Sealaska Heritage Institute Press Release

SEALASKA HERITAGE TO SPONSOR SEVEN SUMMER ACADEMIES FOR YOUTH IN 2022

Some academies open to students across the region

April 15, 2022

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:

Latseen Northwest Coast Arts Academy: Through this program, students learn Northwest Coast art forms with an integration of ethnomathematics. Participants will also participate in cultural activities and college and leadership preparation. Open to Southeast Alaska students entering grades 9-12 and graduating seniors. Scheduled July 9-20 in Juneau. SHI will cover travel, lodging and meals. Application deadline: May 13.
 
Opening the Box: High School STEAM Academy: SHI’s popular Opening the Box: STEAM Academy (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) is extending to high school students for summer 2022. Our high school camp will focus on traditional ecological knowledge and STEAM career connections. Students will work alongside Elders and professional researchers to build a deeper connection to the place we call home. Open to Southeast Alaska students entering grades 9-12. Scheduled June 25-July 3 in Juneau. SHI will cover travel, lodging and meals. Application deadline: May 27.
 
Opening the Box: Middle School STEAM Academy: Create, explore, make, and problem solve with place-based, culturally relevant and fun STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) activities and challenges. Open to Southeast Alaska students entering grades 6-8. Scheduled July 21-31 in Juneau. SHI will cover travel, lodging and meals. Application deadline: May 27.
 
Voices on the Land Storytelling Intensive, Session One (Virtual): Share our stories through varied art expression. Learn about the elements of a story and the tools of performing. Create movies on iPads. Learn about film production, interviewing and stop-motion animation. Use Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian language and culture to tell stories about our land and people. Camp Director:  Angie Wright. Open to students entering grades 5-8. Preference (based on funding sources) given to youth from the communities of Craig, Ketchikan, Klawock, and Yakutat. Scheduled 9 am-4 pm, weekdays, July 1-15. Hours may vary due to the virtual format. Application deadline: May 27.
 
Voices on the Land Storytelling Intensive, Session Two: Share our stories through varied art expressions. Learn about the elements of a story and performing. Create movies on iPads. Learn about film production, interviewing, and stop-motion  animation. Use Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian language and culture to tell stories about our land and people. Camp Director: Angie Wright. Open to Juneau students entering grades 5-8. Scheduled July 18-29 in Juneau. Application deadline: May 27.
 
Raven Writes: Traditional Native Foods Camp (Primary): In this camp, Alaska Native students will explore their cultural traditions through local food harvesting activities. Students will be encouraged and inspired by their authentic experiences and guided to write personal stories around these experiences. Families are invited to see, hear and celebrate students’ learning at the end of each session. Camp activities will also include Tlingit dancing, singing and drumming, as well as art, games, community building and lots of outside time. Program, bus, supplies and food are provided. Open to Juneau students entering grades K-2. Scheduled July 1-15 in Juneau. Application deadline: May 27. Offered in partnership with SERRC.
 
Raven Writes: Traditional Native Foods Camp (Intermediate): In this camp, Alaska Native students will explore their cultural traditions through local food harvesting activities. Students will be encouraged and inspired by their authentic experiences and guided to write personal stories around these experiences. Families are invited to see, hear and celebrate students’ learning at the end of each session. Camp activities will also include Tlingit dancing, singing and drumming, as well as art, games, community building and lots of outside time. Program, bus, supplies and food are provided. . Open to Juneau students entering grades 3-5. Scheduled July 18-July 29 in Juneau. Application deadline: May 27. Offered in partnership with SERRC.

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a private nonprofit founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. Its goal is to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through public services and events. SHI also conducts social scientific and public policy research that promotes Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee and a Southeast Regional Language Committee.

CONTACT: Kathy Dye, SHI Media and Publications Deputy Director, 907.321.4636, kathy.dye@sealaska.com

Caption: Photo of SHI’s leadership academy by Christy Eriksen, courtesy of Sealaska Heritage Institute. Note: Media outlets are welcome to use this photo for coverage of this story. For a higher-resolution version, contact kathy.dye@sealaska.com

Sealaska Heritage Institute Press Release

SHI TO SPONSOR LECTURE ON NATIVE IDENTITY, BLOOD QUANTUM

Talk by SHI President Rosita Worl to be livestreamed

April 7, 2022

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.

In the talk, SHI President Rosita Worl will examine the categories by which Native people are identified, including biological, cultural and legal, and the complex ways blood quantum determines eligibility for membership in tribes and governmental benefits. 

