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“The entire subject matter is really emotional and really intense.”

Dr. Holly Norton is Colorado’s State Archaeologist and she led the boarding school study.

Dr. Norton says one story came out of a school newspaper published at the Fort Lewis boarding school.

It was the story of Frank Taylor, who at one point was the only Ute child at the school.

“When Fort Lewis Indian boarding school first opened, there was a lot of disease that hit the school really quickly, and it kind of devastated the student population. And so the Ute pulled all of their students out of Fort Lewis, there was one student, Frank, who was identified as Ute and he spent his life at that school.”

Dr. Norton wasn’t able to determine from her research whether Frank Taylor had parents or not.

“And they called him an orphan. a lot of these orphans actually weren’t. they had parents and family, but I think the government could designate them as orphans and make it easier for them to make decisions without having to consult with the parents or the tribe.”

In the newspaper article, Frank Taylor’s story intersects with the story of another Native American child.

“A young girl, she must have only been like three or four. It sounded like maybe she had wandered away from her parents or from her family. Frank found her. they brought her back to the school. they didn’t try to find her parents, they didn’t try to contact any adults. They cut her hair, they changed her clothes. And they immediately kind of enrolled her and adopted her into the school system. The father came and found her and collected her and took her home. But I’m just imagining this very casual kidnapping, this idea that it was okay for people at the school to essentially abduct these children.”

Colorado’s new report on Indian boarding schools recognizes and remembers children like Frank Taylor.

He lived more than half his life at the Fort Lewis Indian boarding school.

He died of pneumonia there when he was 11 years old. And he may be one of the 46 children buried at the old Fort Lewis cemetery.

 

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The Native Village of Karluk on Kodiak Island in Alaska went viral this summer for an ad offering cost-free living in an effort to reopen its school.

But just a month after classes started, that school is closing again.

KMXT’s Brian Venua reports, the school’s student enrollment is back down to just two kids after both families chosen to move there left the village.

The decision to close the school was unanimous at an emergency school board meeting.

Cyndy Mika is the Kodiak Island Borough School District superintendent.

“It’s a sad day when you have to close a school. And it’s not anything that I ever wanted to do in my tenure – it’s nothing that I want to ever repeat again. It weighs heavy on your heart when you have to close a school.”

Karluk, on the southwest end of Kodiak Island, had just a few dozen year-round residents, with only two of them being school-age kids.

The village advertised free living expenses for two families to move there over the summer.

The state requires 10 students to be enrolled in order to receive funding.

The ad worked; two families with eight kids between them moved to Karluk in September, and the district’s board of education voted to reopen the facility.

Then both of the new families left Karluk.

Alicia Andrew, a Tribal Chief for the Tribal Council said in an email it was a blow to the community.

“It’s so disappointing, we thought we picked the right families.”

October is when the Alaska Department of Education does a headcount of students for funding.

But since the families left before the count was finished, Mika says they could be out about $80,000 in their already tight budget.

“We didn’t make it through the count and that’s predominantly the reason why – that is the really, solely, the only reason why we are closing.
The district is currently working with the state to try to get prorated funding for serving the 10 students for the weeks they stayed in the village, but otherwise that money will come out of the district’s fund balance, or savings.”

While it didn’t work out, Mika says she still stands by her recommendation and the Board of Education’s decision to reopen the school in the first place.

“We knew it was in the best interest of the students to open the school as a learning site and I think we did the right thing. It was a risk – it didn’t pay off. But we did our best while we had the school open.”

The representative for the Karluk Tribal Council said in an email they may look for other families to try again.

If they do find new families, the school board would have to vote to open the school again, even if they had enough students again.

The building will officially close on Nov. 2, exactly one month after it opened.

The kids still in Karluk are currently working with the school district to transition back to homeschooling.

Artist Buffy Sainte-Marie is speaking out about a media report that questions her Indigenous identity.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary suggests Sainte-Marie’s claim to Indigenous ancestry is contradicted by family members and a birth certificate.

