Yvonne Krumrey

This is Tongass Voices, a series from KTOO sharing weekly perspectives from the homelands of the Áak’w Kwáan and beyond.

Justin Smith of Gustavus has produced albums for Alaska artists like Annie Bartholomew, Blackwater Railroad Company and Josh Fortenbery.

He’s performed at festivals with blues legends like B.B. King, James Brown, Son Seals and Taj Mahal, but Smith says he loves playing and producing for Alaskans more than anything.

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Justin Smith: There’s this whole sort of instrumental bridge section in a tune called “Happy Tune” on the Blackwater Railroad record where it’s just musically so exciting. And I was just sitting there hearing them play it, you know, and looking over at the computer and seeing, like, “Yes, it’s recording. We’re getting this, yeah!” You know? 

Dec. 1 of 93, I spent my last dollar at Heritage Coffee. Got off the ferry. We were like, pulling change out from under the seat, you know, of the car, trying to get enough money together for our ferry tickets. 

And I had $1 left when I got to Juneau. Walked around, it was First Friday in December. We walked out of the galleries eating all the cookies because we didn’t have any food. That was my start in Juneau. And I got here, and everybody told me I needed to go to the Alaskan (Hotel) on Thursday night for the open mic. So I did that on my first Thursday. 

And I was always the guy in the high school bands and stuff that would set up the PA and figured those things out, and I would mess around with a four-track recorder, things like that. So I had kind of an inclination towards the gear side of things, but eventually I wanted to record myself. 

I got a little bit of gear, and then I just kind of branched out from there, because I heard somebody singing once at open mic and invited them over to record their stuff. And I just, I just love it, you know? I just love it. 

And I tried to acquire nice gear and learn the best methods, because I didn’t want anything to sound amateur, and I didn’t want to put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into getting a performance, and then feel like if I ever wanted to put it out on a record, I’d have to re record it in a real studio, you know, because it’s just so hard to get that performance and get that thing that you want, and to think that you’re only doing it temporarily, until you can do it for real in a real music studio. So I tried to start with nice equipment and doing it the right way. 

When we did Annie’s record, when we did Sisters of White Chapel, we did that in a cabin at the Methodist camp. One of my favorite things on that was, at the end of “Last Confession,” there’s this long piano outro, and we recorded the band with Kat (Moore) playing bass, and then we came up with this arrangement idea to like, give it to the piano to reprise the melody at the end of it. 

Kat sat at the piano and was trying to pick out the melody, and she played a few wrong notes while she was trying to figure out the melody. She’s okay, “I think I got it. Let’s do this.” And we recorded it once, and I was like, “Could you play it the way that you did, like a few minutes ago, and you’re still trying to figure out the melody, and it wasn’t quite exactly right?” And she sort of got back to that space, and that’s what’s on there. And it’s just so beautiful.

Because the concept of it is like, there aren’t — of the record, you know  — there weren’t concert musicians in the Yukon, you know, in the 1860s right? And so it was meant to seem a little ragged and a little sort of amateur. And it’s just such a beautiful moment when we all put that together and listen back to it, we were all so floored. It was so great. 

What I love about music, and what I love about Alaska, it’s all the same. It’s beauty, you know. And there’s so much beauty in these things. And I want it around me. I want music around me all the time, and I want Alaska around me, and wildlife and just the beauty of the environment here and the beautiful, amazing people. I want all of that around me all the time in my life. So that’s why I want to be here, you know? 

And there’s so much support for music here and all of the arts. And Alaskan artists, I found with these productions that I’ve done, are passionate about doing their work in Alaska. They often see it as like a little bit of a cop-out to go down to Seattle or LA or something and buy some studio time to record their music that they’ve come up with up here. They want to do it in Alaska with Alaskans and that’s so cool, because we have it all here.

Here’s Justin Smith performing a Red Carpet Concert in 2019. 

The Juneau Assembly unanimously passed a resolution Monday night urging Alaska’s congressional delegation to oppose cuts to federal agencies. The move is a response to the local effects of the Trump administration’s widespread federal firings.

In 2024, more than 700 people living in Juneau worked for the federal government. It’s not clear how many are still employed after the firings. 

Assembly member Alicia Hughes-Skandijs introduced the resolution. 

“I just want to make sure that we’re doing like every single thing we can to let the people who are our representatives in the federal government know that we want you to do something about this,” Hughes-Skandijs said after the meeting. 

The resolution was passed through the consent agenda, which means they didn’t discuss it, and there wasn’t public testimony. 

Hughes-Skandijs said the firings will negatively impact Juneau’s economy and vital services residents rely on. Her resolution does not name the Trump administration, which carried out the terminations.

“Is that person who was the breadwinner for their family going to stay in Juneau?” she said. “The fallout effects of a bunch of federal workers getting laid off, I think, has the potential to have a major impact to our community.”