The topic is particularly important to young people today as current laws on blood quantum made by governments and tribal entities are increasingly disassociating people who identify as Native from their cultures, Worl said.

“Young people who grew up immersed in their culture but who do not meet blood quantum rules are torn because they identify as Native, yet some laws and policies tell them that they are not, which prevents them from participating in programs and tribal elections,” Worl said.

For example, 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.

A statewide study commissioned by SHI in 2016, titled Determination of Alaska Native Status under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, found 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, Worl said.

“The result may be that in some communities, especially around the Gulf of Alaska, there may be few individuals eligible to hunt or utilize marine mammals in the not-too-distant future,” said Worl.

SHI’s mission is to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures, but it has not taken a stand on how the issue should be approached, because any decision to maintain the status quo or to advance an alternative eligibility requirement should remain with the Native community, Worl said.

The lecture is scheduled from 12-1:30 pm, Tuesday, April 12, and will stream live on SHI’s YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/sealaskaheritageinstitute. A question-and-answer session will follow the lecture.

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a private nonprofit founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. Its goal is to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through public services and events. SHI also conducts social scientific and public policy research that promotes Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee and a Southeast Regional Language Committee.

CONTACT: Kathy Dye, SHI Media and Publications Deputy Director, 907.321.4636, kathy.dye@sealaska.com

Caption: Hands of a student working with fur from a marine mammal. Photo by Connor Meyer, courtesy of Sealaska Heritage Institute. Note: media outlets are welcome to use this photo for coverage of this story. For a higher-resolution version, contact kathy.dye@sealaska.com

Sealaska Heritage Institute Press Release

SEALASKA HERITAGE SECURES FUNDING TO LAUNCH TOTEM POLE TRAIL

Project part of vision to make Juneau the Northwest Coast capital of the world

Dec. 20, 2021

Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has secured a grant to commission ten totem poles that will comprise part of Kootéeyaa Deiyií (Totem Pole Trail) along the downtown Juneau waterfront.

The $2.9 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will allow SHI to hire Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian master artists in Juneau and villages across Southeast Alaska to carve the poles, which will be raised in 2023.

The project is part of SHI’s vision to make Juneau the Northwest Coast art capital of the world, said SHI President Rosita Worl.

“Our traditional poles historically dominated the shorelines of our ancestral homelands and told the world who we were. It’s fitting that our totems will be one of the first things people see while sailing into Juneau,” said Worl, who also acknowledged Sealaska for donating the logs.

SHI’s ultimate goal is to commission 30 poles and raise them along the waterfront. The institute is working with the City and Borough of Juneau to site the first ten totems in easements from Main Street along the waterfront by Marine Park.

The priority for the ten poles will be Áak’w Kwáan and T’aaku Kwáan clans. Totem poles representing clans which also settled in the Áak’w village during the historic period will also be included. Haida and Tsimshian poles will also be represented among the first ten poles. Fran Houston, spokesperson for the Áak’w and member of the L’eeneidí and the Yaxtehíttaan and Lillian Petershoare of the Yanyeidí clan have conferred with SHI since the initial planning of the project. The clans will be selecting their designs to be included on the poles in the next few weeks. 

The totem poles will be an entry point from the waterfront to Heritage Square, a space encompassing the intersection of Seward and Front Streets and surrounding area that was named by the city in 2018. Each totem pole will feature a corresponding story board that identifies the clan, crests and information related to the artwork. 

Through a separate project, SHI commissioned a massive 360-degree totem – an uncommon style that features designs all around the pole, as opposed to totems carved only on the front and sides. That totem, which will represent the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian and was made by Haida carver TJ Young, will be raised in the plaza of the Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus, which is scheduled to open next year in Juneau across from SHI’s Walter Soboleff Building on Seward Street.

The 360-degree totem will be a part of Faces of Alaska’s spectacular monumental art installation featuring bronze masks that represent Alaska’s seven major Native groups, including the Inupiat, Yup’ik, Alutiiq, Athabascan, Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian.

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a private nonprofit founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. Its goal is to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through public services and events. SHI also conducts social scientific and public policy research that promotes Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee and a Southeast Regional Language Committee.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive.

