Alaska Native Arts & Culture

U.S. Forest Service officials and Juneau residents commemorated the opening of the new Juneau Forestry Sciences Laboratory on Saturday.

The dedication of the new facility near the edge of Auke Lake featured the raising of house posts carved by Haines carver Wayne Price.

Forest Service employees assigned to the lab helped raise the posts at the entrance of the building.

The $10 million facility built on federal land is the new, permanent home for the lab’s roughly thirty employees who have worked in at least three other different facilities on a temporary basis over the last 60 years.

Updated story on Saturday’s ceremony:

Two groups of Forest Service employees approached the new Juneau Forestry Sciences Laboratory from opposite directions. Each group, about a dozen people each, carried a thousand-pound yellow cedar log carved into a house post. In front of the lab, each of the ten-foot posts were set down, pivoted on the bottom end, lifted up on a mounting pedestal, and pushed upright into place (see slideshow above).

The dedication of the new lab on Saturday was a mix of the traditional and the modern with more of an emphasis on tradition as participants danced, and paid their respects and honored the Aak’W Kwaan who have traditionally owned and occupied the land around Auke Bay. It included the Carver’s Dance which marks relinquishment of title and ownership of the totems.

The modern part of the dedication came at the very end with a ribbon stretched across the entrance and a half-a-dozen pair of scissors.

“We’re delighted to be here on the ancestral grounds of the Aak’W Kwaan,” said Robert Mangold who is acting director of the Pacific Northwest Research Station that is essentially a group of eleven labs in the region. “They’ve been very helpful and instrumental in design of the building and supporting us.”

Mangold says the 12,000 square foot Juneau lab on the edge of Auke Lake and adjacent to the University of Alaska Southeast campus is about medium in size for their facilities.

Construction on the $10 million building started only three years ago. But it’s has been as much as 60-years in making with the lab’s twenty to thirty employees recently working in at least three different facilities on a temporary basis.

“It’s a tremendous building. It really offers the kind of lab facilities that we never had before,” said Paul Hennon, a forest pathologist with the Station.

Contractors used stone and yellow cedar siding obtained in Southeast Alaska while the interior features hickory trim. Upstairs include the offices while the downstairs is devoted to the lab spaces where the botanists, hydrologists, entomologists, and other scientists can work.

Hennon and his colleagues in other disciplines will work together to tackle everything from forest health to human use of the forest, watershed and young-growth management, and climate change issues.

“So, it’s very common at least in our experience that we team up, kind of mix our disclipines together and are able to take on some broader problems that way,” said Hennon.

The new building will also house the Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center and its location next to UAS should foster more collaboration with faculty and students on research.

Other building construction details include triple-glazed windows, radiant heating, and a ground source heating and cooling system for energy efficiency.

But the house posts will be the first thing that any visitor sees. Master carver Wayne Price of Haines says both posts are carved from the same log of yellow cedar found on Chichagof Island. He says he started on them full-time after the New Year, and finished just hours before getting on the ferry for Juneau. Price says the Eagle post features a mudshark of the Wooshkeetaan and the Raven post includes a dog salmon picked by Aak’W elders.

“I’m just very glad to see the house posts in place. They look a lot better where they belong,” said Price.

“And I’m glad to see all the people that turned out today for this big event and thank the Forest Service for supporting the Native culture and the art. Now that we have these here, all the young people have a constant reminder of the people that were here from the get-go. That ties it all together.”

 

A Southeast village Native corporation wants to export its cultural tourism expertise. It’s opened a consulting business to build on more than a dozen years in the business.

Huna Totem Corporation has more than 1,300 shareholders with ties to the Tlingit village of Hoonah, about 40 miles west of Juneau.

It places cultural interpreters onboard cruise ships sailing the ancestral homeland of Glacier Bay. It also presents educational programs at the national park’s lodge, the jumping-off point for many visitors.

Now, those efforts have a different name and goals.

“Alaska Native Voices is going to be an expansion of what we are currently working on,” says Mark McKernan, who heads up what Huna Totem used to call its Interpretive Services Department.

“We’re going to now provide consulting services for other cultural interests, Native groups, small communities and what have you. We’ll provide these services to them to help them answer the big questions of how do they start, where do they start and what goals should they be aiming for,” he says.

