Alaska Beacon

On Friday, the federal Bureau of Land Management released a draft environmental impact statement for the Willow project, a major oil development planned for federal land on Alaska’s North Slope.

Willow, which at peak production is expected to deliver as much as 180,000 barrels of oil per day to the trans-Alaska Pipeline System, is opposed by environmental groups who successfully sued to overturn a prior impact statement that would have allowed the project to advance.

The release of the new impact statement is necessary to advance the project toward construction.

Members of the public have until 10 p.m. Aug. 29 to state their support for one of five options for the project’s future. The alternatives include “Option A,” which would not build it, and “Option B,” which is preferred by ConocoPhillips Alaska, the company backing the project.

On Friday, the BLM’s initial draft stated that it supports “Option E,” which reduces the amount of surface infrastructure to something less than preferred by ConocoPhillips. Early Saturday morning, the BLM said that language had been a mistake and it does not have a preferred option.

The state of Alaska and Alaska’s Congressional delegation have supported the project.

At current oil prices, the Willow project could be eligible for hundreds of millions of dollars in state tax credits, according to information provided to the Alaska Legislature in 2019.

In the long term, the project is expected to generate several billion dollars in additional state revenue, and generate work for construction firms and oilfield services companies.

More than 4,000 people attended the Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates Alaska rally in Anchorage this past Saturday, making it the largest abortion rights event the nonprofit has ever held, according to its director. The Delaney Park Strip event was also the largest rally in Alaska against the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade to date.

Other planned events in Fairbanks, Homer and Juneau held in response to the Supreme Court ruling saw around 1,000, 400 and 200 people, respectively.

“It was just so wonderful to see so many people so actively ready to take action and be in this fight together and learn from each other,” said Rose O’Hara-Jolley, state director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates Alaska.

Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates is a nonprofit that advocates for and provides education about reproductive health in Alaska and five other states.

O’Hara-Jolley said several community, statewide and regional organizations participated in the Saturday events, including ACLU of Alaska, Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association (Four A’s), Native Movement, Northwest Abortion Access Fund, and domestic violence and abuse organizations.

Attendees had opportunities to learn about Alaska laws and policy surrounding abortion, write a letter to state legislators, and use ranked-choice voting to decide their favorite form of birth control (the IUD won).

At a ‘smash the plate-riarchy’ booth in Anchorage, O’Hara-Jolley said participants safely smashed hundreds of plates that were brought to the event or provided by Planned Parenthood. Working with Native Movement, the plate pieces will be turned into mosaics.

“They look really beautiful,” O’Hara-Jolley said. “All these colors and pieces of words, like ‘patriarchy’ and ‘oppression’ and ‘hands off.’”

The Alaska Right to Life, an anti-abortion organization, had planned a “gospel opportunity” in Anchorage at the same time and location as the Planned Parenthood event. O’Hara-Jolley described it as a small group. Right to Life did not return a request for comment.

‘My body, my choice’

Several people spoke at the Juneau event in Marine Park, including Yolanda Fulmer, a Native women’s advocate and matriarch.

“As an Alaskan Native woman, I am also classified as disproportionate when it comes to violence against women stats. I hate that word ‘disproportionate,’ not only because it identifies the immense trauma Native women experience on a regular basis, but also how the bleep do you quantify proportionate violence against women? This should infuriate all of us that they’re even able to quantify violence done to us,” said Fulmer, who’s Łingít.

“For the past two weeks I have felt terrorized, traumatized, victimized, hopeless and exhausted,” Fulmer said, for a few reasons, including “from watching bodily sovereignty protection collapse.”

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade June 24, ending the federal right to abortion. Abortion remains legal in Alaska through the state constitution’s provision on privacy, but abortion-rights advocates say that right is fragile.

“Our sovereign laws have always protected the right to choose for all women. We have always known that a woman suffering physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually is not ready to take on the sacred role of motherhood yet, and it’s best not to bring a child into the world under duress,” Fulmer said.

Dara Rilatos sang a song called, “My body, my choice” at the Juneau event. She wrote it in 2019.

“The whole idea is, it’s my choice what I do with my body, whether it’s to reach out and touch you, or have it bear a child. That is my choice,” Rilatos said.