CONTACT: Kathy Dye, SHI Media Specialist, 907.321.4636, kathy.dye@sealaska.com

Caption: Area along the downtown Juneau waterfront where ten totem poles will be raised in 2023. SHI is working with the City and Borough of Juneau on placement, which is subject to change from positions shown in the image. The schematic also features a 360-degree totem, which is part of a separate project. News outlets are welcome to use this image for coverage of this story. For a higher res version, contact kathy.dye@sealaska.com

Sealaska Heritage Institute Press Release

SHI’s APPLICATION PERIOD FOR INDIGENOUS FASHION SHOW NOW OPEN

Event to be held in conjunction with Celebration 2022

Dec. 17, 2021

Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is accepting applications for its biennial Indigenous Fashion Show, which will be held in conjunction with Celebration 2022, scheduled June 8-11 in Juneau.

The show is open to Native American, First Nations, Indigenous and Alaska Native artists and designers. Preference will be given to high-fashion and haute couture pieces that display innovative use of traditional Indigenous styles and materials.

First held in 2016, the fashion show has quickly become one of the most popular features of Celebration, said SHI President Rosita Worl.

“The Indigenous Fashion Show is where our ancient practices and contemporary expressions of clothing and jewelry coalesce. It is very inspiring to see,” Worl said.

The deadline to apply is March 31. The show is scheduled June 9. Prior to the fashion show, SHI will host a model training workshop, dress rehearsals and fittings.

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a private nonprofit founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. Its goal is to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through public services and events. SHI also conducts social scientific and public policy research that promotes Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee and a Southeast Regional Language Committee.

CONTACT: Kathy Dye, SHI Media Specialist, 907.321.4636, kathy.dye@sealaska.com

Sealaska Heritage Institute Press Release

SEALASKA HERITAGE TRUSTEES SUPPORT PETITION TO RECOGNIZE TRIBES

Testimony heard in last of a nationwide series of consultations with Indigenous people

Dec. 16, 2021

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.

The initiative does not propose any legal changes to the status of tribes.  Tribes have already been recognized by the federal government, the Alaska Supreme Court and the Attorney General of Alaska.  

But, formal recognition of tribes would allow for a shift toward respect, cooperation and strategic alliances in funding for education, healthcare and public safety. 

Such recognition is long overdue, said SHI President Rosita Worl.

“Alaska Native people have lived on this land for more than 10,000 years. We were here when the Russians came. We were here when the Americans colonized our land. We were here when Alaska became a state. We are simply asking the voters of Alaska to formally recognize our existence in state law,” Worl said.

Alaska has more federally recognized tribes than any other state in the nation. Alaskan tribes account for 40 percent of all tribes in the country and bring in millions of federal and private dollars into the state because of their status as tribes. 

SHI trustees took the extraordinary action to support this initiative because they believe the time has come for our governments to work together for the benefit of all Alaskans, Worl said.

“We only have to look to how tribes and Alaska Native health organizations utilized their assets and resources during the pandemic to leverage and assist the government and non-Native entities in a time of national crisis,” Worl said.

Organizers of the initiative are currently collecting signatures to put the question on the ballot. SHI sponsored a signing event this week at its building in Juneau.

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a private nonprofit founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. Its goal is to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through public services and events. SHI also conducts social scientific and public policy research that promotes Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee and a Southeast Regional Language Committee.
 

CONTACT: Kathy Dye, SHI Media Specialist, 907.321.4636, kathy.dye@sealaska.com

Caption: People signing a petition in support of the ballot initiative at Sealaska Heritage Institute on Wednesday, Dec. 15. Photo by Kylee Watts, courtesy of SHI. News outlets are welcome to use this photo for coverage of this story. For a higher resolution image, contact kathy.dye@sealaska.com

Sealaska Heritage Institute Press Release

SEALASKA HERITAGE IS ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR COLLEGE, VOC-TECH SEALASKA SCHOLARSHIPS

Institute offering cash incentive to early birds

Dec. 15, 2021

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. Applications must be filled out and submitted online at scholarship.sealaskaheritage.org.

Awards will be made to Alaska Native Sealaska shareholders and descendants enrolled full- or part- time in accredited colleges, universities and voc-tech schools. Students must also have at least a 2.0 cumulative GPA. The scholarship program was founded by Sealaska and is administered by Sealaska Heritage.

“In the past three years, we’ve been able to double our scholarship endowment to $20 million,” said Sealaska President and CEO Anthony Mallott. “Our strong financial success allows us to make a greater investment in education and other shareholder benefit programs. Through the scholarship endowment, we are able to support close to 500 students who are investing in themselves every year and will create long-lasting benefits for our people and communities. I’m so proud of all our students and those advancing their careers with training and education.”