The CBC says it found her birth certificate.

It says she was born in 1941 in Stoneham, Mass.

Her parents were Alberta and Winifred Sainte-Marie. The documents also lists the baby as white and includes a signature by an attending physician.

From her early days, Sainte-Marie has claimed to be a Cree woman, that’s now being contradicted by members of her own family and an investigation suggesting she has European roots.

Sainte-Marie says the questions about her origins are hurtful.

“These questions hurt me. They still do. But they also hurt others. They’re questions I’ve struggled with my whole life.”

In the 1971 Buffy Sainte-Marie Songbook, which she wrote and illustrated, she said, “When I go home to the Cree reserved in Canada where I was born, I usually spend a few hours of every day teaching the Cree language.”

Also, in a 1986 interview with the Los Angeles Times magazine. she said had been born on the Piapot Reserve in Saskatchewan.

In her 2018 biography. there’s no official record of her birth.

“I don’t know where I’m from, who my birth parents are, or how I ended up a misfit in a typical white Christian New England town.

The 82-year-old Sainte-Marie says she realized decades ago that she would never have the answers.

Still some Indigenous academics say it’s unacceptable for non-Indigenous people to speak for Indigenous people and take honors they shouldn’t.

 

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Alaska will now be a part of the oral histories that the U.S. Interior Secretary collected during her visit to Anchorage.

It was the tenth stop on her Road to Healing Tour to document the abuse Alaska Native children suffered at government boarding schools.

Secretary Deb Haaland told the gathering at the Alaska Native Heritage Center on Sunday that it’s important to hear from survivors and their families, to better understand how to end the cycle of trauma that has been passed down through the generations.

As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports, the Secretary heard from a Lingít elder from Sitka, who asked her to dig deeper.

“My Lingít name is Shaagunastaa.”

Bob Sam says that his Lingít name gives him an important responsibility. The words means the man….“who taught human beings to respect the dead.”

And out of respect for the dead, Bob Sam called for a full accounting of what happened to Alaska Native children, who were sent to schools out of state, where many died.

“Every single boarding school child that has died, their last thought was, “I want to come home.”

Sam says the remains of these children should be returned to their families, so they can heal.

He also says the Interior Department’s investigation needs to use a wider net – to include institutions like the Morningside Hospital in Portland, Ore.

Before statehood and into the early 1960’s, children with physical and intellectual disabilities were sent to the asylum. Many never returned. Some died.

“This gets even deeper. You know how Morningside was funded – the Department of Interior. “

Sam told the secretary there was also an orphanage called Baby Louise Haven in nearby Salem, where many Alaska Native babies died – also funded by the federal government.

“I think it’s critically important for us to know this history.”

Niesje Steinkruger, a former Fairbanks judge, came out of retirement to launch the Lost Alaskans Project.

She says knowing the history, helps to prevent the mistakes of the past.

That’s why she and other volunteer researchers have combed court records at the State Archives in Juneau to find out what happened to Alaskans who were sent to Morningside and Baby Louise Haven.

Steinkruger agrees with Bob Sam that families deserve answers.

“We know that there were at least 1,500 Alaskans that died at Morningside Hospital and never came home to Alaska.”

Steinkruger says these were mostly adults, both white and Alaska Native, but most of the children, based on archival photographs appear to be mostly Native.

She says one photo stands out – a picture of the children outdoors with hand-typed words in the left-hand corner that reads,

“Alaska defectives, happily in the mild climate at Morningside.”

Steinkruger says she also came across some disturbing correspondence between staff at Baby Louise Haven and the state of Alaska.

“I just remember this one letter asking about up to what age child they would take, and they said, well, the children had to be under four feet, because the enclosed cribs, as they call them, which is like a crib cage – a child could not be longer than four feet to fit in there.”

Steinkruger says, based on records of family names, most of the children at Baby Louise Haven were Alaska Native.

She says the government entities that took charge of these children have a responsibility to help their families.

“Bring the remains back to Alaska for their families.”

