Lisa Phu

Juneau artist Crystal Worl was one of five Native artists from around the country to show their work at Vice President Joe Biden’s house last month. Worl was commissioned to design a print for the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies program.

“The piece itself is called, ‘Héen,’ which is a Tlingit word for water,” said Crystal Worl.

Its alternate title is “Into Water.” Worl said the design, which is an image of Raven intertwined with a sea spirit, is an interpretation of a dream she had earlier this year.

“I was really, really thirsty in my sleep and I was flying around looking for water and I saw this huge range of mountains and I knew there was water on the other side. So I flew over the mountain and there was this huge body of clear water, and I dove into it to quench my thirst and to soak my feathers in the water,” Worl said.

And then she flew out of the water. “As I flew over the land, the water that was in my feathers began to drip and create rain, because the rest of the world was thirsty. The dream itself reflects an actual Raven story about Raven and water; there is an actual Tlingit story about that,” Worl said.

Worl came up with this design this summer over a period of 12 hours at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Worl graduated in 2013.

“I struggled for the first 5 hours. I couldn’t come up with what I wanted to do. I was like, ‘It has to be good, it has to be good,’ and that kind of haunted my creation,” Worl said.

The Institute of American Indian Arts chose five alumni from different regions of the country to produce new work as part of the Art in Embassies program. Worl was selected to represent Alaska. Prints of her and the four other Native artists’ work will end up on the walls of U.S. embassies and ambassadors’ houses all over the world.

While working on the design, Worl studied books on traditional formline, took pictures of her sketches and consulted with her brother Rico Worl. She wanted to stay true to the art form, but also depict the sensation of underwater movement.

“You can recognize it as traditional design, but you look at the tail feathers and the tips of the claws – they kind of spiral out and curl outward – which is not traditional,” Worl said.

The background of the print is a photo transfer of the shore at Eagle Beach. Worl said she wanted to use an image directly from home.

Last month, the U.S. State Department flew Worl to Washington, D.C. She attended a reception at Joe and Jill Biden’s house where her print was framed and displayed. She and the other Native artists were being honored.

“It was unreal,” Worl said. “I remember standing in front of my print while people were approaching and talking to me, and I was just kind of like outside of my body watching myself, like, ‘Is this really happening?’”

As Jill and Joe Biden gave speeches about the exhibit, the artists, including Worl, stood next to them.

“The best part for me was that I had my dad there with me and just to see him standing there smiling at me when I’m standing by the podium. I’ve seen him smile at me, but he was just beaming. He was glowing,” Worl said.

Both Worl and her father Rodney Worl got to shake hands with the vice president.

“I just remember my cheeks hurting from smiling, my feet hurting from those awesome heels and I was wearing this beautiful sea otter and seal fur shawl that my Aunt Louise had made and I just remember standing there next to him trying not to wipe my nose because I had otter fur on my nose,” Worl said, laughing.

Worl got to take some of the 33 prints of her work home. One is hanging at Trickster Company, a Juneau art store she co-owns with her brother. She’s selling the print for $2,500.

Worl is 27. She said it never gets old surprising yourself, “You can never tell yourself you’re not good enough for anything because you don’t know that. Just to keep going and keep pushing yourself is ultimately going to be good for you and the success of whatever it is you choose to do.”

Soon after Worl returned to Juneau, she set off for Los Angeles to sell art and she’s now in Seattle to network with galleries and museums.

Worl is also working on creating an art collective of indigenous millennial women making Northwest Coast art.

Juneau teachers are getting a 2 percent salary increase. On Tuesday night, the Juneau School Board approved the negotiated contract between the school district and the teachers’ union.

Negotiations began in January. The Juneau School District and the Juneau Education Association reached a tentative agreement in mid-October and the teachers’ union voted to approve it at the end of the month. The board approval was the final step.

The 2 percent raise includes a 1 percent permanent salary schedule increase and a 1 percent temporary increase. The negotiated agreement also includes a more competitive starting pay for specialist positions and compensating some teachers for extra meeting hours at a rate of about $33 an hour.

The estimated fiscal impact of the contract for this budget year is about $650,000. This will come out of budget savings from the general operating fund.

The Juneau School Board unanimously ratified the contract. Board vice president Andi Story said the district has an outstanding teaching staff.

“They work really hard for our kids. They’re very dedicated and we’re very grateful for them. We wouldn’t be much without them. They’re the ones who are in front of our kids each day, our most valuable resources,” Story said.