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a private nonprofit founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. Its goal is to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through public services and events. SHI also conducts social scientific and public policy research that promotes Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee and a Southeast Regional Language Committee.

CONTACT: Kathy Dye, SHI Media Specialist, 907.321.4636, kathy.dye@sealaska.com; Matt Carle, Sealaska Senior Director of Corporate Communications, 907.903.8210, matt.carle@sealaska.com.

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a private nonprofit founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. Its goal is to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through public services and events. SHI also conducts social scientific and public policy research that promotes Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee and a Southeast Regional Language Committee.
 
CONTACT: Kathy Dye, SHI Deputy Director of Media and Publications, 907.321.4636, kathy.dye@sealaska.com

Sealaska Heritage Institute Press Release

SEALASKA HERITAGE TO SPONSOR LECTURE ABOUT THE LATE TLINGIT LEADER WILLIAM L. PAUL, SR.

Free event to be offered virtually, in-person on Nov. 16

Nov. 12, 2021

Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will sponsor a lecture on Tuesday on the late Tlingit leader William Lewis Paul, Sr., (Shquindy) as part of a series on Southeast Alaska Native history in honor of Native American Heritage Month.

The talk, In His Own Words, a Biography of William Lewis Paul, will be given by Benjamin Starr Paul (Ku-nuX-nuhsti), who is Tlingit of the Teeyhíttaan, Raven clan and the grandson of William L. Paul, who was Teeyhíttaan, Raven.

In his talk, Ben Paul will trace the life of William L. Paul from his early childhood with his mother, Tillie Paul, at Sheldon Jackson School to his death in Seattle on March 4, 1977. Using the speech William L. Paul gave at his honorary doctorate ceremony at Whitworth University in 1972 as a guide  (audio will be played), Ben will give special attention to the spiritual and religious life of his grandfather, also known as the father of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.  

William L. Paul’s contributions to Native people and land claims are considered so significant, SHI named its archives facility in his honor in 2014.

“William L. Paul, Sr., set the course for the resolution of Alaska Native aboriginal land claims and worked tirelessly throughout his lifetime to protect the ownership of Haa Aan├¡ (Our Land),” SHI President Rosita Worl said at the time. “He is a hero to past, present and future Alaska Natives, and we are forever indebted to him.”

The lecture is scheduled at noon Alaska time, Tuesday, Nov. 16. All lectures will be streamed at 12 pm to the Sealaska Heritage YouTube channel. This talk will also be presented in person in SHI’s clan house to attendees who show proof of vaccination cards. Space is limited to half capacity of SHI’s clan house because of COVID-19 concerns. A Q&A session will follow.

About the Lecturer

Ben began his study of Paul family history after receiving his Tlingit name at a naming ceremony in Seattle 1995. Working mostly with his aunt, Frances Paul DeGermain, he began studying the sizable Paul archives, which include thousands of photos, drawings, books, Alaska Native Brotherhood minutes, court cases, personal letters and albums collected by William Lewis Paul; his wife Frances Lackey Paul; his sons, William Paul Jr and Fred Paul; and Tillie Paul Tamaree, William’s mother.

Ben and his aunt Frances published two books from the Paul Archives: Then Fight For It by Fred Paul, the attorney for the North Slope Natives during the Alaska Native Land Claims Act era, and The Alaska Tlingit, Where Did We Come From by William Lewis Paul.

Ben has presented at four Sharing Our Knowledge conferences on the history of the Teehiton Raven hat and a history of Tillie Paul Tamaree.

This program is provided under the Preparing Indigenous Teachers and Administrators for Alaska Schools (PITAAS) program and funded by the Alaska Native Education Program.

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a private nonprofit founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. Its goal is to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through public services and events. SHI also conducts social scientific and public policy research that promotes Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee and a Southeast Regional Language Committee.

CONTACT: Kathy Dye, SHI Communications and Publications Deputy Director, 907.321.4636, kathy.dye@sealaska.com

Sealaska Heritage Institute Press Release

SEALASKA HERITAGE TO SPONSOR LECTURE ON TRIBES’ ATTEMPT TO DISQUALIFY NATIVE CORPORATIONS FROM CARES ACT FUNDING

Free event to be offered virtually on Nov. 30

Nov. 24, 2021

Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will sponsor a lecture on Tuesday on an attempt by tribes to disqualify Alaska Native corporations from receiving CARES Act funding as part of a series on Southeast Alaska Native history in honor of Native American Heritage Month.