As for Bob Sam, he’s planning a trip to Portland to visit the graves of the children who died at Morningside. He says he will drink tea and talk to them–and sing songs in the Lingít language.

“Let’s be the best of who we are. And let’s bring our children home.”

And that says Bob Sam, is the first step on the road to healing.

Following the painful day of testimony in Anchorage on Native boarding school abuse, the gathering moved outdoors for a totem pole raising – the first in the nation to be dedicated to boarding school survivors and their families.

More than 500 people watched as the pole was positioned into place at the Alaska Native Heritage Center on Sunday.

At the base, a mother bear holds her cubs close. A father in human form sits above her, crowned by feathers from Raven’s tail, with Raven in a state of transformation. And at the top of the pole, nestled in Raven’s ear, are two children. A girl and a boy, gazing out towards the generations to come.

After hours of ceremony and preparations, it took only a few seconds for the pole to go up.

The pole was carved by two Haida brothers, Joe and T.J. Young.

Joe says it was an honor for them to work on the pole.

“If nothing, if it helps people feel more comfortable when they come by it, think or talk out loud, maybe it’ll help them out, knowing other people’s done the same thing, maybe it will help them out. At least get the conversations going with healing. That’s kinda what it’s for, is healing.”

The Young brothers spent three months carving the pole.

In Oklahoma, the Inter-Tribal Council of Five Tribes has approved a resolution supporting the nomination of Sara Hill to serve as a federal judge.

Hill is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and the tribe’s former attorney general.

Last week, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Hill for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma.

 

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It was an emotional day at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage this Sunday, where the U.S. Interior Secretary spent the day listening to Native boarding school survivors, who suffered abuse at the hands of government employees.

As Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports, it was the tenth stop on her Road to Healing tour.

Trigger warning: this story includes testimony of child sexual abuse.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) told the gathering her name in Keres is Crushed Turquoise.

She says her family’s knowledge of their language fractured after a priest took her grandmother away, at the age of eight, on a train to a Catholic boarding school.

There she was punished for speaking Keres and quit using it, so it wasn’t passed on.

Today, Sec. Haaland says she understands some of the language but can’t speak it.

“This is the first time in history that a United States cabinet secretary comes to the table with the same trauma that all of you have.”

“Many of these kids were as young as five years old. “

Jim LaBelle was the first to share his story. He was only eight years old when the government took him away from his mother, along with and his younger brother, Kermit.

When LaBelle was sent to the Wrangell Institute in 1955, he was bilingual.

“I quickly shut down my Inupiaq side, because I saw so many of my students beaten in so many different ways.”

There was the gauntlet, in which a naked child would be forced to run past a row of kids, who lined up to strike them with their belts. And if they didn’t hit hard enough, they would be punished too.

“We just didn’t do it once. We did it many times. And a lot of times that drew blood on our bodies.”

He said matrons used a paddle known as a cat of nine tails. It had holes that would leave blood blisters.

There were also shaming tactics.

When children were caught speaking their Native language, they were forced to wear cone-shaped hats, labeled with the word “Dunce.”

But LaBelle says that wasn’t the worst of it.

“Matrons were sodomizing boys in their beds or in the bathroom. We saw girls going home in the middle of the year pregnant.”

LaBelle says the kids knew what was going on, but never told anyone – dark secrets which took a huge emotional toll.

Even 20 years ago, LaBelle says people didn’t see the relationship between boarding schools and trauma.

That’s why he began to share his story, to help people like Martha Senungetuk connect the dots.

“And a lot of trauma is carried on from one generation to the next. And that’s what happened in my family.”

Senungetuk says this was never talked about in her family, and yet.

“Some people became alcoholics. There was domestic violence in the family. And not knowing how to raise your children, because no one every taught you. Grandma didn’t know how to raise children in a boarding school.”

Martha Senungetuk says all Alaska Natives are in some way touched by boarding school abuse.

A Canadian judge has approved a landmark $23 billion First Nations child welfare compensation agreement.

