School has a collection of 158 Native American items, including locks of hair, wampum belts, “peace pipes” and finely beaded ceremonial garb, mostly gathered in the 19th century by Christian missionaries. For about 70 years, the artifacts have been housed at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass....(more) (5-10-17)

Eastman reaches new low
By Rosita Worl
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Rep. David Eastman, R-Wasilla, owes an apology to his legislative colleagues and other Alaskans over his repugnant statements that some Alaskans are glad to become pregnant, so that they can have a Medicaid-funded trip to Anchorage or Seattle to have an abortion...(more) (5-9-17)

Cultural landscape conference focuses on Native education
By Ed Schoenfeld
CoastAlaska News
Teachers from around Southeast Alaska will gather in Juneau next month to discuss culturally responsive education. A conference called Our Cultural Landscape will focus on helping educators better teach Native students.
Jackie Kookesh is education director of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, which is organizing the event. “We think that teachers, when they understand, they begin to understand they’re a part of the cultural landscape here as well. Then they get grounded. And I think it provides a shift for educators to look at their relationship as a teacher in the classroom,” she said. The conference is June 1-3 and is open to teachers, administrators, classroom aides and those working in early childhood education...(more) (APRN) (5-4-17)

Genetic Continuity Study Backs Up Oral Histories
Study Revealing 10,000 Years of Genetic Continuity Supports Oral Histories
By Alexander Ewen
Indian Country Today
A new scientific report has shown genetic links between ancient skeletons found in Alaska and British Columbia and the Indigenous Peoples who live in the area today. According to co-author Rosita Worl, a member of the Tlingit nation and president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on April 4 shows that “our ancestral lineage stems from the first initial peopling of the region” and that “science is corroborating our oral histories"...(more) (4-25-17)

Native Americans Have Actually Been There Since the Beginning, Say Archaeologists
Oral histories are usually considered fabulous. Now ancient skeletons and a genetic study proves that the Tlingit and Haida tribes' oral history of being there from the beginning is based on fact
By Elizabeth Sloane
Haaretz (Israel)
Native Tribes of the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada have oral traditions going back time immemorial, that place them in the region from the beginning. Now a genetic study of ancient skeletons and existing tribes shows that the unwritten history was apparently just so. Rosita Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau and a member of the Tlingit tribe, says that the Tlingit and Tsimshian tribes migrated west along British Columbia’s Naas River to the coast, before spreading north and south...(more) (4-28-17)

A musical line stretching through time
By Mary Catharine Martin | Capital City Weekly
How do you define “music?”
That’s something Ed Littlefield thought about for six months as part of an undergraduate class, it’s something he’s been thinking about since, and it’s a question he posed to the attendees at an April 21 “Art of Place” lecture on “Tlingit Music — Past, Present and Future"...( more) (4-26-17)

A skeleton found in a cave reveals a 10,000-year-old Native link to Southeast Alaska
By Yereth Rosen
Alaska Dispatch News
The indigenous people of Southeast Alaska and British Columbia have a tradition of invoking their longevity in that region as going back to a time before memory. Now DNA evidence backs up that claim, and gives more specifics about how far back the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people can trace their ancestry. Analysis of genetic material from the remains of an ancient skeleton shows links with Northwest Native people that go back more than 10,000 years. "It confirms our oral tradition that we have lived and occupied and owned Southeast Alaska since time immemorial," said Rosita Worl, a Tlingit anthropologist and president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the Native cultures of Southeast Alaska…(more) (4-17-17)

DNA Study Reveals Genealogy of Ancient Alaskan Remains
By David DeMarPosted
New Historian
A DNA study of ancient remains found in a cave in Alaska has revealed that the ancient Native American tribes living in the region today are directly related, revealing how long the locale has been inhabited. According to Science Online, human remains from On Your Knees Cave, dated to around 10,300 years old, were found to be closely related to a trio of ancient skeletons found along the Canadian coast of British Columbia. In turn, these three ancient individuals hold close relation to the Haida, Nisga’a and Tlingit tribes that inhabit the region today, revealing a direct line of descent to these tribes...(more) (4-9-17)

Remains reveal 10,000-year-old connection to Southeast Natives
By Aaron Bolton
KSTK News
The oral tradition of Southeast Alaska’s Tlingit and Haida people says they’ve lived in the region since time immemorial. Now, there’s evidence connecting present-day Southeast Native groups to 10,300-year-old skeletal remains found on Prince of Wales Island. That’s according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...(more) (4-6-17)

Study reveals 10,000 years of genetic continuity in northwest North America
Archaelogical News
A study of the DNA in ancient skeletal remains adds to the evidence that indigenous groups living today in southern Alaska and the western coast of British Columbia are descendants of the first humans to make their home in northwest North America more than 10,000 years ago...( more) (4-6-17)

Nuclear DNA Study Suggests Genetic Continuity in North America
Archaeology
According to a report in Science Magazine, a study of nuclear DNA suggests that Native American and First Nations groups living in southern Alaska and the western coast of British Columbia are descendants of people who lived in the region some 10,000 years ago. An earlier study of mitochondrial DNA, which is passed along the maternal line, failed to find a link between the 10,300-year-old skeleton known as Shuká Káa, or “Man Ahead of Us,” and members of the Tlingit tribe that now live near On Your Knees Cave, where the remains were discovered...(more) (4-6-17)

Local indigenous groups related to the first inhabitants of northwest North America
UPI
According to new genetic analysis, the indigenous peoples of southern Alaska and the west coast of British Columbia are direct descendants of the first human inhabitants of northwestern North America. "Our analysis suggests that this is the same population living in this part of the world over time, so we have genetic continuity from 10,000 years ago to the present," Ripan Malhi, an anthropology professor at the University of Illinois, said in a news release...(more) (4-6-17)

These Indigenous Alaskan Groups Are Linked to the First Humans to Settle in Northwest America
10,000 years of genetic continuity
Science Alert
New DNA evidence from ancient skeletal remains suggests that the indigenous groups of southern Alaska and the west coast of British Columbia, Canada are descendants of the first humans to settle in northwest North America more than 10,000 years ago. The finding is based on the remains of an Alaskan individual known as Shuká Káa, who's estimated to have lived around 10,300 years ago, and contributes to a growing body of evidence that reveals the complex population history of these early American peoples...(more) (4-5-17)

Ancient Skeleton Reveals 10,000-Year Link To Modern Tribes In Pacific Northwest
By Kristy Hamilton
IFL Science
A man by the name of Shuká Káa (Tlingit for “Man Ahead of Us”) has helped fill in an ancient archeological blank thousands of years in the making. As it turns out, the modern-day indigenous peoples in southern Alaska and the western coast of British Columbia are the descendants of the first people to make the region their home more than 10,000 years ago. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...(more) (4-4-17)

America's First Immigrants: DNA Links Native Americans, Indigenous Canadians To First Ancient Migration
By Elana Glowatz
International Business Times
DNA proves that Native American and indigenous Canadian groups along the northern Pacific Ocean have been living there for more than 10,000 years.
Scientists did a genetic analysis on people from the British Columbia coast and southern Alaska and compared it with samples from ancient skeletons to show the connection to the humans who first settled North America, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...( more) (4-4-17)

Ancient skeletons show direct link to modern tribes in the Pacific Northwest
By Ann Gibbons
Science
The Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest have always claimed to have deep roots in the region. Now, an ancient mariner may be able to back that claim up. Scientists sequencing the DNA of 10,300-year-old human remains from On Your Knees Cave in Alaska have found that he was closely related to three ancient skeletons found along the coast of British Columbia in Canada. These three ancient people were in turn closely related to the Tsimshian, Tlingit, Nisga’a, and Haida tribes living in the region today. The new finding reveals a direct line of descent to these tribes, and it shows—for the first time from ancient DNA—that at least two different groups of people were living in North America more than 10,000 years ago...(more) (4/5/17)

Alaska's indigenous Tlingit people are descendants of the first humans to settle in northwest America more than 10,000 years ago, DNA study reveals
By Cecile Borkhataria
Daily Mail
Indigenous groups living today in southern Alaska and the western coast of British Columbia are descendants of the first humans to make their homes in northwest America more than 10,000 years ago. The researchers looked at genetic data from Shuká Káa (Tlingit for 'Man Before Us'), an ancient individual whose remains - found in a cave in southeastern Alaska - date to about 10,300 years ago. DNA found in ancient remains adds to the body of evidence that indigenous groups have lived in these areas for a long time. ...(more) (4-4-17)

Longtime leader Rosita Worl to leave Sealaska board
By Ed Schoenfeld
CoastAlaska News
One of the Sealaska regional Native corporation’s longest-serving leaders is stepping down. Rosita Worl has spent 30 years on the Juneau-based corporation’s board of directors. She said she’s been thinking about leaving for a while. “I probably would have resigned three years ago, but at that point in time, I was chair of the Lands Legislation (Committee) and I felt like I wanted to see that completed before I left the board,” she said...(more) ( U.S. News & World Report) (APRN) (Miami Herald) (Juneau Empire) (The Wichita Eagle) (3-22-17)

Travel and Culture: Alaska- Juneau Art Walk continued
By Cornelia Seckel
Art Times Journal
I signed up for an Art Walk courtesy of the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council. Offered on Sunday thru Wednesday during “season” it is an excellent way to, in a matter of several hours, get an overview of the arts in Juneau. The tour potentially stops at about 32 galleries, public art displays and studios...Here are more highlights from our walk...(more) (10-16-17)

Five Things You Didn’t Realize Were Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities
By Erin Blakemore
Smithsonian.com
In 1963, a group of university presidents, professors, art experts, businesspeople and even the chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission came together to form a national commission. Their goal: study the state of the humanities in the United States. Their leader: Brown University president Barnaby Keeney. Their charge: report findings and recommendations on how to proceed to three sponsoring bodies: the American Council of Learned Societies, the Council of Graduate Schools in the United States and the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa...(more) (3-15-17)

Sealaska Heritage Institute picks three young Native artists for project
By Leila Kheiry
KRBD-Ketchikan
Three young Alaska Native artists, including one from Ketchikan and one from Hydaburg, have been chosen to carve cedar house posts that will be cast in bronze and displayed in front of the Walter Soboleff Building in Juneau...(more) ( KTOO) (3-15-17)