She said it’s important to maintain abortion access in Alaska.

“I have a lot of my own reproductive issues,” Rilatos said. “I’ve never had an abortion but if I were to get pregnant that could very well happen.”

Next step

Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates Alaska is working on upcoming elections, O’Hara-Jolley said.

“We will be working to get pro-abortion, pro-sex-ed and pro-LGBTQ candidates elected in the November election, so we need volunteers to help us knock on doors and call on phones,” they said.

Through its endorsement process, Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates last month endorsed Les Gara for Alaska governor and Jessica Cook for lieutenant governor.

Gara attended Juneau’s Saturday event, as did Heidi Drygas, who’s running for lieutenant governor with gubernatorial candidate Bill Walker. Many other candidates were present at the abortion rights rallies around the state. Mary Peltola, a candidate in Alaska’s special U.S. House election, and Pat Chesbro, who’s running for U.S. Senate, were at Anchorage’s event, along with several state legislative candidates.

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.”

Hope and weaving assistant Nadezdha Hughes are working on a full-size ceremonial Chilkat dancing blanket in Hope’s studio in Downtown Juneau. It’s for the Houston Museum of Natural Science and due in less than nine weeks. Chilkat weaving is one of the most complex weaving techniques in the world.

“We’ve got a cohort of people coming in to help. It’s totally fine,” Hope said. “My mother would say, ‘It’s going to be done because that’s the deadline it has to be done.’”

Hope’s mother, Clarissa Rizal, a renowned Chilkat and Ravenstail weaver who died in 2016, along with Hope and Hughes, are part of a teaching lineage that goes back hundreds of years. In a newly published book, historian Zachary Jones has traced that lineage to the 1850s when Clara Newman Benson, whose Lingít name was Deinḵul.át, was born.

“Clara Benson taught [Ester Johnson] to weave. [Johnson] taught her daughter Jenny Thlunaut to weave. Jenny Thlunaut taught Clarissa Rizal to weave. Clarissa Rizal taught a number of people to weave, including Lily Hope of Juneau, who is a weaver today and helping other weavers learn about this skill and art,” Jones said.

Researching ‘A Life Painted in Yarn’

“A Life Painted in Yarn: A Biography of Tlingit Chilkat Weaver Clara Newman Benson” is the first-ever biography of the Klukwan artist who lived from 1856 to 1935 and was a significant Chilkat weaver of her day. Of the G̱aanax̱teidí clan, Yéil Hít (Raven House) of Klukwan, Benson was known for weaving Chilkat tunics and Chilkat robes.

Jones said she was one of the most prolific and sought-after weavers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He first heard about Benson when he was an archivist and collection manager for Sealaska Heritage Institute.

“I would acknowledge the late Johnny Marks. He was an elder and former coworker at Sealaska Heritage, and he would come to my office and bring a picture of her and say, ‘This is Mrs. Benson. She was a great weaver from our community,’” Jones said.

At that point, Jones didn’t even know her first name.

“He just said she was known as Mrs. Benson. And there were a few people who would say, ‘This is Mrs. Benson.’ There was not a lot of information known by anyone that I talked to or that could speak about her, so it really prompted me to try and address that. Who was this woman? What was her story?” Jones said.

Jones’ research into Benson’s life involved talking to individuals who had any information about her, including weavers and tribal historian Harold Jacobs who’s a cultural resource specialist at Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. Jones researched hundreds of museum collections from all over the world, as well as historic records at archival and museum repositories that he could locate.

“I’ve reached out to every museum in the United States that holds ethnographic material in hopes of piecing together all the clues that I can,” Jones said.

He even found Benson’s own words.

“Clara Benson was interviewed by an anthropologist around 100 years ago, and she shared her words about Lingít history and provided some clues about her own life to him,” Jones said.

Jones hasn’t been able to locate any family or descendants of Benson. Still, he thinks his book offers “a window into her life and understanding of who she was.”

Jones said Benson was a leader in her community who served others.