As Dan Karpenchuk reports, it’s for First Nations children and families who experienced racial discrimination because of the government’s underfunding of the foster care system on reserves.

The compensation, $23 billion, is the largest in Canadian history.

It comes after a Canadian human rights tribunal ruling in 2019.

It ordered the Canadian government to pay the maximum human rights penalty for discrimination that will work out to about $40,000 for each affected First Nations child and family member.

Initially Ottawa fought the order, but negotiated a deal after it faced two class action lawsuits.

Cindy Blackstock is the executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society.

‘It’s a relief, but I also find myself thinking about the thousands of children, youth and families who were hurt by Canada’s discrimination and will never get their childhoods back. And that’s why it’s so important that we end the discrimination and prevent it from happening again, because no amount of compensation ever gets you your family back.”

About 300,000 First Nations children and their families will be entitled to the compensation.

The settlement comes more than 15 years after the Assembly of First Nations and the Child and Family Caring Society launched a human rights complaint.

It centered on allegations that Ottawa’s underfunding of on reserve child welfare services amounted to discrimination, and that First Nations children were denied equal access to support including medical equipment and school supplies.

Child welfare was one of the main issues to come out of the report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

In addition to the $23 billion in compensation, another $20 billion will be spent to reform the child welfare system.

 

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Studies show the nation’s aging power grid isn’t ready to handle the energy shift from fossil fuels to renewables.

The U.S. government hopes a historic investment will fix that.

The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel has more.

The Department of Energy is spending $3.5 billion on efforts like expanding capacity for wind and solar power and building microgrids that keep the lights on during power outages.

Money will also go toward hardening power lines against extreme weather and wildfires.

That’s led by a $100 million investment in high-risk areas across more than a dozen states – including Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.

Margaret Tallmadge is with Navajo Power, a Native-owned developer of renewable energy projects.

“This provides an enormous opportunity for us to address transmission congestion, outdated transmission leading to wildfires – a huge opportunity to support renewable energy development in Indian Country.”

She says it’s also a chance for tribes to receive the revenue and economic benefits of their projects.

A Lakota family in Northwestern Nebraska was the recipient of a six-figure settlement following a court battle.

C.J. Keene has more.

The case circles a 2021 incident involving the Johnson-Leroy family in Cherry County, Neb., just south of the border of the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations.

Two of the families’ children had their hair cut by school staff, which sparked the discrimination suit.

Nebraska state law prohibits discrimination in public schools based on a student’s tribal regalia or long hair.

The family was represented by the ACLU of Nebraska and the Harvard Law School Religious Freedom Clinic.

The suit ultimately sparked change in the Cody-Kilgore School District as well, including the recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day and Native American Heritage Month.

Further changes are to be made to the district’s student and employee handbooks to note no student’s hair should be cut without consent from parents or guardians.

Native American Bank has been chosen to administer $50 million in grants from the U.S. Treasury Department to bolster low-income Native American community projects and businesses in Plains states, including Montana.

Mark Moran reports.

The Treasury Department has given Native American Bank the authority to invest in disadvantaged Indigenous communities that often lack access to the capital they need to start and maintain viable, sustainable businesses on tribal reservations or other American Indian-owned land.

Joel Smith with the Denver-based Native American Bank says, in northern Montana, the investments will show up in the construction of community service facilities on and around the Blackfeet Indian reservation in Browning.

“So, we’re looking at a lot of health-care clinics, wellness centers, behavioral health or opioid recovery centers in addition to child care and schools.”

The $50 million is part of a larger, $5 billion federal investment designed to spur economic growth in low-income urban and rural communities nationwide.

Smith says this federal investment will fill the gaps that remain on Indian land that currently aren’t covered despite bank and grant funding.

“But when you layer this on top of it, gets the project across the finish line. So, in that regard, it’s one of the most impactful things because it’s making projects happen that really would not otherwise. ”

In addition to new and much-needed community services, Smith adds the investment will also create jobs in the communities where these facilities are built.