Miss Alaska USA Alyssa London, Tlingit a Voice for Her Culture
Alyssa London discusses using her platform to bring awareness to issues affecting Native youth
By Richard Walker
Indian Country Today
Alyssa (Yáx̱Ádi Yádi) London, Tlingit, had been Miss Alaska USA for eight days and she had already been presented with regalia and named a cultural ambassador by Sealaska Heritage Institute, interviewed on television, traveled to New York City for Fashion Week, and was getting ready to head to Washington, D.C. to speak at an National Congress of American Indians youth summit. “It’s really a whirlwind,” London said. “Once you get crowned, your life really changes in a big way.” She expected, and wanted, nothing less. “I realize with this platform that I can do so much for our Alaska Native and American Indian youth,” she said. “It’s a platform that brings a lot of awareness to hot-button issues in Indian country. I’m able to be a voice for that”...(more) (3-8-17)

Fabulous photos lift account of early 20th-century Alaska village life
By David A. James
We Alaskans
The black-and-white photograph is striking. At a distance and in its center, a hunting crew carries an umiaq (skin boat) up a shore. Three children run behind it, a lone man stands farther off silently watching, while in the foreground dogs take only scant notice. Beyond that, we can discern nothing. Most of the picture is a blanket of white and it is impossible to determine what is snow, beach, ocean, nearby hills or sky. It all merges into vast emptiness. The emptiness perfectly captures the when and where of the picture...(more) (3-5-17)

Miss Alaska USA 2017 named SHI Cultural Ambassador
www.missuniverse.com
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has named the new Miss Alaska USA 2017, Alyssa London, as a cultural ambassador in an effort to further its mission to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures and to promote cross-cultural understanding...(more) (2-21-17)

SHI to showcase Northwest Coast masterworks at second art auction
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will showcase contemporary masterpieces of Northwest Coast art at its second art auction in an effort to perpetuate critical programs such as Native language revitalization and workshops on endangered Native art forms. Funds from the proceeds will build SHI’s new endowment to ensure art, language and education programs live long into the future, especially in this era of uncertain fiscal times, said SHI President Rosita Worl. The auction is also part of SHI’s effort to make Juneau the Northwest Coast art capital of the world, she said...(more) (2-22-17)

Sealaska summer camp registration
JUNEAU EMPIRE
The application period is now open for several Sealaska Heritage Institute camps and workshops for young adults. Opening the Box: Middle School Math and Culture Academy runs June 10 to 20 for students entering grades six through eight...(more) (2-22-17)

Miss Alaska USA 2017 named SHI Cultural Ambassador: London to raise awareness about Southeast Alaska Native cultures on public platform
Alaska Business Monthly
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has named the new Miss Alaska USA 2017, Alyssa London, as a cultural ambassador in an effort to further its mission to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures and to promote cross-cultural understanding....(more) (2-21-17)

Miss Alaska 2017 talks Tlingit heritage and digital entrepreneurship
For 27-year-old Alyssa London, Miss USA competition is a chance to bring Alaska Native culture to national audience
By Kevin Gullufsen
JUNEAU EMPIRE
She’s a Tlingit Eagle of the Killerwhale clan and a digital advertising expert, a Stanford grad, former Microsoft marketing wiz and entrepreneur. This year’s Miss Alaska USA, 27-year-old Alyssa London is as comfortable in the boardroom as she is in a floatplane, flying between Southeast’s villages to promote the region’s indigenous artists. Crowned Feb. 4 and named a Sealaska Heritage Institute cultural ambassador on Friday, the Empire spoke with London Saturday about pageantry, leadership and how she reconciles her Native heritage with a digital world...(more) (Capital City Weekly)(2-20-17)

SHI chooses three Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian artists to make posts
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has chosen three emerging, master Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian artists to carve three cedar house posts that will be cast into bronze. The project is a part of SHI’s ongoing effort to make Juneau the Northwest Coast art capital of the world...(more) (2-16-16)

Sealaska offers skin sewing workshop
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute is offering a skin-sewing workshop with Louise Kadinger. It’ll happen on Friday, Feb. 24, 6-8 p.m.; Saturday, Feb. 25, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.; and Sunday March 4, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Limited to 15 participants. $100 fee covers three-day class and materials. Register by Feb. 17 at 4 p.m...(more) (2-16-17)

Rising stars in language revitalization spearhead new language committee
Capital City Weekly
The first meeting of Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Southeast Regional Language Committee began late January with traditional introductions by the committee’s three members: Lance Twitchell, who spoke in Lingít (Tlingit language), Gavin Hudson, who spoke in Sm’algyax (Tsimshian language), and Benjamin Young, who spoke in Xaad Kíl (Haida language). Hearing the three young men express themselves in Southeast Alaska’s indigenous languages was an uplifting way to begin, said SHI President Rosita Worl. “It is like music to my ears to hear you speak,” Worl said. “It is so wonderful. (Tlingit elders) Dr. Soboleff and Clarence Jackson would be so happy to hear the voices of our ancestors speaking at this time”...(more) (2-8-17)

Language Revitalization Stars Spearhead New Committee
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Southeast Regional Language Committee met for the first time on January 27, and began the meeting with traditional introductions by the committee’s three members: Lance Twitchell, who spoke in Lingít (Tlingit language), Gavin Hudson, who spoke in Sm’algya̱x (Tsimshian language), and Benjamin Young, who spoke in Xaad Kíl (Haida language). Hearing them express themselves in Southeast Alaska’s indigenous languages was an uplifting way to begin, said SHI President Rosita Worl...(more) (2-6-17)

Dictionary of Sm’algyax now online
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has posted its Dictionary of Shm’algyack (Tsimshian) online free of charge. The move is an effort to make language resources as accessible as possible, especially to those students who are revitalizing the language. Compiled by Donna May Roberts with assistance from the elders of Metlakatla...(more) (2-1-17)

Native Language Dictionary Added to Sealaska’s Free Offerings
SHI now has links to Tsimshian, Tlingit, and Haida dictionaries
Indian Country Today
In an effort to make Native language resources as accessible as possible, Sealaska Heritage Institute has posted its Dictionary of Shm’algyack (Tsimshian) online free of charge. SHI especially wants these resources available to those students who are helping to revitalize the language and speaking it on the land...(more) (1-28-17)

At Governor’s Awards, Alaska’s artists worry about Trump’s proposed cuts to the NEA
By James Brooks
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Gov. Bill Walker and almost a quarter of the Alaska Legislature attended Thursday night’s Governor’s Awards for the Arts and Humanities, but the most popular person might have been someone who wasn’t there — President Donald Trump. As Alaska’s arts luminaries accepted the state’s top honors, speaker after speaker emphasized the importance of the arts and urged those in attendance to speak against cuts proposed to federally funded arts organizations....(more) (1-29-7)

Four Native institutions urge Juneau Assembly to abandon ‘camping’ ordinance
By Jeremy Hsieh
KTOO
The heads of four Juneau-based Alaska Native institutions are urging the Juneau Assembly to abandon its proposal to make camping downtown a ticketable offense. The proposed ordinance targets the some of the homeless people who sleep in storefront nooks. It has the support of the Juneau Police Chief Bryce Johnson and some store owners. Mayor Ken Koelsch had the ordinance drafted. In a letter to the Juneau Assembly, the leaders say removing campers from downtown district can be done in “a humane and compassionate” way by establishing a campsite elsewhere...( more) (1-19-17)

Applications period open for Haa Shuká Project
Capital City Weekly
METLAKATLA, HYDABURG, SITKA, JUNEAU — Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has opened the application period for its Haa Shuká Community Language Learning Project, a new program designed to help revitalize the languages of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian in four Southeast Alaska communities: Metlakatla, Hydaburg, Sitka and Juneau. Applications will be accepted through Feb. 10, 2017...(more) (1-18-17)

Photo: Voices on the land
By Michael Penn
JUNEAU EMPIRE
David Katzeek shares information from a traditional cultural perspective to about 50 sixth-grade students from Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School on Friday as part of the Voices of the Land project in the clan house at the Walter Soboleff Building. Through the program, Voices on the Land, Sealaska Heritage Institute is integrating performing arts and digital storytelling into six Juneau schools over three years through artists in residence, digital storytelling and a teacher training academy...(more) (1-16-17)

Applications period open for Haa Shuká Community Language Learning Project
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has opened the application period for its Haa Shuká Community Language Learning Project, a new program designed to help revitalize the languages of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian in four Southeast Alaska communities: Metlakatla, Hydaburg, Sitka and Juneau. Applications will be accepted through Feb. 10, 2017. The project will pair fluent speakers of Lingít (Tlingit), Xaad Kíl (Haida) and Sm’algyax (Tsimshian) with intermediate and advanced speakers in those languages to increase learner proficiency...(more) (1-15-17)

Skin sewing workshop
Capital City Weekly
Louise Kadinger will teach a skin-sewing workshop at the end of January. It will incorporate the use of sea otter hide, which is open, in accordance with the Marine Mammal Protection Act, only to Alaska Natives with at least 1/4 Native blood quantum and with a copy of their Certificate of Indian Blood issued by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or Tribal I.D. card issued by a federally recognized Alaska Native Tribe...(more) (1-4-17)

Top 10 things that we talked about at the water cooler in 2016
By Tripp Crouse
KTOO
It’s the end of the year and that means we’re looking back at KTOO’s most popular stories. For 2016, we’re keeping the list to stories KTOO produced with specific ties to Juneau. Some serial stories are lumped into one entry...Celebrating diversity: Our Facebook Live coverage of Celebration in June tops the charts in regards to reach and engagement. Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian dance groups converged on Juneau to kick off Celebration 2016...Blood lines: A study released in October by the Sealaska Heritage Institute tackled how the regulatory definition of blood quantum applies to marine mammal hunters...(more) (1-2-17)