“To be a weaver is not just to be an artist. It is to be a person who has immense patience and dedication to producing an item that takes many hours of labor,” he said. “That creation – though it’s an absolute, beautiful piece of art that takes many, many hours, sometimes six months to a year or more to create and gather the materials for – is something that’s important in the Lingít community. These robes are used ceremonially and have a very important role. And so Claire was not only just an artist, she’s someone that produced items that continue to live on and serve her community.”

The Shangukeidí (Thunderbird Clan) of Klukwan holds a robe that Benson weaved, according to Jones. People can still see it danced or worn at events in Juneau, like Celebration, or elsewhere in Southeast Alaska. As a leader of the Shangukeidí, the late Lingít elder and culture bearer Kingeistí David Katzeek used to wear it.

Benson is one of about two dozen historic Lingít individuals that Jones originally profiled in his dissertation, which he finished in 2018 for a doctorate in ethnohistory through the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “A Life Painted in Yarn” is published by Sealaska Heritage Institute.

There were limitations to Jones’ research, unanswered questions about Benson’s life he still can’t figure out. Like if Benson had any kids of her own.

“In the course of her life, she had three husbands that I’ve been able to document,” Jones said. “She had stepchildren through her second and third marriage, but I’ve never been able to document a biological child.”

Another unanswered question – who taught Benson to weave? Who precedes Benson in the teaching lineage?

“I could never determine that aspect,” Jones said. “It remains a mystery I’d like to solve someday.”

A whisper away

Back at Hope’s studio Wooshkindein Da.Áat, both Hope and weaving assistant Hughes said their teachers are with them as they weave.

“They are ever present. Like, Clarissa is forever present. She is always here, like a whisper away,” Hope said. “I definitely call on her and Jenny when I’m in the midst of chaos. I’m like, ‘Jenny, Clarissa, I don’t know what I’m doing.’ And, you know, they show up. They’ll pop in. If I can get out of my own head, my hands will move and do the thing they’re supposed to. I always give them credit because they know what I’m doing. I don’t know what I’m doing all the time.”

Hughes said she regularly practices gratitude to the entire lineage, including Benson, and those weavers whose names aren’t known.

“Like so many blankets you see, they’ll be like, ‘Oh, this artist was unknown.’ And it’s like, they were known, and they were probably very respected and very highly honored,” Hughes said. “So I always say thank you to everyone and all their weavings that we still have and even the ones we don’t have, and ask them to help me do justice to the work.”

During the pandemic, public schools were able to provide free meals to all students, regardless of income, due to federal waivers. Starting this fall, that access is going away for about half the schools in Alaska that participate in the federal school meal program.

Families attending these schools will return to pre-pandemic ways of getting school meals — apply for free or reduced price meals based on income level, or pay for them.

Jo Dawson, program manager for child nutrition programs at the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, said the transition will be difficult.

“I don’t want to undersell this. It’s going to be difficult because families who had traditionally applied are not used to applying and some won’t apply. They won’t ask for assistance,” Dawson said.

She said school sites that have traditionally charged for meals saw participation increase during the pandemic.

“Those school sites are definitely concerned at what this transition back to charging for school meals will do to their participation,” Dawson said. “You know, not only to the revenue, but for the students. Do they have the means to access those healthy meals that they have been participating in in the last two years? So it’s certainly a concern.”

Dawson said some students won’t have access to free meals because their families won’t apply or they don’t meet the income threshold. Serving all meals free to all students works well, she said, because it takes barriers away from participation.

“When all of the students partake in the school meals, it’s no longer thought of as a program that someone needs; it’s a program that someone gets. Students don’t want to be identified as needing that meal,” Dawson said.

To ease families through the transition back to pre-pandemic days, schools in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District impacted by this change are keeping the costs of meals at the same rates.

“We were very intentional in not increasing our meal prices for this coming year,” said Katherine Gardner, Mat-Su school district associate superintendent who oversees its food service operations.

For elementary schools, breakfast costs about $2.25 and lunch $3.75. At the middle and high schools, breakfast costs $2.75 and lunch $4.75 — the same as pre-pandemic rates.

“We’re very mindful of the increased costs that we’ll have in purchasing goods, purchasing food and supplies. But we also recognize that the lower we can keep those prices, the more access students have to those meals,” Gardner said.