 

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In Guatemala, an unprecedented national strike led by Indigenous groups has been going on for over 20 days.

Protests and blockades continued over the weekend as Indigenous and other citizens mobilized in support of the President-elect Bernardo Arévalo.

Maria Martin reports.

As Guatemala’s national strike enters its third week, neither the government nor pro-democracy protesters are budging.

Those mobilizing want the government to drop its efforts to block the reformist President-elect Arévalo from taking office while the government wants the protests to stop, calling the blockades quote “crimes against humanity.”

In Guatemala City, doctors from the two largest public hospitals joined protests, one carried a sign referencing the lack of investment in public health saying, “we’re here from all those who’ve lost their lives due to corruption.”

Meanwhile, the Indigenous group 48 Cantones (48 Villages) say some of its blockades will be lifted, but that protests will continue in the capital.

The group’s significant role in leading the pro-democracy movement is now being celebrated in a song going viral on social media.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on the official end of the electoral period at the end of the month.

The Justice Department can legally move to disqualify the president elect’s party.

@48_cantonesJuntos defendamos la democracia, la libertad y la institucionalidad nacional. 🇬🇹 Por un país libre de corrupción y dictaduras, 48 Cantones de Totonicapán. 📣♬ sonido original – 48 Cantones Oficial

A Northern Wisconsin Tribe is in the middle of a major housing development project.

In the next year, it’s expected to build and renovate 44 homes within the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa reservation.

WXPR’s Katie Thoresen reports.

Two major housing projects are underway in Lac du Flambeau right now.

The Chippewa Housing Authority received $15 million in tax credits to build 20 new homes and renovate 24 others.

The new homes will range from two-to-four-bedroom units.

The renovated houses will be adding another bedroom and bathroom.

Travois has been working with the housing authority since 2021 to secure the financing.

Brian Schuler is the organization’s Vice President of Housing Development who works with tribes across the country.

“We see a lot of overcrowding within reservation housing. So that was meeting that particular need in terms of this renovation. Additionally, housing authorities maintain a really large waiting list of households that need housing. The new construction was going to be very vital to the LDF community.”

Schuler says the Indian Housing Block Grant allocation hasn’t kept up with inflation which is why tribes like Lac du Flambeau have turned to the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program.

It’s the first time in state history a tribe was able to get both of these types of tax credit projects funded within the same year.

Jeff Ackley is the housing administrator for the Lac du Flambeau Chippewa Housing Authority.

“There’s always a way to improve anything that you’re, you know, any community that you’re working in, and that kind of thing. So it’s some of it has been challenging, but the reward is great. And, you know, I think that the whole community and you know, like, Wisconsin wins, basically, you know, basically for affording us the opportunity and putting in for tax credit projects.”

Ackley says one of the long-term benefits is sustaining Tribal membership in the community.

People will not have to move off the reservation to find other housing.

 

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LISTEN to our special AFN coverage: Alaska’s Native Voice with Antonia Gonzales

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) was greeted with a standing ovation at the Alaska Federation of Natives, when she addressed the convention Friday.

From subsistence to Native veterans, Sec. Haaland touched on a range of topics.

But one issue on this trip to Alaska will get a lot of her attention.

On Sunday, Sec. Haaland held a listening session in Anchorage on the trauma caused by Native boarding schools.

“We must reckon with the past to address the injustices we still face, because we know that intergenerational trauma connects so much of what hurts us.”

Sec. Haaland has been traveling the country on what she calls a “Road to Healing Tour,” taking testimony on the boarding school era about the damage it caused.

“My grandma used to share stories about this trauma with me about how a priest showed up one day in her village, took her and other children away from her parents and families, and sent them on a train to a Catholic boarding school, when she was only eight years-old.”

Sec. Haaland’s listening session was held at the Alaska Native Heritage Center and followed by the raising of a healing totem.

The Heritage Center has been investigating church records to learn more about how Alaska Natives were impacted.

Benjamin Jacuk (Kenaitze Indian Tribal Member), one of the researchers, says his grandfather is a boarding school survivor, which got him interested in learning more.