The Year in News: A look back at Juneau's biggest stories of 2016
By LISA PHU 
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Here’s a list of Juneau stories and issues — in no particular order — that shocked us, had a lasting impact or celebrated our community...Celebration 2016 in June saw two new events that will hopefully become mainstays during the biennial festival of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures...( more) (1-2-17)

Bright moments of 2016
Capital City Weekly
From the editor: We’ve reached out to members of the arts community around Southeast Alaska for their thoughts on the year’s “bright moments” in arts and culture. From the dedication of Xunaa Shuká Hít to Juneau-Douglas Little Theatre’s “5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche,” read on to learn about some of the year’s highlights...( more) (12-28-16)

Dance, Art and Song
Sealaska Heritage Institute highlights Tlingit, Tsimshian and Haida culture in its biennial Celebration
By Steve Quinn
Indian Country Today
When David Boxley struck his deer-hide drum, it was time to celebrate. And with that, more than 2,000 people danced, sang and enjoyed a reunion among nearly 50 groups who had traveled anywhere from one mile to 1,000 miles—just to dance. They came to Juneau, Alaska, from within the state, from neighboring British Columbia and the Yukon Territory, and from Washington. Most were of Tlingit, Tsimshian and Haida descent, and they have arrived every two years since 1982 for a chance to perform on two stages and on Juneau’s streets. The event, held every other year, is called simply Celebration, and it is the state’s largest cultural Native event....(more) (12-22-16)

Children’s books for a Native worldview
By Mary Catharine Martin
Capital City Weekly
Not so long ago, children’s books with an authentic focus on Alaska Native stories and culture were harder to find. That’s changing with Baby Raven Reads, a Sealaska Heritage Institute program focusing on children up to age five. Dec. 10, SHI released five new children’s books “that reflect the Native worldview;” it aims, said SHI Chief of Operations Lee Kadinger, to publish 18, and to distribute the books to libraries around Southeast Alaska. Through social media, they’ve even had a request from Europe that the books be translated into French...(more) (Juneau Empire) (12-14-16)

SHI offering cash incentive to early bird scholarship applicants
Capital City Weekly
The enrollment period for Sealaska scholarship applications will open on Dec. 15 for the 2017-2018 school year. The deadline to apply is March 1, 2017. However, Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is offering a $50 incentive to those who complete their scholarship application on or before Feb. 1 and who are accepted as scholarship recipients; if selected as a recipient, the $50 will be included in their scholarship award...(more) (Juneau Empire) (12-14-16)

Respected Chilkat and Ravenstail weaver Clarissa Rizal dies at 60
By Scott Burton
KTOO
“The world has lost another luminary.” That’s how the Sealaska Heritage Institute began a message announcing the death of Clarissa Rizal at age 60, a renowned Chilkat and Ravenstail weaver. She was a Raven of the T’akdeintaan Clan, also known as the black-legged Kittywake Clan. The institute’s announcement says Native people owe her a debt for teaching and reviving the sacred art...(more) (12-7-16)

Renowned Chilkat weaver Clarissa Rizal dies of cancer
By Mary Catharine Martin
Capital City Weekly
Renowned Chilkat and Ravenstail weaver Clarissa Rizal, a Raven of the T’akdeintaan, died Wednesday after a battle with cancer. Rizal apprenticed with Jennie Thlunaut, a weaver from Klukwan. She began her apprenticeship when Thlunaut was 95 years old. After Thlunaut’s death, Rizal was so grieved she was unable to weave; she began again when she was asked to teach Thlunaut’s granddaughters. “Not so long ago, we were in danger of losing the knowledge on how to make our sacred Chilkat weavings,” said a Sealaska Heritage Institute Facebook post about Rizal’s death. “We as Native people owe a debt of gratitude to Clarissa for mastering our sacred art traditions and for teaching others to weave”...(more) (Capital City Weekly) (12-7-16)

Tlingit men trained hard to become warriors
By Mary Catharine Martin
Capital City Weekly
No matter the season, every day from age six began the same way for a young K’inéix Kwáan man training to be a warrior in pre-contact Yakutat — by wading into the ocean and staying as long as he could without passing out. “This was environmental training,” Kai Monture, a Tlingit and Eyak member of the Yéil house of the K’inéix Kwáan, or Copper River clan, told an audience in the clan house of the Walter Soboleff Building Nov. 29. “We spend half our lives on the water anyway, for subsistence. And because raiding was such a big aspect of Tlingit warfare, especially by sea, conditioning to water was a really big aspect of Tlingit warrior training"...(more) (12-7-16)

SHI releases six children’s books on creation stories, colors, alphabet
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) released six culturally-based children’s books that reflect the Native worldview as part of its Baby Raven Reads, a program for Alaska Native families with children up to age 5 that promotes language development and school readiness.
The series includes a three-book set derived from ancient creation stories that have been passed from generation to generation for thousands of years. The set includes “Raven and the Box of Daylight,” “Raven Brings Us Fire,” and “Origins of Rivers and Streams.” The books were adapted from oral histories by Pauline Duncan and illustrated by Lindsay Carron...(more) (12-7-16)

Terrifying visages: Native armor inspired fear in foes
By Ed Schoenfeld
CoastAlaska News
Tlingit battle helmets were designed to inspire fear. The thick, wooden head armor carried imagery of strong warriors, fierce animals or revered ancestors. But helmets also played a ceremonial role, representing clans or helping shamans scout behind enemy lines....(more) (12-2-16)

Sealaska Heritage Institute to release 6 children’s books
Indian Country Today
As part of its Baby Raven Reads program, Sealaska Heritage Institute will release six culturally-based children’s books that reflect the Native worldview. Included is a three-book set derived from ancient creation stories that have been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. The set includes Raven and the Box of Daylight, Raven Brings us Fire, and Origins of Rivers and Streams...( more) (12-1-16)

Downtown Gallery Walk ushers in holiday season
By Mary Catharine Martin
JUNEAU EMPIRE
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and Gallery Walk — the biggest, most popular First Friday of the year — is a festive way to usher in the season. One of the biggest arts events of the year, this year’s Gallery Walk downtown will feature events new and old. Among those in the “new” category is a free preview of a mask exhibit at Sealaska Heritage Institute. If you don’t catch it this weekend, you’ll have to wait until May to see it again. Sealaska will also host multiple dance groups...(more) (Capital City Weekly) (11-30-16)

SHI opens state-wide Native mask exhibit highlighting ancient, current uses
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has opened a new exhibit featuring Native masks from across the state that elucidates the masks’ ancient and current uses. The exhibit, Alaska Native Masks: Art & Ceremony, includes 50 masks from the Iñupiat, Yup’ik, Alutiiq, Athabascan, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian and is on display in the Nathan Jackson Gallery at the Walter Soboleff Building in Juneau. SHI will open the display to the public on Friday, Dec. 2, during Gallery Walk, said SHI President Rosita Worl, noting the exhibit is part of SHI’s advocacy to promote Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide. ...(more) (Juneau Empire) (11-30-16)

SHI, UAS and IAIA partner to offer Northwest Coast art education
By Maria Dudza
KRBD
Sealaska Heritage Institute has partnered with the Institute of American Indian Arts and the University of Alaska Southeast to provide enhanced and expanded Northwest Coast art programs and opportunities for Alaska students. The three organizations signed a memorandum of agreement last Wednesday that will be used to design and implement a formal education plan. “It’s part of a broader effort to really highlight Northwest Coast art, and to really make it something that’s attractive, that people want to come to Alaska to see,” said Rosita Worl, president of Sealaska Heritage Institute. “In order to do that, we need to make sure we have practicing artists”...(more) (11-28-16)

Talking in code: How the Tlingit, Navajo tribes helped end WWII
By Clara Miller
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Thirty-three Native American tribes had members who served as World War II code talkers, amounting between 400-500 men. But for decades, it was classified information and kept secret, even from the code talkers’ families. For the Tlingits, it wasn’t until 2013 that it became public knowledge. They had a huge impact and the outcome of the war might have been vastly different without them, said Ozzie Sheakley, a member of the Southeast Alaska Native Veterans Association, in a phone interview...(more) (Capital City Weekly) (11-25-16)

SHI, IAIA, UAS to advance Northwest Coast art
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has entered into a three-way partnership with the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), and the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) to provide enhanced and expanded Northwest Coast (NWC) art programs and opportunities for Alaska students. Dr. Robert Martin, President of the Institute of American Indian Arts and a member of the Cherokee Nation, said that IAIA currently has an average of 10 Alaska Native students enrolled per semester, out of around 475, and he is hoping to see that number triple. “We’ve had a long history of Alaska Native students in IAIA and this is going to give us an opportunity to increase those numbers dramatically,” Martin said...(more) (Juneau Empire) (11-23-26)

Native wartime code talkers are subject of upcoming SHI lecture
By Tripp J Crouse
KTOO
During World War II, the U.S. armed forces utilized Native languages as a way to transmit indecipherable messages in the Pacific Theater. It was a code the Japanese were never able to break, and it’s credited with saving the lives of thousands of troops. The Sealaska Heritage Institute is hosting a series of noon lectures honoring Native warriors — past and present...( more) (11-22-16)

Sealaska sponsors lecture of code talkers
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Sealaska Heritage Institute and Sealaska will sponsor two free lectures on Tlingit and Navajo code talkers this week in celebration of Native American Heritage Month. Starting at noon on Tuesday, Nov. 22, at the at the Walter Soboleff Building, the lectures will feature Southeast Alaska Native Veterans Commander Ozzie Sheakley and Judith Avila, author of the best-selling book “Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir by One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII"...( more) (11-20-16)

Rare photos documenting Inupiat life in the early 1900s published by SHI
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute has published a book of old, rare and priceless photographs of Inupiat life in the early twentieth century made by an Inupiat photographer and teacher.
The book, “Menadelook: An Inupiat Teacher’s Photographs of Alaska Village Life, 1907-1932,” showcases nearly one hundred photographs by Inupiat Charles Menadelook that document life in Kingigin (Wales) in the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia. The book, which was compiled and written by Menadelook’s granddaughter, provides a singular view into the Inupiat world during the early twentieth century and gives both a pictorial and Native perspective on Inupiat traditions and historical events, said SHI President Rosita Worl, noting the book stems from SHI’s advocacy program, which is part of SHI’s effort to promote Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide...( more) (Juneau Empire) (11-16-16)