Hughes-Skandijs also pointed to the National Weather Service’s role in public safety by monitoring Suicide Basin and issuing warnings ahead of each year’s glacial outburst flood. 

She also acknowledged the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center, which the resolution calls a “cornerstone of Juneau’s tourism economy.” 

The visitor center, managed by the U.S. Forest Service, recently saw a near-complete termination of its staff. Some have since been rehired, but the staffing situation ahead of the approaching tourism season remains uncertain.

In her annual speech to the Alaska Legislature last month, U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski condemned the ways the Trump administration is carrying out the mass firings, calling some “unlawful.”  

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan downplayed the firings in his own legislative address and said that Trump advisor Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is making “noble progress” to reduce the national debt. 

Both Murkowski and Sullivan recently co-sponsored a resolution to keep the U.S. Postal Service independent and public. 

The Assembly also read through a proposal to set aside $200,000 to help staff the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center. The Assembly will vote on it at its next meeting on May 19.

This is Lingít Word of the Week. Each week, we feature a Lingít word voiced by master speakers. Lingít has been spoken throughout present-day Southeast Alaska and parts of Canada for over 10,000 years.

Gunalchéesh to X̱’unei Lance Twitchell, Goldbelt Heritage Foundation and the University of Alaska Southeast for sharing the recorded audio for this series.

This week’s word is shéiyi, or spruce. Listen to the audio below to learn how to say shéiyi.

The following transcript is meant to help illustrate the words and sentences. 

Kaxwaan Éesh George Davis: Shéiyi. 

That means spruce. 

Here are some sentences:

Kaxwaan Éesh George Davis: Shéiyi da dax̱ káax’ has awliyéx̱. 

He made a basket out of spruce bark.

Keiyishí Bessie Cooley: Cháash hít yeedé shéiyi haaw, yéi amsinee.

They put spruce boughs in the brush house.

Kooshdáakʼu Bill Fawcett: Aak’éi aas áwé wé shéiyi.

It’s a good tree, the spruce. 

Ḵaakal.áat Florence Marks Sheakley: Shéiyi daayí tsú atx̱ duleix̱.

Spruce bark as well, it is always growing.

You can hear each installment of Lingít Word of the Week on the radio throughout the week. 

Additional language resources:

Find biographies for the master speakers included in this lesson here.

Learn more about why we use Lingít instead of Tlingit here.

Watch a video introducing Lingít sounds here.

At Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center earlier this week, cultural ambassadors were learning how to best represent Lingít stewardship and connection to the glacier to the roughly one million tourists slated to visit this summer. 

Saaní Liana Wallace set off down the walkway toward Steep Creek. For this training, her supervisor sent her and her fellow ambassadors out to study the plants along nearby trails and take photos of the ones they don’t know. 

“Join the crowd,” she said. “We’re talking about plants, so Lee [Miller], who’s been here a while, is going to show me a plant that he wants us to work on.” 

While U.S. Forest Service staffing at Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center remains uncertain, there will be eight people working at the glacier in a different role – as cultural ambassadors. They’re employed by the local tribe and they teach visitors about Lingít history, culture, and its connections to the land.  

The Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska program started last year, as part of a co-stewardship agreement the tribe formed with the Forest Service. 

It will allow people like Shaaḵ’indax̱ Jonah Johnson to teach visitors about things like Devil’s Club – or as it’s called in Lingít, s’axt. He likes it because there’s more to it than meets the eye.

“It looks like it’s just a harmful plant, but it’s really our medicine plant,” Johnson said.

In February, a wave of federal firings left one remaining Forest Service staff member at the visitor center. In a typical summer, there are about a dozen on site. 

Some of the fired staff have been rehired, but there are rumors they may lose their jobs again, or accept a deferred leave offer. Forest Service officials say they aren’t able to share any plans for staffing for the summer.

But while that’s up in the air, the cultural ambassadors are moving forward with their plan to staff Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area.

Góos’k’ Ralph Wolfe directs Indigenous stewardship programs for the tribe.

“We’re still out there, we’re still going to be there,” he said. “And we’re just trying to figure out where we can help the Forest Service kind of fill in.”

He said he’s been thinking of how the ambassadors may be stepping in to do work the Forest Service rangers would be doing – like managing visitor safety. 

But he said the program’s mission is still focused on highlighting Indigenous stewardship. 

“We’re trying to be flexible while also making sure our mission is to make sure that the culture is passed on,” Wolfe said. 

Cultural Ambassador Lee Miller is returning for his second season. He said he thinks all of the staff at the glacier will be spread thin this year. 

“But it’s exciting,” he said. “I mean, every day is different, every person is different.”

Miller said he loves representing the Áak’w Ḵwaan, and bringing the joy of the natural world to visitors. 