“The road to healing is going to be a very, a very emotional event, because it’s a lot of people, actually telling their stories. Some maybe before, some for the first time. One thing you know, is never leave people in that space.”

The healing totem is the work of two Haida master carvers – Joe and T.J Young.

An elder developed the concept for the design.

The totem pole depicts mother bear, who is holding two cubs, while the father, in human form, sits above her, embedded in a Raven’s tail.

Two children rest comfortably in Raven’s ear.

The totem raising, which was followed by a potlatch, was open to the public, but the Road to Healing Tour was closed to the general public, to give boarding school survivors and their famiies some privacy.

Education in Alaska has followed a westernized, traditional path since 1784, when the first settlement was formed on Kodiak Island.

Since 1784, education has changed, morphing into a system that doesn’t serve all of the children that it’s meant to.

It has been documented that Indigenous children have been stolen, abused, and forced to assimilate in the current westernized system.

At this year’s Alaska Federation of Natives conference, that story seems to be shifting to a conversation about future hires, curriculum changes, and the potential to bring elders into the classroom.

The conversation started off with a video talking about the history of Indigenous people.

“The story our past tells us, is about an education system imposed on Alaskan’s First People, rather than one built along side of us. ”

For the past year, Cook Inlet has been working on reaching out to multiple communities to see what an ideal educational system would look like.

So far, five tribal communities have agreed to participate in the AFN Educational Compacting Project.

Joel Issak, director of tribal affairs for the U.S. Department of Education, says that the focus of the program and the future of education are these three things.

“The first one is funding. And having the funding go directly from the state to the tribes. The second one is local control and looking at self governance. The third one is around instruction and looking at, ‘How do tribes be that driving force for who is in the classroom teaching our students?'”

After the video was played, speakers said conversations of the future must contain the past, and bringing back traditional beliefs from before 1784.

 

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WATCH and LISTEN to gavel-to-gavel AFN Convention coverage

An exhibit opened Wednesday night at the Dena’ina Convention Center that looks at the work of Bill Hess and his 40 years of photographing Alaska Native veterans.

Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA was there for the opening.

Before you enter the main convention hall, large panels with portraits and candid photographs line the way.

“Actually, when you walk in, it draws you in.”

Wanda Solomon-Parsons (Athabascan), Alaska National Guard Member, is dressed in her uniform.

She’s served two tours of duty in Afghanistan and was struck by how the photos evoke the spirituality of serving your country.

“It draws you into a story and it draws you into a personal life of an Alaskan Native veteran that served. We all have a story to tell.”

Along with the pictures, you can read about each veteran’s life.

“I capture what I see and feel and the feeling is every bit is important as the eye.”

Bill Hess says this exhibit showcases photographs of more than 60 veterans, culled from four decades pictures he’s snapped at veterans’ ceremonies, as well as sit-down portraits of vets he met along the way.

“I don’t feel like I’ve photographed near enough actually.”

But long enough to know that Alaska Native Veterans don’t get near enough appreciation.

Out of all the ethnic groups in the country, Alaska Natives have the highest rate of service to their country and yet as a people, Hess says, they’ve been treated terribly.

“These are Alaska native indigenous people who are willing to put their life on the line for a country that took it upon himself to subsume most of their country. It’s still their country and, and they have a loyalty to it.”

Benno Cleveland (Inupiaq), who is head of the Alaska Native Veterans Council says, serving your country as a way of life for Alaska Natives, a tradition of service that goes back to World War II, when thousands of Alaska Natives signed up to the Alaska Territorial Guard to defend the country during World War II, a direct threat when the Japanese bombed Dutch Harbor in Unalaska and invaded the Aleutians.

“And that way we started to come into the United States as citizens, as equals.”

And also known for their love of service to the country, as well as their endurance and remarkable ability to fight in the cold.

“Our people are adaptable, we can adapt to any situation, anything that comes our way, that is our strength.”