Gardner said the district plans to ramp up its communication to families about the changes to the school meal program as the school year approaches.

“It’s really important that they fill out that free and reduced application. We would encourage all of our families to take a look at the application and fill it out. Some people may not think they qualify, but they do. That free and reduced application and status not only helps with access to meals, but it helps for additional support for student programs,” Gardner said.

About half the schools in Alaska will continue to serve free meals to all

About half the schools in Alaska that participate in the national school meal program, including a quarter of the schools in the Mat-Su school district, will not see any difference in their school meal program this coming school year. They’ll continue to serve all meals free to all students through the federal Community Eligibility Provision program, which includes schools where at least 40% of students are eligible based on income or other factors.

“Nothing will change in our district,” said Amanda West, food service director for Lower Kuskokwim School District, regarding student access to free meals.

The district serves about 4,000 students in 28 schools. Most students participate in the school meal program, West said. What will change is how the food is served, “We’re no longer packing it to-go for families. We’ll be serving it in the cafeterias. We’re just going back to what we were doing before, serving kids regular meals.”

Ripple effect of free school meals going away

The benefits linked to a universal free school lunch program – food security and academic performance – will likely be impacted when it goes away, said Mary Kopriva, health economist at the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

“Families are already facing increased food insecurity because of increased prices. Taking away these universal free lunches just exacerbates that,” Kopriva said.

Kopriva said a working research paper that recently came out suggests that taking away universal free lunch may make inflation worse. The paper showed that universal school lunch programs actually helped to reduce grocery prices for everybody by reducing people’s grocery expenditures.

“Stores respond to that reduced demand by reducing prices. So if we see universal lunch programs going away then we will see that increased demand to grocery stores, which could actually heighten inflation for all as well. So we could see this actually exacerbate inflation too potentially, which then again, would have these ripple down effects of increased food insecurity,” Kopriva said.

Another possible impact of free school meals going away, Kopriva said, is families buying lower quality food.

“Households who are getting these universal school lunches are spending less on groceries overall. And they’re also able to increase the quality of the food that they’re getting a little bit, so they’re mainly having healthier options. So, it’s possible that we could see some effects on overall health in that dimension as well.”

Alaska’s state alcohol regulator is declining to stop distilleries from selling kegs of premixed cocktails despite a warning by federal regulators, who have concluded that the process is illegal.

Last week, the Alaska Alcohol Control Board rescinded an advisory notice that had cautioned distilleries against selling kegs to bars and other places with alcohol licenses. The board also voted unanimously to create a working group to consider the topic further.

“In the meantime, I’m not going to go after a guy who has been doing something, allegedly lawfully, for (four) years under our nose,” said Joan Wilson, director of the Alaska Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office.

Sassan Mossanen is the CEO of Denali Brewing and Spirits in Talkeetna and has been selling cocktails by the keg for four years.

State law forbids distilleries from selling a keg to an individual — Alaska has strict limits on serving sizes — but there are no state laws that forbid a distillery from selling a keg to a bar or restaurant that has a liquor license.

In April, following a question from a Denali Spirits sales agent, AMCO began investigating whether federal regulations might bar the practice.

Alcohol sales practices are controlled by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, a section of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The bureau has a section of regulations called “standards of fill,” which dictate the size of bottles that a distillery, winery or brewery can sell.

“It sounds like the activity you described would not be allowed by federal regulations,” a TTB investigator told AMCO’s lead enforcement officer, after he asked about keg sales.

After that message, AMCO sent a warning notice.

“The thought at that time was, ‘Of course, we’re going to enforce the TTB standards,’ and we sent out an advisory to people to let them know that,” Wilson said.

Tom Hogue, a spokesperson for the Tax and Trade Bureau, confirmed the regulations.

“In terms of making a premixed product, like a margarita, or piña colada, somebody who’s properly permitted as a distiller can go ahead and produce a product like that, as long as it’s properly labeled and everything else. The thing is, they’ll have to remove it from their premises in a container that meets one of the standards of fill requirements. There are certain container sizes that are allowable, and the largest container size that they could use would be 1.8 liters,” he said. That equals a half-gallon.