A number of other Alaska Native corporations and tribal entities use cultural tourism to make money and employ shareholders or members. (Scroll down for links to some other cultural tours.)

But McKernan says others are looking for help.

“What we have learned and what we can pass on is just as relevant in Southeast Alaska as it would be in Costa Rica or somewhere on the East Coast or the Midwest,” he says.

Alaska Native Voices began operations early this month.

McKernan says it has no formalized consulting agreements. But several groups have expressed interest and are discussing options.

Rosita Worl, president of the Juneau-based Sealaska Heritage Institute, says Hoonah Totem is well-equipped for the business.

“I think they have the experience. They’ve got the professional background and business experience in it. And I think they’ve done a great job in terms of trying to educate people about their culture and their history and meanwhile making a profit,” Worl says.

Huna Totem’s heritage guides are scheduled to be on about 200 cruise ships this year. That includes the Holland America Line, which sails large ships, and Alaskan Dream and Lindblad Expeditions, which operate much smaller vessels.

McKernan says cultural tourism programs need to tap traditional knowledge — and not just be another stop on the road.

“We do consult regularly with elders and others in the community and develop resources for these cultural guides to be able to grow and expand their knowledge base,” he says.

Huna Totem operates its own attraction, Icy Strait Point, which expects about 135,000 cruise passengers this year. Traditional culture is part of most of its excursions and programs.

McKernan says Icy Strait managers could also consult with other businesses interested in similar developments.

Learn about some other Alaska Native cultural tourism programs:

• Goldbelt Corporation, Juneau.
• Cape Fox Corporation, Saxman, near Ketchikan.
• Sitka Tribe of Alaska.
• Alaska Native Heritage Center, Anchorage.
• Chilkat Indian Village, near Haines.
• Wrangell Tours.

Do you want your local cultural tour listed here? Email the website link to ed@coastalaska.org. 

 

The Tlingit and Haida Central Council expects some hits from sequestration.  It also honored tribal members, including a Southeast basketball star.

President Ed Thomas told delegates about projected cuts during the council’s recent Tribal Assembly in Juneau.

“I think pretty much across the board, we’re talking about a 5 percent negative impact. Nobody has come up with anything less than that,” he says.

He says the cut would take about $1.3 million out of the council’s approximately $27 million annual budget.

The federal government provides much of the funding. Council programs provide vocational training, public safety, family and youth services, and tribal courts.

The Tlingit and Haida Central Council also uses interest from an approximately $11 million trust fund. But President Thomas says the earnings need to be saved.

“All and all, we can’t keep spending the interest and expect to survive for the long term. We have to have at least inflation-proofing. And the only way to do that is to live within our means and not do things that cost money we can’t pay for,” he says.

The Juneau-based council represents more than 28,000 tribal members in Alaska and the Lower 48.

The tribal assembly voted down a proposal reducing the number of voting delegates by around 20 percent.

Rules require one delegate per 150 tribal members. A proposal from Thomas would have only counted members with active addresses that establish their residency.

Thomas says it’s a problem in bigger cities.

“Seattle and Juneau have the largest number of delegates and the largest number of people that we have bad addresses for,” he says.

April’s Tribal Assembly was the council’s 78th. It was held in the Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall in downtown Juneau. (Read the minutes from the meetings.)

Tribal Assembly delegates also:

• Heard from Thomas also about succession planning, as he will retire at the end of his term in 2014.
• Paid tribute to the late Clarence Jackson, past central council president.
• Seated Aurora Lehr of Anchorage and Bob Loescher of Juneau as Tribal Court judges.
• Named Shirley Kendall of Anchorage as Citizen of the Year.
• Named Konrad Frank of Angoon as Youth Representative.
• Honored tribal citizen and Alaska Sports Hall of Fame inductee Herb Didrickson. First Vice President Will Micklin presented him with the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award and a proclamation that declared Friday, April 19, 2013, as Herb Didrickson Day.

Yesterday was the last day of operation for the Bill Brady Healing Center. The inpatient drug-and-alcohol rehab program has existed in its current form since 1996. Its closure is blamed on federal budget cutbacks. The center is part of the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, or SEARHC, which relies heavily on federal money.