From the Territorial Guard, to Vietnam, to the Persian Gulf Wars, and Afghanistan, the exhibit also shows how this legacy of service has been passed down across the generations.

The 2023 AFN Citizen of the Year Award went to Kodiak resident Margaret Roberts on Thursday.

She was nominated by the Woody Island Tribal council and was selected by the AFN board of directors.

She passed away in July of last year and has been praised by communities all over Alaska for her tireless dedication to the Alutiiq language and dance, as well as advocating for the rights of Alutiiq people and Alaskans.

Born and raised in Kodiak, Roberts was known for her leadership.

She served on boards for many tribal councils including the Alaska Native Claims Settlement act corporation, as well as other non-profit organizations.

Robert’s daughters joined the presenters and Alutiiq dancers, a dance group Roberts created, onstage.

Leslie Ann Heglan, Roberts’ oldest daughter, spoke of her mother’s tireless commitment to her people and corporations, even while fighting cancer and just having had surgery.

“She tells me she leaves that Sunday for Seattle for housing meetings and (a) conference. I said ‘WHAT?! Mom you just got back from surgery, what are you thinking you can’t go, you’re still l weak.’ Mom went, it was about a week later, she looked just exhausted. Mom had selflessness and worried about everyone.”

Heglan said Roberts also fought for the Alutiiq language to be taught in her daughter’s school.

“And it did happen. Sammy had four years of Alutiiq language in high school.”

After Roberts’ daughters accepted the award, the Kodiak Alutiiq dance group performed a Native dance to honor the memory of the woman who made it possible for them to be up on the stage that day.

Roberts was known in her Alutiiq language as “the one who dances.”

 

 

Check out our Day 1 gallery courtesy of our partners at Alaska Public Media

 

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After a year of planning, the guests have gathered and the table has been set for another Alaska Federation of Natives Convention, which will officially come to order at 9 a.m. (AKT) Thursday morning.

The Qasigirmuit Dancers from Bethel will welcome delegates today, as they take their seats on the convention floor at the Dena’ina Center in downtown Anchorage.

After opening ceremonies and speeches, the convention will hear from two keynote speakers this morning: Sophie Minich, president and CEO of the CIRI Native Corporation, and Ryan Redington, champion of this year’s Iditarod.

This is the 57th annual AFN Convention.

This year’s theme is “Our Ways of Life,” which will explore the subsistence lifestyle in communities across the state and how Alaska Natives are blending their culture and traditions to address today’s challenges.

Get out the Native vote efforts are underway this week in Anchorage, as people from across the state gather downtown for the AFN convention.

Michelle Spark is the director of Get Out The Native Vote, a statewide nonprofit, nonpartisan voter education group.

She says one area they’re focusing on is rural communities.

“Rural village precincts with Native populations did not vote at all, either in August or in November. So we’re here to make sure that the staffing happens, that there’s less barriers to voting when it comes to an election day, and that our vote counts in the end.”

Spark says they’re gearing up for 2024.

The theme for this year’s Annual Elders and Youth Conference that was held at the Dena’ina center in downtown Anchorage, Alaska was “Let it be that we all heal each other.”

One of the people in attendance was George Holly, Athabaskan from Soldotna.

He came to the Elders and Youth Conference to promote healing with multi faith daily prayers at dawn.

“About four years ago at elders and youth, a group of Indigenous friends from all over Alaska, proposed that Dawn belongs to all and that the Earth turns and humbles itself before the sun each day. And we can do that too. And the Elders and Youth Conference was so open to it, we had a fire, and folks were attracted to be able to have that kind of expression again, as we get together. And it’s been going since so this is its fifth year.”

Another passion of Holly’s is language revitalization.

He says when it comes to healing, speaking your Native language brings back cultural identity.

Naomi Michaelson (Eagle Wolf tribe of the Shark House) is from Ketchikan.

For ten years she worked for a domestic violence shelter, but found it hard to balance her personal life and her job. Still wanting to advocate for domestic violence victims, she took a different approach.