SHI to open doors to all local second-grade students for arts initiative
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) this month will open the Walter Soboleff Building to all second-grade students in Juneau as part of a national program to expose children to the arts. The event is part of the Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child program, which was founded by the Kennedy Center to create equitable access to arts education programs and resources for K-8 students. The Kennedy Center works with 20 sites in the country, and Juneau was selected as the eleventh site in 2013...(more) (11-16-16)

Study: Proportion of Alaska Natives allowed to hunt marine mammals decreases
By Mike Dunham
Alaska Dispatch News
At the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention in Fairbanks last month, Sealaska Heritage Institute presented a study addressing the possibility of changing the definition of "Alaska Native" with regard to taking marine mammals for food or art purposes.
"Determination of Alaska Native Status Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act" was prepared by the institute's maritime anthropologist, Steve J. Langdon, with funding from several Native corporate and nonprofit groups. A news release from the institute said it "brings to light data that might alarm some sectors of the Native community, because findings indicate among other things that the proportion of the Alaska Native population becoming ineligible to hunt marine mammals under current agency enforcement policies is rising at an accelerating rate"...(more) (11-14-16)

On eve of Veteran's Day, 'Native Warriors' honored
Sen. Sullivan, panel of Native Vietnam vets speak at film showing
By Sam DeGrave
JUNEAU EMPIRE
It has been more than five decades since Fred Bennett and 27 other young men left Hoonah, headed for the jungles of Vietnam. Like many of his peers, Bennett had never left his village at the time. He hardly knew why the U.S. was fighting a war half a world away. But that didn’t stop Bennett and thousands of other Alaska Natives and American Indians from enlisting. According to the Department of Veteran Affairs, more than 42,000 Native Americans fought in Vietnam, a fact U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, referred to as “a special kind of patriotism” Thursday....(more) (11-11-16)

Baby Raven Reads to host drum making workshop
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Baby Raven Reads program will be hosting a drum making workshop at Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School’s commons on Sunday, Nov. 20 from 2-3:30 p.m. Families with Alaska Native children age 5 and under are invited to join. Space is limited so registration is required...(more) (Juneau Empire) (11-9-16)

Blood lines: Sealaska studies Alaska Native descendant dilemma
By Rashah McChesney
KTOO
What makes a person Alaska Native? In some places, a regulatory definition — known as blood quantum — has superseded cultural ones.  And a new study by the Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau tackles how that regulatory definition applies to marine mammal hunters...( more) ( APRN) (Pechanga) (11-15-16)

Native Artisans Worry Ivory Bans in Other States Could Reverberate in Alaska
By Davis Hovey
KNOM
In June, the Federal government instituted a near-total ban on the domestic commercial trade of African elephant ivory, but many Alaskans are concerned the backlash from this ban is affecting other ivories. St. Lawrence Islander Susie Silook is the author of a petition to protect walrus ivory and other marine mammal by-products from various states’ legislation that would see it banned as a response to the federal ban...( more) (KTVA) (10-27-16)

African Ivory Ban Hurting Alaska Artists
By Julie St. Louis
Courthouse News Service
A U.S. senator from Alaska called a field Senate committee hearing regarding the federal ban on ivory from African elephants, which Alaska Natives say is confusing tourists and having a "chilling effect" on their legal use of walrus, mammoth and mastodon ivory products in art. Sen. Dan Sullivan convened the field hearing of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Fishers, Water and Wildlife during the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention on Oct. 21...(more) (10-25-16)

Sealaska to honor warriors, veterans for Native American Heritage Month
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute and Sealaska will honor traditional Native warriors and veterans at the institute’s annual lecture series to celebrate Native American Heritage Month. The lectures will be held from noon-1 p.m. in Shuká Hít (the clan house) at the Walter Soboleff Building. The talks also will be videotaped and posted online. This year’s series will feature a panel discussion on Tlingit and Native American code talkers and lectures on traditional warrior training and Tlingit and Haida armor and weapons...(more) (Juneau Empire) (  Pechanga) (10-26-16)

SHI to hold lecture on Yup’ik ways of dancing
Capital City Weekly
The Sealaska Heritage Institute will hold a lecture by a professor from University of Alaska Fairbanks on Yup’ik ways of dancing at noon on Thursday, Oct. 27, in the Living History Center at the Walter Soboleff Building. The talk by Dr. Theresa Arevgaq John, an associate professor of Indigenous studies at UAF, is titled “Yuraryaraput Kangiit-llu: Our Ways of Dance and Their Meanings"...(more) (Juneau Empire) (10-26-16)

SHI releases new study on definiton of ‘Alaska Native’
Capital City Weekly
The Sealaska Heritage Institute has released a statewide study on the current definition of “Alaska Native” and how the rule could affect future generations of Natives who want to hunt marine mammals. The definition under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) allows only Natives with 1/4 blood quantum or more to hunt or use marine mammals for food or clothing and arts and crafts. The study, conducted by Maritime Anthropologist Dr. Steve Langdon through Sealaska Heritage, does not make any recommendations but rather lays out several approaches the Native community may want to consider to protect their descendants’ hunting rights...(more) (Juneau Empire) (10-26-16)

Ivory ban affects Native arts
By Kevin Baird
Fairbanks News Miner
New laws banning the sale of ivory are having a “chilling effect” on the Alaska Native arts economy, Sen. Dan Sullivan said. Sullivan convened the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water and Wildlife for a field hearing Thursday afternoon during the Alaska Native Federation Convention at the Carlson Center...Rosita Worl, who is president of Sealaska Heritage Institute, was the first to testify at the hearing...(more) (10-21-16)

Study: Changing population dynamics could impact the future of marine mammal hunting
By Molly Dischner
The Bristol Bay Times
A new study indicates that who can hunt marine mammals may change in the future under the current definition of "Alaska Native." A Sealaska Heritage Institute study released earlier this month suggests that the way the Marine Mammal Protection Act is currently written, which only allows Alaska Natives who are at least one-quarter native to hunt or use marine mammals for food or clothing and arts and crafts, could become problematic in the future. Those originally enrolled as Alaska Native under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act are also eligible under the act...( more) (10-21-16)

New Study on Definition of "Alaska Native" Released
Study focuses on eligibility of future generations of Natives to hunt marine mammals
SITNews
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has released a statewide study on the current definition of "Alaska Native" and how the rule could affect future generations of Natives who want to hunt marine mammals...(more) (10-18-16)

From cracked log to dugout canoe
By Mary Catharine Martin
Capital City Weekly
In February of this year, the red cedar log carver Steve Brown and his apprentices were working with was full of cracks. By the end of early October it had blossomed into a successful dugout canoe. Sealaska Heritage President Rosita Worl said the tree strikes her as a symbol of Tlingit culture. “It’s not just canoe carving. It symbolizes our culture, all the things that are important to us as a people. Transportation, movement of our people within the region, the gathering of food,” Worl said. “At one point in time, our culture, we stood tall, firm and strong— and then we had some difficulties that came with the changes that came to our society, and that log had many problems…. Other people might have given up, but under the instruction from Steve Brown they continued"...(more) (10-12-16)

Canoe steaming carries on Tlingit and Haida tradition
By Emily Russell
KCAW News
To transform a hollowed-out log into a dugout canoe requires more than expert carving — it requires steam, and lots of it. Earlier this week the skies over Eagle Beach in Sitka were filled with smoke and steam, as a carving team worked to transform a cedar dugout into an elegant, seaworthy canoe...( more) (KTOO) (10-6-16)

Preserving a scar: Seward statue debate exposes differing views on history
By James Books
JUNEAU EMPIRE
It’s far from a whale of controversy, but a statue proposed for a plaza in front of the Alaska Capitol is causing some discomfort by literally putting a 19th century imperialist on a pedestal. Last week, KTOO-TV in conjunction with the Alaska Historical Society hosted a panel of historians to discuss a statue of William Henry Seward and the legacy of the Secretary of State who negotiated and executed the Alaska Purchase...( more) (9-27-16)

SHI program trains educators to see Thru the Cultural Lens
By Quinton Chandler, KTOO
Juneau teachers and administrators were the students on Saturday at a Sealaska Heritage Institute seminar intended to help them see the world from their pupils’ perspectives. It’s part of an ongoing series called Thru the Cultural Lens in which educators learn about Southeast Alaska Native culture and history. Saturday, they gave presentations on 10,000 years of education in Southeast Alaska...(more) (9-27-16)

Sealaska Heritage Institute Receives Language Revitalization Grant
Indian Country Today
Sealaska Heritage Institute has received a federal grant to revitalize the languages of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian in four Southeast Alaska communities. The $927,000 grant from the Administration for Native Americans will fund four mentor-apprentice teams of Lingít (Tlingit), Xaad Kíl (Haida), and Sm’algyax (Tsimshian) speakers and students in Metlakatla, Hydaburg, Sitka, and Juneau to study the languages over three years...(more) (9-19-16)

Sealaska Heritage Institute Releases Tlingit Language and Games Apps
Indian Country Today
Learning Tlingit just got a little bit easier—Sealaska Heritage Institute recently released a Tlingit Learning app and a Tlingit Language Games app, both available on iPhone and Android devices. The language app includes 300 Tlingit words, phrases, and sounds, and the games app teaches Tlingit words for ocean animals and birds through interactive games, said SHI President Rosita Worl in a press release...(more) (9-13-16)

Grant funds expansion of 3-year language revitalization program — and ‘a whole different worldview’
By Lakeidra Chavis
KTOO
The Sealaska Heritage Institute has received a roughly $930,000 federal grant from the Administration for Native Americans to establish a three-year language revitalization program. Rosita Worl, the nonprofit’s president, said the new program will be an extension of an existing one. “We just completed three years of a master-apprentice program, which we viewed as very successful,” Worl said. “We really wanted to continue it, and also expand it to Haida and Tsimshian"...( more) (Fairbanks News Miner) (Pechanga) (9-12-16)