“You can pass it on to them. You’re, you know, you’re coming in and you say, ‘Okay, I just saw a porcupine out on the meadow there,’ or an eagle or a heron, and, you know, just point it out to them, and they’ll ask you questions,” he said.

Miller’s family has been here for thousands of years, but he’ll be greeting people who are seeing the glacier for the first time. 

“Just interacting with them and watching them,” he said. “You know it just — that made the whole season.”

And the 2025 season begins April 14, when the first cruise ship arrives in Juneau.

With Juneau’s cruise ship season less than two weeks away, Juneau officials are proposing to set aside city money to hire staff for one of the city’s main tourist attractions: the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center.

The jobs were formerly filled by federal workers, and city leaders say the proposal would act as a safety net in the face of further uncertainty at the federal level.

Juneau’s Visitor Industry Director Alix Pierce asked the Assembly Finance Committee to set aside $200,000. The money could be used to fund positions at the visitor center from State Commercial Passenger Fees collected from cruise ship visitors if more federal employees are laid off. She’s hoping it won’t come to that, though. 

“This appropriation would be money to the manager’s office to use at the discretion of the City Manager, if there’s another issue affecting staffing, to try to create some level of continuity out there, given all the uncertainties,” Pierce said. 

In February, a wave of federal firings left one remaining staff member at the visitor center. In a typical summer, there are about a dozen on site at any given time to serve the one million visitors who come each year. 

Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reinstated employees who were terminated because an independent federal board ruled that the firings were unlawful. It issued a 45-day stay on the positions, but thereʼs still uncertainty about what happens next. U.S. Forest Service officials say they can’t provide a staffing schedule or plan for the visitor center at this time. 

Pierce says about half of the visitor center staff took their jobs back. Others had already found jobs elsewhere. But even for those currently back at the glacier, the job is unstable. And, sheʼs heard from Forest Service staff that more cuts may be coming from the White House in the future.

“There is still some uncertainty,” she said. “There are discussions of another reduction in force. We don’t know what that looks like. We don’t know how it would impact operations here in Juneau.”

The city manager could use the money to pay other organizations that operate at the glacier to quickly hire some of the terminated staff. 

One of those is Discovery Southeast, a nature and science education nonprofit that already has a presence at the glacier.

Shawn Eisele is the director. He said the city funding is a good stop-gap, but he’s upset they have to step in at all. The Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center was self-sustaining as it was before the Trump administration cut staff.

“It worked really well. It ‘s good paying jobs in our community. It worked great. It doesn’t make sense that it’s been kind of artificially collapsed right now,” he said. “Like, we’re not looking for a good solution. We’re just looking for the least pain in the short term to hopefully bridge a better solution in the long term.”

But Eisele said the organization is prepared to be a part of that bridge.

“If there’s an opportunity for us to step in in the short term and keep things going, we’re prepared to do this,” he said. 

The proposal will be introduced at Monday’s assembly meeting, and voted on at the next. 

After nearly four years, the sexual assault case against a former Juneau chiropractor is slated to go to trial April 21. 

Jeffrey Fultz is accused of assaulting more than a dozen women under the guise of medical care. Police arrested Fultz in 2021 based on initial accusations that he had assaulted three patients while he was a chiropractor for Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. 

More women have come forward since, and he now faces 18 felony sexual assault charges and one misdemeanor harassment charge. Some of the alleged crimes date back more than a decade.

According to Assistant District Attorney Jessalyn Gillum, several factors have delayed the trial over the years, including the case’s complexity, the number of witnesses and a backlog of criminal cases in Juneau leftover from the  pandemic, when in-person trials were put on hold. 

In the time the case has been awaiting trial, the first judge assigned to the case retired, the investigating Juneau police officer died and Fultz’s first attorney was deemed “mentally unable” to continue with the case. 

Fultz hired his current attorney, James Christie, in January of last year.

The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica reported early this year that felony cases in Alaska often face years of delays requested by defense attorneys and approved by judges.

Fultz’s case was finally scheduled to begin trial in February, but was delayed yet again as the court continues to process and release outstanding records.

Due to new limitations established by the Alaska Supreme Court, cases filed before 2023 will have a limit of 270 days before they must go to trial starting in May. 

The order says the defense and prosecution are each allotted 90 days of delay requests, and a further 90 days is included for “other periods of delay for good cause.” If Fultz’s case is delayed further, it would be subject to that ruling. 

Fultz has been living in Colorado since he posted bail three years ago. He has made one in-person appearance in Juneau court since.

In early 2021, the Indian Health Services established a hotline for callers to report suspected sexual abuse by calling 1-855-SAFE-IHS (855-723-3447) or submitting a complaint online on the IHS.gov website. The hotline may be used to report any type of suspected child abuse within the IHS, or any type of sexual abuse regardless of the age of the victim. The person reporting by phone or online may remain anonymous.

Locally, people can call AWARE in Juneau at (907) 586-1090.