“ I took some time off and started a business called Café Indigenous Foodways. And my hope and goal is to help people reconnect back to the land and to each other. I’m passionate about helping people, and including myself with healing, and our families and our communities.”

Michaelson’s approach on using food for healing goes hand in hand with this year’s Alaska Federation of Native’s convention theme, “Our ways of Life”, by exploring the subsistence lifestyle in communities in the state, and how using culture and traditions can help address today’s challenges.

 

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The third day of the 2023 Statewide Annual Elders and Youth Conference at the Dena’ina Center in downtown Anchorage, Alaska started off with a Native dance group from Unalakleet and a touching speech from Youth keynote speaker Quannah Chasinghorse (Gwich’in from Eagle Village, Alaska and Oglala Lakota Tribes of South Dakota), an Indigenous land protector and model.

More work shops broke out in the early afternoon, which included salmon cutting, practicing self-governance, and the much-anticipated Native Youth Olympics.

NYO was created by Alaska Natives to help develop crucial survival skills in harsh weather and environment.

Today, the youth compete in the games to preserve and display their cultural identities in modern day life.

Maio Nishkian is a coach at the Ya Ne Dah Ah school in Chickaloon Native Village, a small town just north of Palmer and one of the NYO instructors.

She came to the gathering with three students ages eight through ten. She says NYO today is more than just physical strength and endurance.

“It’s about supporting each other, helping each other. You’ll see kids from different teams teaching each other how to do certain moves, helping each other. It’s very different than most western sports. The cultural learning that they get they’re whether native or non-Native helps them appreciate indigenous cultures.”

One of Nishkian’s students, 10 year-old Colt Jennison, shared what he’s excited about doing during the workshop.

“One foot or maybe Indian if there is Indian. This is my second year. NYO is awesome.”

@nativevoiceone Student Elmo Henry does a 2 foot high kick during the Elders and Youth Conference #Native Youth Olympics workshop. More details in the latest edition of National Native News with Jill Fratis. https://www.nativenews.net/wednesday-october-18-2023/ #Alaska ♬ original sound – Native Voice One

Duke Ngo, another instructor and a coach from Juneau, is anticipating the 2023 Arctic Winter Games which will be held in Alaska this year.

He says while he’s not certain yet about his involvement with this year’s competition, he’s looking forward to the games coming to his home state.

“It’s really exciting and I hope our team Alaska will do their best and be able to have fun at the games.”

As the Elders and Youth Conference is beginning to wind down, at the same time, preparations are underway for the Alaska Federation of Natives convention taking place at the same location starting Thursday.

Guatemala’s three-week-old popular uprising, led by the country’s Indigenous citizens, is beginning to turn bloody.

At least one protester has been killed as armed vigilantes attacked a group of protesters on Monday.

The uprising’s Indigenous leaders  say they’re fighting to save their country’s fragile democracy, as Maria Martin reports.

As this week  started, there were fewer blockades across Guatemala, but people are still leaving their Indigenous communities to come to the capital to protest and demand the resignation of what they claim are corrupt  justice department officials.

Meanwhile, Guatemala’s Attorney General Consuelo Porras is calling for the government to use force against the hundreds of thousands of largely Indigenous protesters in peaceful resistance.

The protesters want her  resignation  and that of other officials  leading an investigation against the political party of President-elect Bernardo Arévalo.

The justice department’s illegal raids of electoral offices was the last straw for many Indigenous groups.

48 Cantones  leader Luis Pacheco expressed disappointment that Guatemala’s President Alejandro Giammattei has ignored their demands during a recent dialogue .

“We maintain hope and prayers that this struggle, a peaceful effort for democracy, has a good outcome.”

But yesterday, in various places, violence broke out.

In the Indigenous community of Malacatan in the border province of San Marcos, an armed masked group of vigilantes attacked the protesters.

A food vendor who was part of the protest is reported dead; more are hospitalized.

Representatives of ancestral authorities say they’ll be coming together to discuss  next  steps in light of the violence.

 

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