SHI receives nearly $1M to revitalize Native languages
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Sealaska Heritage Institute has received a large federal grant — nearly $1 million — to revitalize the languages of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian in four Southeast Alaska communities. The $927,000 award from the Administration for Native Americans will fund four mentor-apprentice teams of Lingít (Tlingit), Xaad Kíl (Haida) and Sm’algayx (Tsimshian) speakers and students in Juneau, Sitka, Metlakatla and Hydaburg to study the languages over three years...(more) (Capital City Weekly) (9-12-16)

Tlingit linguist Lance Twitchell receives Judson L. Brown award
By Mike Dunham
Alaska Dispatch News
The Sealaska Heritage Institute has selected Lance Twitchell as the recipient of the annual Judson L. Brown Leadership Award. Twitchell, whose Tlingit name is X'unei, is an associate professor of Alaska Native languages at the University of Alaska Southeast. He was part of the group that pushed to make Alaska one of two states to officially recognize indigenous languages, the other state being Hawaii....(more) (9-8-16)

Professor, language advocate, chosen for Judson Brown Scholarship
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute through its Scholarship Committee has chosen a well-known language advocate and assistant professor of Alaska Native languages as the 2016 recipient of its annual Judson L. Brown Leadership Award. The recipient, Lance (X’unei) Twitchell, has helped to lead a high-profile effort in recent years to revitalize Alaska Native languages...(more) (Juneau Empire) (9-7-16)

Tlingit to-go: Sealaska launches language app
By Heather Hintz
KTVA
Learning a new language means starting with the basics, and Tlingit students now have a new teaching tool. The Sealaska Heritage Institute launched an app that brings sights and sounds to your cell phone. 
Shirley Kendall, a Tlingit instructor at the University of Alaska Anchorage, said it’s important to get the right pronunciations when you’re trying to take up Tlingit...( more) (9-6-16)

Haa shuká: Tlingit language apps connect past, present and future
Sealaska Heritage Institute's 'Tlingit Games' and 'Learning Tlingit' feature fluent speakers
By LISA PHU 
JUNEAU EMPIRE
A new app, Tlingit Games, brings you into the world of wildlife. Choose “Birds!” and you watch hummingbirds, kingfishers and Stellar’s Jays fly in and out of a wooded scene of other birds. Press any one of them and you hear the Tlingit pronunciation over a soundscape of bird song and calls. When you get comfortable with the Tlingit words of different birds, you can take the quiz. Beginner Tlingit speaker Alfie Price, 49, and his 17-year-old daughter Katy have been competing against each other to see who can get a higher score. “She’s been beating me pretty soundly, especially the birds,” Price said. “For some reason, I struggle with the birds"...( more) (Capital City Weekly) (9-2-16)

SHI releases first Tlingit language game app
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has released its first Tlingit apps for students who want to learn their Native language through mobile devices. The programs include an app with more than three hundred Tlingit words, phrases and sounds and an app that teaches the Tlingit words for ocean animals and birds through interactive games, said SHI President Rosita Worl…(more) (Juneau Empire) (8-31-16)

Want to learn Tlingit? There’s a new app for that
By Lakeidra Chavis
KTOO
There are only a few hundred Tlingit speakers in the world, according to linguists and researchers. In a world where English is considered the dominant language, Tlingit is endangered, linguistically speaking. The Sealaska Heritage Institute hopes to combat that. The organization announced the release of two free apps Monday, aimed at making learning the language more accessible…(more) (Alaska Public Media) (The Daily Progress) (Webcenter 11) 8-31-16)

Collaborative Chilkat and Ravenstail robe nears completion
By Scott Burton
KTOO
A Ravenstail and Chilkat robe with more than 40 collaborators is under final assembly in Juneau. The robe will be part of the Huna Tribal House opening ceremony this Thursday in Glacier Bay National Park. Project leader, artist and weaver Clarissa Rizal organized the project and said the inspiration came from a conversation with Klawock weaver Suzi Williams...(more) (8-23-16)

Indian Point Goes on National Register of Historic Places
Indian Country Today
The 78-acre sacred X’unáxi (Indian Point) in Juneau was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places, making it the first traditional cultural property in Southeast Alaska to be placed on the register. In a press release, Sealaska Heritage Institute President Rosita Worl said that the Auk Tribe, the Alaska Native Brotherhood (ANB) and Alaska Native Sisterhood (ANS), as well as SHI, Sealaska, the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida, the Douglas Indian Association and other members of the Alaska Native community have been fending off proposed development of the area also known as Auke Cape for decades...(more) (8-18-16)

‘Little Whale’ takes readers on Tlingit canoe journey
By Mary Catharine Martin
Capital City Weekly
More than 100 years ago, when he was just 10 years old, Roy A. Peratrovich Jr.’s grandfather, Andrew Wanamaker, traveled the 200 miles from Sitka to Ketchikan in a war canoe. He, his father, and others made the voyage to right a wrong done to one of their clan members. Now, that journey — fictionalized — is the subject of a chapter book Peratrovich wrote and illustrated for young readers, “Little Whale.” Peratrovich is the eldest son of renowned Alaska Native civil rights leaders Elizabeth and Roy Peratrovich; Andrew Wanamaker was Elizabeth Peratrovich’s adoptive father...(more) (8-17-16)

Feds designate Juneau's Indian Point as sacred, worthy of protection
A'akw Kwáan village site is added to National Register of Historic Places
By Lisa Phu
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Indian Point in Juneau has recently been added to the National Register of Historic Places due to its traditional and cultural significance. The roughly 78-acre parcel of land in Auke Bay is one of the original village sites of the A’akw Kwáan. Being listed on the register means the federal government recognizes Indian Point as a historic place worthy of protection under the National Historic Preservation Act....(more) (Capital City Weekly) (Alaska Dispatch News) (Hastings Tribune) (8-16-16)

Exploring the gray area between cultural appreciation and appropriation in Juneau
By Lisa Phu
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Juneau tattoo artist David Lang has recently seen an uptick of people wanting Alaska Native formline tattoos, something he specializes in. “I say formline rather than say, ‘I do Tlingit tattoos,’ or, ‘I do Tsimshian tattoos,’ or, ‘I do Haida tattoos,’ because I’m doing them for such a variety of people. I’m tattooing a Tlingit one day and a Tsimshian another day. And a non-Native the next…(more) (8-14-16)

In summer program, teachers get schooled in the arts: Juneau Basic Arts Institute participants demonstrate what they've learned
By Sam DeGrave
JUNEAU EMPIRE
To the beat of a deerskin drum and the tune of a Tlingit song, 16 teachers from several Alaskan communities danced into the University of Alaska Southeast classroom where they had spent the last two weeks. It was Thursday night, and the teachers — hailing from Juneau, Ketchikan and Kodiak — were both performing and celebrating. They had just completed the Juneau Basic Arts Institute, an annual summer program aimed at helping K–12 educators and administrators learn to incorporate art into their teaching on a daily basis...( more) (8-6-16)

Tlingit language apprentices graduate
By Mary Catharine Martin
Capital City Weekly
“Lingít tundatáani.” Loosely translated, the phrase means “Tlingit perspective” or “Tlingit world view.” Asked about the last three years in Sealaska Heritage Institute’s mentor-apprentice program, Hans Chester (Naakil.aan) of Juneau said that’s what the program has given him. Yakutat apprentice Devlin Anderstrom (Shagaaw Éesh), 19, said the same, adding that his apprenticeship with Yakutat elder Lena Farkas helped provide a sense of identity...(more) (Juneau Empire) (8-3-16)

Artists, police promote community dialogue on diversity, peace
By Paula Ann Solis
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Juneau business owner Christy NaMee Eriksen said she was troubled for days after watching the most recent online videos of white officers killing black men that have reignited a national conversation on racism. “I felt like there was this national mood going on that hit us locally,” Eriksen said. “I spent a lot of days feeling very sad and very angry. I came out of that dark space and wanted to do something constructive.”...(more) (7-19-16)

Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage is accepting applications to Opening the Box: Southeast Middle School Math and Culture Academy. Explore mathematical connections found in cultural heritage and knowledge through hands on learning…(more) (3-23-16)

Lecture on injustices and inequities in Native education
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Sealaska Heritage Institute and the University of Alaska Southeast’s Preparing Indigenous Teachers and Administrators for Alaska Schools program will sponsor a free lecture by Dr. Marie Battiste from the University of Saskatchewan on the injustices and inequities in education for indigenous people. Battiste will share key features of educational change that must be addressed in order for the decolonization of education to take place...(more) (3-20-16)

SHI accepting applications for new juried art youth exhibit
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute will sponsor a new youth exhibit of Northwest Coast art during the biennial celebration in an effort to increase the number of youth making high quality pieces and to share their work with the public. Cash awards will be made to schools of the winners for art supplies to be used by schools or organizations for future instruction in Northwest Coast art…(more) (Juneau Empire) (3-9-16)

Sealaska Heritage’s upcoming youth programs
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute’s released their upcoming summer youth programs so the community could save the date. June 14-17 there will be the Latseen Running Camp for students entering grades fifth-eight. This will take place in Juneau. For more information, contact jasmine.james@sealaska.com and 586-9264. There will be two sessions of Voices on the Land Summer Intensive. The first will be June 20-25 for students entering grades fourth and fifth. Both will take place in Juneau. For more information, contact Jackie.kookesh@sealaska.com and 586-9229…(more) (Juneau Empire) (3-9-16)

Alaska gift shops busted for allegedly selling fake indigenous art
CBC
When tourists step off cruise ships in Alaska, they're often surrounded by gift shops selling local indigenous art. But American authorities are now warning customers to be on the lookout for fakes. Charges were laid recently against owners at four different gift shops for falsely claiming some of the art they sold was made by Alaskan indigenous artists. Rosita Worl is the president of Sealaska Heritage Institute and an advocate for indigenous Alaskan artists. She told As It Happens host Helen Mann, it was about time that charges were laid…(more) (3-8-16)

Shop owners charged with selling fake Alaska Native artwork
By Dan Joling
Associated Press
Four shops catering to Alaska cruise ship visitors sold whale and walrus bone carvings for $1,000 or more each that they falsely claimed were made by Alaska Native artists, according to federal prosecutors. The shop owners in Juneau, Ketchikan and Skagway have been charged with violating the federal Indian Arts and Crafts Act, prosecutors announced late Thursday. A Skagway employee also was charged...(more) (3-4-16)