Bill Brady’s last class graduated in mid-April, leaving a couple weeks for employees to tie up loose ends. KCAW visited employees as they packed up their desks and looked back at their time working for the center.

In the lobby of SEARHC’s Community Health Building, Doug Osborne leads me over to a red and black blanket hanging on the wall, behind glass.

“This blanket right here, at the end of the courses, they graduate people — maybe 10, 12 people — and at the end of this 40-day program, they do a really great job of honoring people,” Osborne said. “They do a cradling ceremony and sometimes they get wrapped in the blanket. They really know how to send people off. Today it’s about how well we can send them off.”

Osborne’s job at SEARHC includes running the employee recognition program and today, he’s planning a farewell luncheon for the 23 people who work at Bill Brady Healing Center.

“These guys were superstars,” he said. “They are really good, they’re passionate, ethical, dedicated. They worked hard, and did a good job. It’s a very sad day at SEARHC to see these guys go.”

Inside the center’s office building is George House. The bookshelves in his office are almost bare, as is his desk.

“I’ve been working at Bill Brady for 10 years now,” he said. “I started out as a temporary night-awake to earn a couple of bucks, and liked what I saw.”

As a night-awake, it was his job to make sure residents were safe at night — that things were turned off, and that everyone was where they were supposed to be.

“You know, you go through and make sure everything’s turned off, everything’s safe,” he said. “You count noses or toeses.”

And now he’s the evening shift leader. A job that began as simply a way to make some money turned into a calling.

“What I saw here was a lot of caring people helping others find their way,” he said. “I think what made Bill Brady click so well was mutual respect for each other among staff and among the clients that came through. It didn’t matter what your background was. They took you at face value and let you shine, you know?”

Lots of Bill Brady’s now former employees have stories like that.

Charlie Bean is in the basement of the house where clients used to stay. Down here, he led them through art projects. He’s wrapping stuff in plastic and joking about the uniquely Alaskan experience of using fish boxes to pack up your office.

“We’ve given away a lot of stuff,” he said. “Drums, and miscellaneous odds and ends. A lot of it’s going to go to Raven’s Way next door.”

Bean started working at SEARHC in 2001, and at Bill Brady in 2005. He’s definitely had his disagreements with the institution — he laments rules and regulations that he says distract from the day-to-day, hands-on work with clients, and he mentions spending increasing amounts of time doing paperwork. But he also says this is one of the best jobs he’s ever had. This team, he says, is close.

“I’ve never experienced anything like this,” Bean said. “I’ve had close friendships and stuff, but not a group of people like this. You come in and you jump on shift, and somebody’s going out the door, and they’ve got your back, and they know you’ve got their back, and there’s this seamless kind of flow that goes on between the people. That’s been special.”

Bean says he has possibilities for work in Anchorage and New Mexico.

“I’m always going to interact with clients. It’s just part of my life now.,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where I am. My life has turned into service. Wherever I go, I’ll be doing service of some kind.”

Of the three employees KCAW spoke to, Roberta Kitka has the longest tenure. She started here as an intern in 1998.

“I wanted to help people, because I’m in recovery myself,” she said. “I stuck my toe in the door doing my internship.”

Eventually, she put in for a full-time job (“Showed up for an interview and said ‘I’m here to put my Tlingit two cents in,’” she says) and most recently, she’s been in a supervisory role. Kitka says she likes watching the transformation in clients between their first day and the time they graduate.

“We more or less serve the people who are throw-away people,” she said. “People who end up making something of themselves. We had a woman call us up, ‘I’ve got my kids back,’ or ‘I’ve only got 30 credits left and I’ll finish my college degree.’ Things like that. They’re not throw-away people. That’s the way we look at it.”

Now that she’s done working at Bill Brady, she’s moving to Anchorage. Her daughter is up there, and so is Dena a Coy, a treatment center for women and children, where Kitka did her first internship.

“And the two ladies I did it with, worked with, are still there,” she said. “So I’m going to pop my head in and say hi, I’m back.”

Back in the Community Health building, tables and chairs have been set up for the farewell luncheon. Comment cards for people to leave memories are laid out at each place. And Doug Osborne is standing behind a lectern, going over his remarks. Next to him, a dry-erase board with the names of every employee.

Twenty-three names.