The talk, ANCSA Corporations as “Indian tribes” Under Federal Indian Law and the Constitution, will be given by Chris E. McNeil, Jr., former president and CEO of Sealaska, a regional Native corporation established under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).

The Chehalis Tribe and other tribes challenged the status of ANCSA corporations as “Indian tribes” under the CARES Act. ANCSA corporations were specifically included in CARES by reference to a definition of an “Indian tribe” in the Indian Self-Determination and Educational Assistance Act (ISDA). The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, wherein the Court agreed with the ANCSA corporations that they were included as “Indian tribes” under ISDA and therefore qualified for CARES funding. This discussion will explore an alternative theory, not raised in the litigation, that ANCSA corporations are also Indian tribes under the Constitution, McNeil wrote.

ANCSA corporations have been recognized as tribes by the federal government for special statutory purposes, such as financial benefits and land benefits, but are not “sovereign” entities with government-to-government relationships with the federal government, which is an authority held only by federally-recognized tribes.

The lecture is scheduled at noon Alaska time, Tuesday, Nov. 30. All lectures will be streamed at 12 pm to the Sealaska Heritage YouTube channel. A Q&A session will follow.

About the Lecturer

Chris E. McNeil, Jr., is the owner of Native Strategy Group, which provides advisory services to Native organizations. He is Eagle of the Dakl’aweidí (Killerwhale) House, and his Tlingit name is Shaakakóoni. He served as the president and CEO of Sealaska from 2001 until 2014. Originally from Juneau, McNeil served Sealaska in varying officer capacities from 1978 through 1993, including executive vice president and general counsel and as a member of the board of directors from 1998 through 2000.

Other positions McNeil has held include special counsel to the Alaska Federation of Natives; chairman of the Native American Rights Fund; the first director of American Indian Program at Stanford University; second vice president of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska; director of Goldbelt, Incorporated; director of the American Indian National Bank; president of the Juneau Tlingit & Haida Community Council; chairman of Tlingit & Haida Regional Housing Authority; Washington representative and counsel to the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation of Connecticut; and chairman of the Native American Contractor’s Association.

McNeil earned a law degree from Stanford University, a master’s in political science from Yale University, and a BA in political science from Stanford University. He was also an inductee into the Stanford University Multicultural Alumni Hall of Fame and was awarded the Henry Roe Cloud medal from the Association of Native Americans at Yale, and the Alaska Federation of Natives Citizen of the Year. He is a member of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska and a citizen of the Nisga’a Nation. McNeil and his wife Mary, an enrolled member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, have two grown children and two grandchildren.

This program is provided under the Preparing Indigenous Teachers and Administrators for Alaska Schools (PITAAS) program and funded by the Alaska Native Education Program.

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a private nonprofit founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. Its goal is to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through public services and events. SHI also conducts social scientific and public policy research that promotes Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee and a Southeast Regional Language Committee.

CONTACT: Kathy Dye, SHI Communications and Publications Deputy Director, 907.321.4636, kathy.dye@sealaska.com

Sealaska Heritage Institute Press Release

SEALASKA HERITAGE SHI TO SPONSOR LECTURE ON 200 YEARS OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, COLONIALISM IN SITKA

Free event to be offered virtually on Nov. 24

Nov. 22, 2021

Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will sponsor a lecture on on Wednesday 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 talk, Infectious Diseases, Settler Colonialism, and Race on Sheet’ká Ḵwáan, will be given by Adam Kersch, a self-described white Jewish settler whose family formerly lived in Romania, Serbia and Britain.

In his talk, Kersch will examine transformations in the relationship between race, health and colonialism in Sheet’ká (Sitka, Alaska), focusing on infectious disease outbreaks over the past 200 years.

Specifically, Kersch will explore the relationship between whiteness and infectious diseases to suggest that the politicized concept of whiteness has shifted dramatically. Over the course of Russian and US rule, whiteness has served as a political matrix through which colonial powers attempted to consolidate control over Tlingit populations. These settler colonial powers have used whiteness as a baseline for measuring “health” and saw any deviation from white cultural norms as justification to violently intervene, Kersch wrote.

Using archival and ethnographic research, his research – conducted with approval from Sitka Tribe of Alaska and Sealaska Heritage Institute and funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation – seeks to understand how practices of racialization have formed, changed and retained their historical residues in Sheet’ká.

The lecture is scheduled at noon Alaska time, Wednesday, Nov. 24. All lectures will be streamed at 12 pm to the Sealaska Heritage YouTube channel. A Q&A session will follow.