Board member Emil Mackey said he’s worried about class sizes getting bigger as budgets get smaller.

“I’m extremely concerned that we’re on a non-sustainable path that is not good for kids, is not good for the teachers, is not good for the district. And in the future negotiation, I really hope we collaborate on getting those class sizes down,” Mackey said.

Juneau Education Association President Dirk Miller said neither side got everything they wanted, but the teachers’ union is happy. He said the collaborative bargaining method worked out well.

“I guess the difference between this and other negotiations is, I brought pie to the last bargaining team meeting and we all talked and it was congenial,” Miller said. “This was a nice path and it led to a resolution of something that is important for all of us.”

For future contract negotiations, both the district and the teachers’ union want equity in teacher preparation time, which currently varies across grade levels. The district also wants to explore the possibility of a seven-period high school day, as opposed to the current six-period day, which would allow students more opportunities to earn credits toward graduation.

This is a one-year contract. It’s retroactive to July 1 and goes through June 30 of next year.

Front Street Community Health Center in Juneau has a new permanent nurse practitioner after a year of temporary medical providers.

The health clinic, which caters primarily to people who are homeless, has gone through a lot of growing pains since it separated from Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium two years ago.

Cynthia Mattoni was a temporary nurse practitioner at the Front Street Community Health Center before she decided to apply for the permanent position. She’s been on the job since Oct. 1 and is very busy.

“It’s reorganizing the clinic. It’s a lot of paperwork and a lot of education and developing those relationships with the patients, the community, the community providers, the pharmacy so they know who I am and that I’m permanent,” Mattoni said.

Mattoni is seeing up to 16 patients a day, but her schedule can vary.

“Some days are full, some days aren’t full. Some days we’re available for the walk-in who wants an appointment,” Mattoni said.

Mattoni provides general primary care. She’s certified in family practice and concussion care. She does annual checkups, childrens’ physicals and well-woman exams.

Front Street Clinic has traditionally served the homeless population. Last year, it expanded to include all low-income patients who have trouble accessing health care. There’s a sliding scale fee schedule, and a case manager can help patients sign up for Medicaid.

Serving the homeless population is still a primary focus and Mattoni finds the work gratifying.

“They’re kind of like the forgotten part of society and I treat everybody like they’re my family. It doesn’t matter who you are. We’re all human. We all have the same needs and that respect goes a long way,” Mattoni said.

Mattoni moved to Juneau from Cleveland where she used to work in the emergency room. She encountered people who were homeless there, but she says working at Front Street is very different.

“This is family practice. This is not only managing their conditions, but it’s managing chronic conditions for a long period of time. In the emergency room, you would just see them for one episodic visit. Here, I’m actually following them and following the progression of their medical care,” Mattoni said.

Mattoni is the health center’s only provider. As Front Street was transitioning from being under SEARCH to becoming its own nonprofit, it discontinued behavioral health and dental services because of budget constraints.

But the nonprofit recently received a federal grant of $220,000 and will soon recruit for a behavioral health specialist and another case manager. Dental services are still not in the near future.

Board president Dr. Carl Heine said the clinic has been outsourcing management services to Wrangell-based Alaska Island Community Services. The board is exploring the idea of completely turning the clinic over to the health care organization.

“Our main concern is that the clinic continues to exist and operate and continues to meet its mission of serving the homeless and the underserved with quality medical care. We’re not necessarily, as a board, concerned that we are the ones running it,” Heine said.

Heine said the new funding and its main federal grant of $385,000 are both renewable and will hopefully keep the clinic sustainable.

The long-term plan is to locate the Front Street Community Health Center inside the Housing First facility to be built in Lemon Creek.

First Lady Donna Walker was adopted into the Tlingit Deisheetaan clan Thursday night. She was given a Tlingit name at the end of an indigenous literature reading she hosted at the Governor’s Mansion.

Writer Ishmael Hope announced the surprise honor. He said the name was approved by Deisheetaan clan elder Selina Everson.

“Selina wanted to give a very, very special name of Koodeishghé,” Hope said.

That name was once held by the late Lydia George of Angoon.

“And I knew her. She was just an extreme wealth of information and knowledge of Tlingit culture, Tlingit history,” Hope said. “It just shows the high value that Selina and the Deisheetaan have for First Lady Walker.”

Hope says the naming also brings the Walker family together. Gov. Bill Walker was given a Kaagwaantaan clan name of the Wolf/Eagle moiety in April. To make it complete, Hope said the First Lady needed a Raven name.