What A Native American Fish Hook’s Journey Says About A Little-Known Repatriation Law
By Andrea Shea
WBUR--NPR, Boston
Throughout history Native Americans have had their land, possessions and culture taken away. But in recent decades the U.S. government has worked to right some wrongs through repatriation. Museums and federally funded institutions are required to go through their collections and report artifacts that might belong to tribes. Now a small theological school in Newton is navigating this complex legal process for the first time. Its collection of about 125 Native American artifacts includes one known as the Halibut Hook, and a lot of people are interested in its fate...(more) (3-4-16)

Scholar: Trademarks could protect Alaska Native art and culture
By Clara Miller
Capital City Weekly
Appropriation of indigenous peoples’ art and culture: it’s something that’s been happening for decades, if not centuries, and that still happens even today. Those imitations can threaten not only the integrity of the culture whose art is appropriated, but at times, even that culture’s survival. At a late February talk at Sealaska Heritage Institute, Jacob Adams, a visiting scholar from Norway, had a possible solution: trademarks, which he said are one of the best mechanisms for protecting indigenous cultural heritage...(more) (Juneau Empire) (3-2-16)

Traditional canoe in progress at Sitka park
by Brielle Schaeffer
KCAW
For the next few months carvers will be working at Sitka National Historical Park — but not on one of the park’s famous totem poles. As part of the National park Service’s centennial, the Sealaska Heritage Institute has commissioned a traditional canoe. The sponsors hope the project allows visitors to look into the past, while the carvers perpetuate this craft into the future...(more) (3-2-16)

Reviving an endangered art
By Mary Catharine Martin
Capital City Weekly
In a carving shed in Sitka National Historical Park, a team of five well-known carvers are continuing, and reviving, an art practiced since time immemorial — carving a wooden dugout canoe from the intact trunk of one of the Tongass National Forest’s enormous trees. Pacific Northwest Native peoples once paddled carved spruce and red cedar dugout canoes up and down the coast, but very few people know, now, how to make them. Haida carver TJ Young, Tlingit carver Tommy Joseph, and Tlingit/Unangan carvers Nicholas Galanin and Jerrod Galanin are all carving under the direction of Steve Brown, who’s taught the art up and down the Northwest Coast. (Brown has been adopted by the Stikine Kiksadi.)…(more) (Juneau Empire) (2-14-16)

SHI to sponsor lecture on Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute is sponsoring a lecture by visiting scholar, Jacob Adams, from Norway who is researching indigenous intellectual property rights. In his talk, “Indigenous Issues in Native Handicrafts and Intellectual Property,” Adams—a Ph.D. student in law who serves on the law faculty at the University of Tromsø in Norway—will introduce his work in the area of indigenous intellectual property rights. Through his research, Adams, who is also a practicing attorney with law degrees from universities in Australia and the United States, is examining alternative means to protect indigenous intellectual property using trademark law, with a focus on Northwest Coast culture and art...(more) (Juneau Empire) (2-24-16)

Fighting language loss: 'Our language is a source of wealth'
By LISA PHU    
JUNEAU EMPIRE
“Even though we are from different tribes, we are all in the same canoe. We need to work together to preserve the languages of our ancestors,” said Tsimshian artist from Metlakatla David R. Boxley at the opening of the first Alaska Language Summit on Tuesday.
Boxley spoke to a crowd of about 50 people in the clan house of Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff Building. Summit participants came from all over Alaska, including Barrow, Dillingham, Anchorage, Fairbanks and Kotzebue. Presenters traveled from Hawaii and Canada; one teleconferenced in from New Zealand...(more) (2-24-16)

Empire welcomes new staffer, bids farewell to another
JUNEAU EMPIRE
The Juneau Empire welcomed a familiar face to its newsroom last week, while saying goodbye to another. Lisa Phu joined the Empire on Friday as a general assignment reporter, which also was the last day for longtime arts editor and Capital City Weekly editor Amy Fletcher…(who) accepted a position with Sealaska Heritage Institute as a publications specialist…(more) (2-23-16)

Speaker: Childhood trauma can lead to health problems
Sealaska speaker talks about long-lasting role of childhood trauma
By Clara Miller
JUNEAU EMPIRE
What if health issues, addictions and premature death are caused by the role of repressing childhood trauma? Vincent J. Felitti, M.D., made this case to a packed room at the Walter Soboleff Building Tuesday, backing up his assertions with decades of study, research and analysis. His conclusion was that repressed adverse childhood experiences can manifest in adults by altering their well-being, causing disease and even premature death. “Addiction is the unconscious, compulsive use of psychoactive materials or agents”…(more) (2-14-16)

SHI accepting applications for new juried art youth exhibit
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Sealaska Heritage Institute will sponsor a new youth exhibit of Northwest Coast art during the biennial celebration in an effort to increase the number of youth making high quality pieces and to share their work with the public. Cash awards will be made to schools of the winners for art supplies to be used by schools or organizations for future instruction in Northwest Coast art…(more) (2-24-16)

SHI accepting applications for new juried art youth exhibit
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute will sponsor a new youth exhibit of Northwest Coast art during the biennial Celebration in an effort to increase the number of youth making high quality pieces and to share their work with the public. Cash awards will be made to schools of the winners for art supplies to be used by schools or organizations for future instruction in Northwest Coast art. SHI will award $350…(more) (Juneau Empire) (2-10-16)

SHI, PITAAS to sponsor free performance by Byron Nicholai
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Sealaska Heritage Institute and the University of Alaska Southeast PITAAS program are sponsoring a performance by Byron Nicholai, who has gained national attention through his Facebook page “I Sing. You Dance.” Nicholai, a high school senior from Toksook Bay, blends traditional and modern styles in his music to preserve Yup’ik culture and bring it into the mainstream consciousness. The free event is scheduled at 5 pm, Saturday, Feb. 13, in Shuká Hít (the clan house) at the Walter Soboleff Building in Juneau…(more) (2-10-16)

Red-cedar log to be transformed into traditional dugout canoe
Project aims to perpetuate endangered Northwest Coast art
Paula Dobbyn/KTUU
Three Alaska Native artists will create a full-size dugout canoe through a partnership involving Sealaska Heritage Institute and Sitka National Historic Park. Master carver Steve Brown will lead the project, according to a news release from Sealaska Heritage. Brown's apprentices will be T.J. Young, Tommy Joseph and Jerrod and Nicholas Galanin, who also are accomplished artists. "I'm pretty excited about it. I've never carved a canoe before," Young told KTUU…(more) (2-8-16)

Renowned physician to speak on effects of childhood trauma
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Sealaska Heritage Institute will sponsor a free lecture by one of the world’s foremost experts on childhood trauma and its adverse impacts on victims decades later. In his lecture, The Lifelong Effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences, Dr. Vincent J. Felitti will discuss research which found that humans convert childhood traumatic emotional experiences into organic disease later in life…( more) (2-4-16)

First Friday Art Walk
Capital City Weekly
Here’s a look at what’s scheduled for the First Friday Art Walk this month in Juneau...(more) (2-3-16)

Photo: Voices on the land
By Michael Penn
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Artist-in-residence Edward Littlefield directs Floyd Dryden Middle School music students during an assembly on Friday. ‘Telling Our Stories: Voices on the Land’ is a residency sponsored by Sealaska Heritage Institute that allowed Littlefield to explore culture and music with over 180 students during the three week program…(more) (1-31-16)

Photo: Log now, canoe later
By James Poulson
Daily Sitka Sentinel
Sitka National Historical Park maintenance worker Jared Hazel nails down wooden blocks to keep a red cedar log from rolling on Jan. 20 behind the Visitor Center. The log will remain at its present site as it is turned into a 28-foot-long Tlingit canoe over the next few months by carver Steve Brown...(more) (1-25-16)

Looking forward
Capital City Weekly
2016 is shaping up to be an exciting year in the arts. Here’s a look at a few of the big events planned in Southeast, in chronological order....(more) (1-7-16)

SHI, State Library, to sponsor lecture on influential archaeologist
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Sealaska Heritage Institute and the Alaska State Library Historical Collections will sponsor a lecture next week on a well-known anthropologist who did field work in Southeast Alaska. Professor Marie-Francoise Guedon of the University of Ottawa will speak on working with the late anthropologist Frederica de Laguna in Alaska and share early findings from her ongoing research into matrilineal societies around the world...(more) (1-2-15)

Bright moments of 2015
Capital City Weekly
This annual feature, which formerly appeared in the Empire’s Arts section, is designed to celebrate creativity in all its forms. Each of the following lists of five memorable moments from 2015 presents just a tiny slice of the whole picture, as viewed through the words of one community member. Taken as a whole, the lists are reflective of a spirit of gratitude toward all those who devote their time, energy and talent through the arts, enriching our lives in the process...(more) (Juneau Empire) (12-30-15)

Top Ten Native Art Events of 2015
By FAAZINE
First American Art Magazing
Named for the late Tlingit scholar, Indigenous rights activist, and Presbyterian minister, the Walter Soboleff Building opened in downtown Juneau, Alaska, on May 15th. Built by the nonprofit Sealaska Heritage Institute, the building serves as research and cultural center for Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples. Ironically, construction was temporarily halted because Sealaska did not want their building to conform to Victorian standards prescribed by the downtown’s historic district...(more) (12-22-15)

Andover Newton repatriating Native objects after citation

By Jonathan Dame
Newton Tab
Federal officials have found a Newton seminary out of compliance with a 1990 law governing the repatriation of Native American artifacts — a charge the school does not dispute as it takes steps to rectify the situation. Andover Newton Theological School is now in the process of returning certain artifacts from its collection to tribes or individual Native Americans that may find them sacred…(more) (12-17-15)