About the Lecturer

Adam Kersch has studied and wrestled with anthropology and its troubled past since 2009, receiving bachelor’s and master’s degrees in cultural and medical anthropology from the University of Central Florida. Through his master’s research, Kersch explored how undocumented immigrants access legal and healthcare services in Sicily while working alongside organizations providing aid. Kersch began his Ph.D. in cultural anthropology at the University of California, Davis, in 2016. He spent a year as an uninvited guest on Lingít Aaní from 2020-2021 for his dissertation research, with funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundation. His research explores the relationship between settler colonialism, infectious diseases, vaccines and race, examining how Russian and U.S. colonial governments have used infectious diseases as justification for exercising their power. His research demonstrates the effect of racism on public health and has powerful implications for the management of the COVID-19 pandemic today. Kersch aims to do research that is both publicly and academically engaged while promoting tribal sovereignty.

This program is provided under the Preparing Indigenous Teachers and Administrators for Alaska Schools (PITAAS) program and funded by the Alaska Native Education Program.

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a private nonprofit founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. Its goal is to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through public services and events. SHI also conducts social scientific and public policy research that promotes Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee and a Southeast Regional Language Committee.

CONTACT: Kathy Dye, SHI Communications and Publications Deputy Director, 907.321.4636, kathy.dye@sealaska.com

Sealaska Heritage Institute Press Release

SEALASKA HERITAGE TO SPONSOR LECTURE ON MYSTERY NATIVE GIRL WHO TOURED NATION, MET HARRIET TUBMAN

Free event to be offered virtually, in-person on Nov. 23

Nov. 19, 2021

Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will sponsor a lecture on Tuesday on a quest to find the name of a Native girl who toured the country and met Harriet Tubman as part of a series on Southeast Alaska Native history in honor of Native American Heritage Month.

The talk, “What’s in a Name?” – The “Indian Girl” from Ft. Wrangell who met Harriet Tubman, will be given by Phillip Hesser, Ph.D., an author who has written extensively about Tubman, a slave who escaped and helped others gain their freedom as a “conductor” of the Underground Railroad.

Who was that nameless “Indian Girl” who toured the United States and met Harriet Tubman in the late 1880s in New York? Hesser posed in an abstract on his lecture.

In his talk, Hesser will tell about his quest to find Ft. Wrangell Alaska Native Shik-Sha-Ni, her “adoption” as Fanny McFarland, her schooling in New Jersey in the name of her benefactor as Frances H. Willard, and her short life upon her return to Alaska at the Sitka Training School.

Shik-Sha-Ni made a name for herself – giving voice to Tlingit language and culture and chronicling her work at Sitka. Hesser will explore the lives of Tubman and Willard and how these remarkable women lost their names and much of their past, yet revealed so much about lives in upheaval.

The lecture is scheduled at noon Alaska time, Tuesday, Nov. 23. All lectures will be streamed at 12 pm to the Sealaska Heritage YouTube channel. This talk will also be presented in person in SHI’s clan house to attendees who show proof of vaccination cards. A Q&A session will follow.

About the Lecturer

Dr. Phillip Hesser has taught in the US and Africa and served with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Academy for Educational Development. Most recently, he taught at Salisbury University and Wor-Wic Community College. He now spends his time delving into the deep history of Delmarva and the Chesapeake Bay watershed and running the Dorchester marshes with his pint-sized retriever Marshall and hound Bayly. Indulging his interests at the intersection of landscape, life and livelihood, he wrote What a River Says: Exploring the Blackwater River and Refuge (Cambridge, MD: Friends of Blackwater, 2014) and co-wrote (with Charlie Ewers) Harriet Tubman’s Eastern Shore: The Old Home Is Not There (Columbia, SC: History Press, 2021).

This program is provided under the Preparing Indigenous Teachers and Administrators for Alaska Schools (PITAAS) program and funded by the Alaska Native Education Program.

Sealaska Heritage Institute is a private nonprofit founded in 1980 to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. Its goal is to promote cultural diversity and cross-cultural understanding through public services and events. SHI also conducts social scientific and public policy research that promotes Alaska Native arts, cultures, history and education statewide. The institute is governed by a Board of Trustees and guided by a Council of Traditional Scholars, a Native Artist Committee and a Southeast Regional Language Committee.

CONTACT: Kathy Dye, SHI Communications and Publications Deputy Director, 907.321.4636, kathy.dye@sealaska.com