Symbolizing payment for the name, Clan Conference Executive Director Gerry Hope put money on the First Lady’s forehead as her Tlingit name was announced four times.

“A real blessing,” Walker said. “I was with the governor when they surprise adopted him into the clan, so it’s twice now we’ve been able to experience that. It’s the highest honor.”

The Deisheetaan will confirm Walker’s Tlingit name during a memorial ceremony at a later date.

The Juneau teachers union voted Thursday night to approve a one-year tentative contract with the school district.

The negotiation process ended earlier this month and members of the Juneau Education Association had a week to look at the tentative contract. It includes a 2 percent pay increase, a more competitive starting pay for specialist positions and compensating some teachers for extra meeting hours.

A majority of members passed the tentative contract, though JEA President Dirk Miller wouldn’t get into percentages. He said close to 180 of about 355 members voted, and that’s a good turnout.

Miller said the negotiating team did a good job of working with the district, although there were things the teachers didn’t get.

“There are lots of issues out there that will come up again. Unfortunately, they’ll come up in the next year’s negotiation because it’s only a one-year contract. So the things that the two sides were able to agree on were pretty good for students in the district, teachers and families,” Miller said.

Miller said the collaborative interest-based bargaining was a better arrangement than traditional negotiating. He said the process wasn’t contentious.

“I think our relationship with this administration is a lot more solid. I think the hope is that the path that they laid with this contract will lend itself into the next contract, so we won’t have to start from scratch and maybe they can pick up where they left off and come to a speedier resolution,” Miller said.

The negotiating process lasted nearly a year. Miller said some of the delay was due to the Alaska Legislature taking so long to pass a budget.

The contract remains tentative until the school board votes it through. It’s expected to be on the November agenda. The last contract expired June 30, but its terms remain in effect.

Miller said contract negotiations between the teachers’ union and the school district are expected to begin again in January.

During welcoming remarks of “Sharing Our Knowledge: A Conference of Tlingit Tribes & Clans” in Juneau on Thursday morning, Tlingit leaders spoke about the need to engage youth and what role Native people should play in Western institutions.

Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott’s comments focused on nurturing and inspiring the next generation of Alaska Natives. He said today’s youth witness violence and dysfunction.

“We will ourselves work hard to create wellness and health in our own communities. We must take care of our children and we must make that a moral and cultural imperative,” Mallott said.

Richard Peterson, president of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, echoed Mallott’s sentiments. He said kids flourish and take pride in knowing their culture. It’s up to the adults, he said, to engage them.

“Somebody asked me recently, ‘What do Native people care about?’ And I said, ‘There’s two things that I can think of that we care more about than anything else. That’s our children and our land.’ That’s what I was always told. But sometimes when I look, and being very candid and honest, I don’t know that we hold our children up as much as we should,” Peterson said.

The audience he was speaking to was mostly adults but had several college students and a few children.

University of Alaska Southeast Vice Chancellor Joe Nelson highlighted the conference’s mission of bringing together Alaska Native people with Western academics, “I always wrestle with these worlds colliding and the tension that’s there, so I like to acknowledge it just right up front and welcome all the non-Natives that are fully engaged as champions and still with us moving forward on common goals.”

Nelson said the Native population has a brutal recent history stemming from the early beginnings of non-Natives arriving in Alaska, and continues to deal with issues as a result of it. To overcome them, Nelson encourages Alaska Natives to succeed in the Western academic world.

“Follow that path all the way through, secure that Ph.D. and start taking the Western academy over by taking over the curriculum. It’s university faculty that own the curriculum and we do not have enough Native folks. It’s just a huge gap there. That’s a pathway to taking back their curriculum in higher education,” Nelson said.

Sealaska Heritage Institute President Rosita Worl said early leaders of the Alaska Native Brotherhood had encouraged learning Western ways, speaking English and becoming educated.

“They wanted us to be able to control the systems and the institutions that had effect on our lives, that would dictate what we could do as Native people,” Worl said.

She said Alaska Natives are living in a changing time and are figuring out how to integrate their cultural values and languages into larger society.

“I remember when Kenny Grant, who was the chair of our traditional council, said, ‘Rosita, how much change can we accept before we are not Tlingits?’ That is the question that faces us almost on a daily basis,” Worl said.

She said the clan conference allows attendees to reflect on Native culture and continue planning for the future.

The conference continues into the weekend.