The future of Northwest Coast art
By Mary Catharine Martin
Capital City Weekly
At a panel on the future of Northwest Coast indigenous art, young Alaska Native artists talked about issues facing the art and the artists who make it, as well as how they'd like to see that art develop. Panelists were Rico Worl of Juneau, Nick Galanin of Sitka, Alison Bremner of Yakutat and David R. Boxley of Metlakatla. Xhunei Lance Twitchell, an artist and assistant professor of Alaska Native Languages at the University of Alaska Southeast, moderated…(more) (Juneau Empire) (12-9-15)

SHI welcomes found Chilkat robe to Juneau
By James Brooks
JUNEAU EMPIRE
More than 50 Southeast residents gathered at the clan house in the Walter Soboleff Building in Juneau Dec. 1 to celebrate the return of a Chilkat blanket sent by a collector in Texas. Rosita Worl, president of Sealaska Heritage Institute, said the return was a moment of sorrow and joy - sorrow because it had been absent for so long and joy because it had returned…(more) (12-9-15)

Art for all children
By Mary Catharine Martin
Capital City Weekly
For a few days at the end of September, all the second graders in the Juneau School District sat in Shuká Hit, the clan house in Sealaska Heritage Institute's Walter Soboleff Building, listening to storyteller Lily Hudson Hope and learning about Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian customs. Next year's second graders will do the same, as will the next, as part of an ongoing initiative from many collaborators to give all of Juneau's kids arts excursions every year. These second graders were full of questions. One wanted to know about the custom of fire dishes...(more) (Juneau Empire) (12-3-15)

Ceremony celebrates Chilkat blanket's return
JUNEAU EMPIRE
They were there to see an ancestor.
On Tuesday afternoon, more than 50 Southeast residents gathered at the clan house in the Walter Soboleff Building to celebrate the Southeast Alaska return of a Chilkat blanket sent by a collector in Texas. Rosita Worl, president of Sealaska Heritage Institute, said the return was a moment of sorrow and joy…(more) (12-2-15)

Chilkat robe completes journey back to Southeast
By Elizabeth Jenkins
A Chilkat robe that was for sale on eBay has returned to Southeast Alaska. The robe traveled all the way from Texas, where it was almost sold to the highest bidder. Instead, Sealaska Heritage Institute welcomed it home. A crowd packed the red cedar clan house at Walter Soboleff Building downtown: Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian gathered together. The ceremony began with two songs of mourning: one eagle, the other raven. The robe was brought in a cardboard FedEx box and unfurled to reveal a black and yellow design…(more) (12-1-15)

SHI welcomes found Chilkat robe to Juneau
By James Brooks
JUNEAU EMPIRE
George Blucker found it in an Illinois flea market. Now, it’s coming back to Alaska. This afternoon, Sealaska Heritage Institute will formally take possession of a sacred Chilkat robe in a ceremony at the Walter Soboleff Building. The public is invited to the event, which begins at 1:30 p.m. “We’re pretty excited,” said Rosita Worl, president of SHI...(more) (12-1-15)

SHI accepting applications for revamped Art Show and Competition
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute is accepting applications from artists who want to compete in its eighth biennial Juried Art Show and Competition, which will expand to include new divisions and a youth show. SHI will award prizes in five divisions…(more) (Juneau Empire) (11-25-15)

'Discovering Haida Art' with Robert Davidson
By Amy Fletcher
Capital City Weekly
When renowned Haida artist Robert Davidson was a kid, he used to root for the cowboys while watching old Westerns, cheering with his friends when the "bad guys" - the Indians - were killed. Then his uncle took him aside and explained that he and his family were "Indians" themselves. "When he told me, I cried," Davidson recalled last week during a Native American Heritage Month talk hosted by Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau...(more) (Juneau Empire) (11-25-15)

Despite mysteries of author's life, 'Picture Man' illuminates Yakutat
David A. James
Alaska Dispatch News
Newcomers to America have always faced challenges adjusting to a new country and its ways, but at certain times some have been singled out and demonized upon arrival simply for their ethnicity or country of origin.  Germans, Italians, Jews, Chinese, and more recently Latin Americans and Middle Easterners have landed on these shores seeking a better future only to be subjected to treatment sometimes far worse than what they endured in their homelands…(more) (11-21-15)

Chilkat robe returning to Southeast
By Elizabeth Jenkins
KTOO
Sealaska Heritage Institute has acquired a Chilkat robe that was to be auctioned off on eBay on Wednesday. After the seller learned the robe was a sacred item, he allowed SHI to purchase it at the reserve price of $14,500. There were already multiple bids. Typically, these objects can fetch upwards of $30,000…(more) (11-20-15)

Photo: Cultural education
By Michael Penn
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Tlingit weaver and teacher Lily Hope guides Auke Bay Elementary School second graders through the cultural exhibit in the Walter Soboleff Center on Thursday. The event is part of the Ensuring the Arts for Any Given Child program, which was founded by the Kennedy Center to create full access to arts education programs and resources for K-8 students. The Kennedy Center works with 18 sites in the country and Juneau is one of them. Starting in November, all second-grade students in the Juneau School District will go on annual arts excursions to the Walter Soboleff Building to learn about the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures...(more) (11-20-15)

Southeast Alaska cultural group buys Chilkat robe that showed up on eBay
By Mike Dunham
Alaska Dispatch News
A retired artist in Texas has sold a very old Chilkat robe to Alaska’s Sealaska Heritage Institute at a significant discount and a significant sacrifice to himself. George Blucker, who has owned the robe since the 1980s, told Alaska Dispatch News he was motivated to let the Southeast Alaska cultural group buy the piece at a reduced price “out of respect for Native American traditions and religion”…(more) (11-19-15)

SHI acquired sacred Chilkat robe on eBay
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Sealaska Heritage Institute said Wednesday that it has acquired a sacred Chilkat robe from an eBay seller who willingly took a loss on the transaction so the piece could be repatriated to the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian peoples…(more) (11-19-15)

SHI to sponsor workshop on art and math
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute is sponsoring a free workshop for educators on the connection between math and formline design. The class will be taught by master Tsimshian artist David R. Boxley, who worked on the house front in the Walter Soboleff Building. The house front is one of three monumental pieces installed at the facility. Boxley was also the juror for SHI's 2014 Juried Art Show and Competition…(more) (Juneau Empire) (11-18-15)

Walter Soboleff retrospective
By Mary Catharine Martin
Capital City Weekly
At a retrospective in honor of the second annual Walter Soboleff Day, observed Nov. 14, speakers including family, friends and a pastor told stories that showcased the late Tlingit leader's sense of humor, generosity, faith, and his extraordinary grace, especially under circumstances that would embitter many people…(more) (Juneau Empire) (11-18-15)

SHI joins forces with Any Given Child, local groups, in arts initiative
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute has partnered with a national arts program and local organizations to teach Southeast Native cultures to children annually at the Walter Soboleff Building. Starting in November, all second-grade students in the Juneau School District will go on annual arts excursions to the Walter Soboleff Building to learn about the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures…(more) (Juneau Empire) (11-18-15)

Photo: Haida master artist Robert Davidson
By Michael Penn
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Haida Master Artist Robert Davidson gives a talk about his personal journey of discovery through Haida art and ceremony on Tuesday at the Soboleff Center as part of a lecture series to celebrate Native American Heritage Month. The series is sponsored by the Sealaska Heritage Institute…(more) (11-18-15)

Community remembers Native leader for 2nd annual Dr. Walter Soboleff Day
By Lisa Phu
KTOO
Family members and community leaders shared anecdotes of the late Walter Soboleff on Friday. Sealaska Heritage Institute and Sealaska Corp. hosted the event inside the clan house of the building named in his honor. The Tlingit cultural and spiritual leader died in 2011 at the age of 102. Three years later, the Alaska Legislature passed a bill naming his birthday Nov. 14 as Dr. Walter Soboleff Day...(more) (11-14-15)

Photos: Walter Soboleff Day
By Michael Penn
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Mary Richey Sell and Nadine Hafner, right, of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, carry a painting of Dr. Walter Soboleff to show elders after the painting was transferred from Sealaska Corporation to SHI during a ceremonry in honor of Dr. Soboleff in the Walter Soboleff Center on Friday...(more) (11-15-15)

Local events planned for Walter Soboleff Day, observed Nov. 14
Capital City Weekly
WalterSoboleff Day is Nov. 14, an observance that was made official last year following passage of HB217. The following events have been scheduled in the late Tlingit spiritual leader's honor. 'A Restrospective View': Sealaska and Sealaska Heritage Institute will host a discussion about Soboleff on Friday, Nov. 13, at the Walter Soboleff Building on the eve of Walter Soboleff Day...(more) (Juneau Empire) (11-11-15)

David Boxley talks Native, Tsimshian art revival
By Mary Catharine Martin
Capital City Weekly
At his very first Native art show, David A. Boxley, now a renowned Tsimshian carver and culture bearer, carved Tlingit and Haida totem poles from books. He used model paint instead of acrylics, and suffered from the fumes. In 2012, he and his son, David R. Boxley, carved a totem pole at the Museum of the American Indian. Through a live video feed on the internet, they waved at schoolkids in Metlakatla on request. More recently they created the Tsimshian house front that greets visitors to Sealaska Heritage Institute’s Walter Soboleff Building...(more) (Juneau Empire) (11-11-15)

SHI to sponsor lectures for Native American Heritage Month, Soboleff Day
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Sealaska Heritage Institute will sponsor its annual noon lecture series to celebrate Native American Heritage Month and Walter Soboleff Day in November. This year’s lineup includes distinguished Northwest Coast and Alutiiq artists and will conclude in early December with a panel discussion by young Native artists on the future of Northwest Coast art. SHI also will host a panel discussion titled Retrospective View of Dr. Walter Soboleff to commemorate the state’s annual Walter Soboleff Day…( more) (Juneau Empire) (11-4-15)

MRV Architects wins Merit Award for Walter Soboleff Building
JUNEAU EMPIRE
MRV Architects won the Merit Award for their design of the Walter Soboleff Building as part of Alaska Architectural Firms’ 2015 Design Awards. AIA Alaska Design Awards are judged by architects from another state or region that has similar geography and climate. Projects are considered by how they exemplify Alaska’s northern design requirements, sustainability, site and context sensitivity, and innovative design...(more) (11-2-15)