Most cocktail kegs are one-sixth of a barrel, or just over 5 gallons.

Mossanen and Lee Ellis, board president of the Brewers Guild of Alaska, testified in front of the alcohol board in late June, urging the five-member body to disregard the federal guidance and continue keg sales.

“For us, this is a very, very big deal. There are significant financial consequences,” Mossanen said.

Ellis’ employer, Midnight Sun Brewing in Anchorage, also holds a distillery license.

“I would say we have already lost business opportunities because of (the uncertainty),” Ellis told the alcohol board.

Nationally, and within Alaska, the trend in alcohol sales has been toward “premiumization” — smaller volumes of higher-quality alcohol instead of bigger amounts of cheap products.

Alcoholic and nonalcoholic cocktails represent a larger part of the alcohol industry than they did a few years ago, and so-called “ready to drink” cocktails, which don’t require a bartender’s intervention, are a particularly fast-growing niche.

Mossanen said it’s common for distilleries to sell cocktails as a way to demonstrate to bartenders and the public how their liquor can be used.

Denali Spirits and many other distilleries in the state sell ready-to-drink cocktails by the can, but selling by the keg is more efficient and allows Mossanen’s company to better compete with other kinds of alcohol, he said.

He acknowledged the federal regulation but said that because Alaska doesn’t have a similar state law, it’s unenforceable. He compared the situation to the way Alaska handles marijuana, which is federally illegal but legal within the state.

Mossanen also noted that the Tax and Trade Bureau is considering whether to eliminate its “standards of fill” regulations.

In February, the Treasury Department released a report saying in part that those regulations are “no longer necessary” to ensure tax compliance, and a rulemaking process underway now could eliminate the idea of regulated container sizes in favor of a minimum size and a maximum size.

Even if adopted, the current wording of that proposal appears to fall short of allowing kegs.

At AMCO, Wilson said one of her primary concerns is to maintain fairness, and if there’s no clear state law, she will follow the direction of the alcohol board.

“I implement the board’s will. I’m not always going to wait, but we’ve got someone selling a product — we believe lawfully — and not getting our attention for (four) years. And I’ve also got an entire industry of breweries supporting his interpretation of this. And I’ve got a board asking for additional advice on it,” Wilson said.

“I’m not going to start enforcing until those pieces come together.”

A Southwest Alaska wildfire has burned through the site of a support camp for the Pebble Mine project as the state’s wildfire season remains on pace to be one of the worst on record.

Almost 2.4 million acres have burned through Wednesday morning, according to the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center.

Firefighters have kept flames away from most structures across the state, according to reports submitted through Wednesday, successfully defending villages and towns even as smoke blankets many of the state’s largest cities.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, part of the Upper Talarik fire burned through the site of a supply camp constructed to support the controversial Pebble Mine, a planned metal mine in the headwaters of Bristol Bay.

Mine construction is on hold, pending the result of several legal fights and permitting processes, but geologists have been exploring the site’s potential.

No one was present at the site when the fire burned through the area.

Joe Holzinger, a public information officer assigned to the Upper Talarik and a handful of other fires collectively known as the Lime Complex, said it isn’t clear how much of the camp was damaged or destroyed.

He said assessors are en route to the area, which is within a temporary flight restriction intended to aid firefighting aircraft.

“At this point, we’re just waiting for that assessment to see how much it was impacted,” he said of the mine site.

A spokesman for Pebble Limited Partnership did not return a phone call Wednesday.

Abe Davis, operations chief for the Lime Complex fires, said firefighters have successfully burned out some areas around Lime Village, the town for which the fires are named. Those controlled burns are intended to protect the village against wildfires.

The wildfire season has been exceptionally bad in Southwest Alaska this year, with more than 1.2 million acres burned, a record for the region.

A low-snow winter was followed by a hot and dry spring and a spree of thunderstorms, contributing to the historic fire season.

Elsewhere in the state, fires have prompted evacuation watches near the town of Anderson, on the Parks Highway, and in locations near Fairbanks.

Clear Space Force Station, which houses one of the United States’ main ballistic missile alert radars, is among the areas in the alert zone. The town of Nenana is just north of the zone.