These 8 pieces of architectural brilliance in Alaska could WOW anyone
By Casea Peterson
ONLYINYOURSTATE
Architecture, old or new, is art in its boldest terms. A huge skyscraper that looms over bustling streets or a glass-walled living room perched far out over troubled waters each represent the bravery and elegance of architecture…(more) (10-31-15)

Tlingit leaders take the stage at clan conference opening
By Lisa Phu
KTOO
Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott’s comments focused on nurturing and inspiring the next generation of Alaska Natives. He said today’s youth witness violence and dysfunction. “We will ourselves work hard to create wellness and health in our own communities. We must take care of our children and we must make that a moral and cultural imperative,” Mallott said...( more) (10-29-15)

SHI to co-sponsor art, Tsimshian classes
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is bringing two master artists to Juneau to teach Northwest Coast art to inmates at Juneau's prison and half-way house. One of them will also teach a free language class. Washington-based Tsimshian master artist David A. Boxley will teach formline design at Gastineau Human Services and Sm'algyax (Tsimshian) mini-immersion classes at the Walter Soboleff Building. Haines-based Tlingit master artist Wayne Price will teach carving to inmates at Lemon Creek Correctional Facility…(more) (Juneau Empire) (10-28-15)

SHI hosts talks in honor of Native American Heritage Month
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute is hosting a lecture series in honor of Native American Heritage Month. David A. Boxley will begin Tuesday, Nov. 3, with a lecture called "The Revival of Tsimshian Art." Next will be Steve Brown, Tues., Nov. 10, with "The Antiquity and Evolution of Northwest Coast Art." A panel will speak Friday, Nov. 13 on retrospective views of Dr. Walter Soboleff; Robert Davidson will speak Tues., Nov. 17 on "Discovering Haida Art: A Personal Journey”…(more) (Juneau Empire) (10-18-15)

Victory for Sealaska Heritage underscores weakness in the law
By Elizabeth Jenkins
KTOO
Federal investigators have found that the country’s oldest theological college broke the law regarding its Native art. Andover Newton Theological School planned to sell off 80 pieces in its collection, including a sacred Tlingit halibut hook. Now some tribal leaders are wondering if repatriation laws should be tougher…(more) (10-23-15)

Feds back Native group in artifacts probe
By Rachel D’Oro
JUNEAU EMPIRE
A Massachusetts college was found in violation of a federal law regulating the possession and sale of potentially sacred artifacts following a complaint from an organization of Alaska Natives. The U.S. Interior Department said an investigation substantiated the complaint against Andover Newton Theological School filed in June by the Sealaska Heritage Institute. The institute’s president, Rosita Worl, said the school possesses at least two Southeast Alaska artifacts, including a Tlingit halibut hook that is considered sacred…(more) (ABC News) (Minneapolis Star Tribune) (10-21-15)

Feds say theological school required by law to repatriate Tlingit artifacts
By Mike Dunham
Alaska Dispatch News
The U.S. Department of the Interior has issued a letter stating that Alaska Native items in the possession of Andover Newton Theological School of Massachusetts are subject to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The Sealaska Heritage Institute of Juneau alleged in June that a halibut hook in the school’s collection on loan to the Peabody Essex Museum of Massachusetts was a sacred object used in fishing rituals…( more) (10-20-15)

Federal investigators side with Sealaska in dispute over cultural objects
KTUU-TV
Federal investigators have found that an East Coast school that planned to sell Native objects in its possession is subject to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and is violating the law, according to the Juneau-based Sealaska Heritage Institute. The U.S. Department of the Interior has given the Andover Newton Theological School of Massachusetts 45 days to respond to its decision, which was issued in late September, according to the institute…(more) (10-20-15)

Art Beat: Alaska Native elders, Juneau churchman seek return of Tlingit objects
By Mike Dunham
Alaska Dispatch News
For the past several months, a back-and-forth debate over Alaska Native items held in Massachusetts has embroiled one of America’s oldest museums, the oldest graduate theological seminary and the Sealaska Heritage Institute of Juneau. Bits and pieces of the story have popped up as the matter has evolved, with many assertions presented, some denials and numerous personalities involved -- notably the late, revered Tlingit elder Walter Soboleff. Soboleff died in 2011 when he was more than 100 years old. Sealaska’s new cultural research facility in Juneau is named for him...(more) (10-15-15)

SHI's work featured in 50 humanities projects that have shaped the country
Capital City Weekly
Sealaska Heritage Institute's work on the Tlingit language was chosen by a federal humanities agency as one of 50 projects in the country that has enriched and shaped American lives during the last half century. The National Endowment for the Humanities singled out SHI's efforts to document and revitalize the Tlingit language as part of its 50-year anniversary celebration and is featuring 50 projects on its "Celebrating 50 Years" website that represent the best of the work the agency has funded…( more) (Juneau Empire) (10-7-15)

You can't sell what's not yours
By Josh Logue
Inside Higher Ed
A theology college in Massachusetts is facing scrutiny and a government investigation over allegations that it illegally tried to sell Native American artifacts. The school denies the charges, which involve objects subject to repatriation. Andover Newton Theological School owns a collection of 1,100 artifacts, 150 of which have Native American origins and all of which have been housed at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem for more than 60 years...(more) (10-7-15)

Andover Newton won't sell Native American artifacts
By Jonathan Dame
NewtonTab
Andover Newton Theological School has ditched plans to sell dozens of Native American artifacts amid criticism and an investigation by a federal agency charged with overseeing the repatriation of objects sacred to indigenous nations. The Newton Centre-based graduate school had been planning to sell around 80 artifacts obtained through alumnae donations but now says it plans to return them to Native American tribes after discovering many could be subject to restrictions under federal law…(more) (10-5-15)

Theology college abandons plan to sell tribal art
Boston Globe
A Massachusetts theology college has abandoned plans to sell off art from 52 Native tribes, including Tlingit and Haida items, as the federal government investigates. The Andover Newton Theological School could face penalties for quietly planning the sale of 80 Native art pieces this summer, possibly violating a federal law that would require some items to be returned to the tribes, reported KTOO-FM. The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem has displayed the collection since the 1940s and alerted hundreds of tribal leaders to Andover Newton’s plans. Sealaska Heritage Institute president Rosita Worl was among those leaders. The school intended to auction off a Tlingit halibut hook that Worl said is sacred...(more) (10-5-15)

Theology school calls off Native art sale amid investigation
By Elizabeth Jenkins
KTOO
A Massachusetts college that planned to liquidate its Native art collection has called it off. The pieces are from 52 tribes, including Tlingit and Haida items that might be sacred. Now the country’s oldest theology school could get dinged with penalties as feds investigate…( more) (Juneau Empire) (10-5-15)

Sealaska Heritage Institute honored by the National Endowment for the Humanities
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Sealaska Heritage Institute’s work on the Tlingit language was chosen by the federal humanities agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities, as one of 50 projects in the country that has enriched and shaped American lives during the last half century. NEH singled out SHI’s efforts to document and revitalize the Tlingit language as part of its 50-year anniversary celebration and is featuring 50 projects on its “Celebrating 50 Years” website that represent the best of the work the agency has funded...(more) (10-4-15)

October First Friday Art Walk
Capital City Weekly
The October First Friday Art Walk marks the end of tourist season with locals appreciation events at several businesses, and highlights new work by locals artists...(more) (Juneau Empire) (9-30-15)

Revitalizing language
By Mary Catharine Martin
Capital City Weekly
"Language Matters," a film shown Sept. 17 at the University of Alaska Southeast, frames an important question for Southeast Alaska: What does it take to save a language? To poet Bob Holman, the film's host, who was in Juneau for the screening, that answer is manifold. It takes respect, Holman said - part of the reason many languages are disappearing, after all, is because of the shame their speakers were made to feel about speaking them during and after colonization. It takes a commitment to early education -- it's important people learn the language as children...(more) (9-23-15)

Sale of Sacred Object Stopped By Museum and Native Leaders
By Frank Hopper
Indian Country Today 
Once, Native sacred objects were secure. No one stole them. They were alive with the tribe’s spirit and to steal one was not theft, but kidnapping. Then genocide decimated us and missionaries converted us. Many of our sacred objects fell into the hands of collectors and museums. Now, in the latest round of sacred-object politics, a museum director and a coalition of Native leaders have succeeded in stopping the sale of 80 sacred objects by a private school...( more) (9-18-15)

Singletary's glass house posts installed in Soboleff Building
By Amy Fletcher
Capital City Weekly
How many people does it take to lift a 600-pound, six-foot Tlingit warrior? At least six. And if that warrior happens to be made of glass? As many as you can find. Last week in the clan house (Shuká Hít) of the Walter Soboleff Building, a small group of volunteers helped Tlingit artist Preston Singletary carefully move his latest art pieces – two house posts that depict life-size Tlingit warriors – into their permanent positions on either side of the artist’s glass clan house screen...(more) (Juneau Empire) (9-9-15)

Peck brothers donate collection to SHI archives
Capital City Weekly
A Juneau resident and his brother have made a significant donation to Sealaska Heritage Institute that includes letters and essays penned by the late Native rights leader William L. Paul, Sr., for whom the institute’s archives is named. The donation by Ray Peck of Juneau and Cy Peck, Jr., a former longtime Juneau resident who now lives in Hawaii, includes letters, papers, newspapers, newsletters and more than 200 color and black-and-white images collected by their father, the late Cyrus E. Peck, a former grand president of the Alaska Native Brotherhood and grand secretary emeritus...(more) (Juneau Empire) (9-9-15)

Donation sheds light on Alaska Natives' civil rights history
By Elizabeth Jenkins
KTOO
SHI President Rosita Worl stands over a table of photographs of ancestors in regalia, Alaska Native Brotherhood meetings and less formal gatherings–relaxing around a table for dinner. “Here look at this. ANB people and traditional leaders. Ooo, I see my grandmother over there!” she exclaims. The collection spans from the 1940s all the way to the 70s and was donated by brothers Ray and Cy Peck. The sons of Cyrus Peck Senior, who published the newspaper Voice of the Brotherhood...(more) (