“So we’re making this nice, but there’s no way around it,” Osborne said. “This is really a sad day. This is a day of loss.”

The nation’s first online sexual health curriculum aimed at American Indians and Alaska Natives is in the final stages of development in Anchorage.

Sex education begins when parents provide age-appropriate information to their children about their bodies but ages 11 to 14 is a good time to talk with kids about dealing with peer pressure about sex, drugs, and alcohol. That’s according to an HIV/Sexually transmitted disease, or STD program manager, Connie Jessen.

Jessen, with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, is testing “Natives: It’s Your Game,” the nation’s first computer-based sexual health curriculum targeting Alaska Native and American Indian middle school students:

“In middle school is when there’s quite a few students that are already become sexually active and sometimes when you look at high school students, they’re so much older and already had a lot of these experiences that puts them at risk for these various health outcomes, that it’s important to do it earlier so they have the skills before they actually need them.”

Jessen says the Consortium is in the third year of a 3-year project with the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, Indian Health Council of Arizona, and the University of Texas to develop the program. She says “Natives: It’s Your Game” uses games and music, and encourages creativity, while teaching students about abstinence, sexual health, and good decision-making.

“It also addresses healthy relationships, healthy friendships, sexual behaviors, HIV-STD prevention, alcohol and drug abuse, Internet safety, and a whole host of different topics.”

The Consortium is putting together groups of middle-school students to see how well the program works. Some will go through a science-based course on sexual and behavioral health. The other group will take part in the “It’s Your Game” curriculum. Both will be tested to find out how much they learned. For more information online, go to www.iknowmine.org/iyg

 

Several canoe groups are paddling down the Inside Passage to Wrangell for the Shakes Island Rededication event this week.

Two canoes traveling from Juneau hit bad weather and rough water on Saturday. One canoe was lost.

Both canoes left Juneau on April 24^th. They were each accompanied by a support boat.

The Raven canoe belongs to the One People Canoe Society and has paddlers from several Southeast communities and Washington state.

The second canoe is from the Sealaska native corporation and has a Yakutat-based crew.

The crews hit bad weather and high seas in Seymour Canal on Saturday.

Both decided to put the paddlers on the support boats and tow the canoes.

Alicia Chilton is on the board of the One People Canoe Society. She’s also a paddler on the Raven Canoe.

“When we went to turn, the line slacked in, and all the water from the back of the canoe rolled forward. And that’s when she just went down and the line broke. And we watched her drift away from us,” said Chilton.

Both the Raven canoe and the Sealaska canoe snapped their tow lines and were washed away.

The lost Raven Canoe was spotted on a rocky shore where it had beached itself. It was retrieved safely at about 2pm on Saturday.

The Sealaska canoe was found about two hours later.

The plan was to tow both canoes to Kake, where they could be inspected for damage, repaired if necessary, and sent back on their journey.

The Raven canoe made it. The Sealaska canoe did not.

During the recovery, it broke free of its tow line for a second time.

As of this afternoon, a search and recovery effort is in full swing. A Juneau-based plane for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game was sent out. A second plane from Petersburg Fisheries was also dispatched.

There was a possible sighting of the Sealaska canoe this morning.

Wrangell Cooperative Association staff member Renee Claggett is helping coordinate efforts in the water.

She made contact with crewmember Jay Dodge of the Silver Bay Seafoods tender Lady Kate this afternoon.

“Okay the report is from the pilot that it was upside down and actually went up during a high tide. And it’s falling tides now so it’s probably safe. If anybody as the boats are moving in for the Seymour herring fishery, if they could just keep an eye out for it. So if you could just put the word out on the fishing fleet there as they come in. And if it does get into trouble, maybe somebody could grab it and let us know,” said Claggett to Dodge.

The Sealaska canoe’s life vests were also possibly spotted in the area known as the Rock Garden in Seymour Canal.

Meanwhile, the Raven canoe and its crew arrived in Kake late Sunday afternoon.

The Sealaska crew made it to Kake as well.

And, Chilton said, everyone is coming together to make the best of a harrowing experience.

“What’s happening now is that the Juneau and Yakutat crewmembers—we’ve got a total of 18—will be rotating through the Raven canoe. So Juneau and Yakutat are combining into one now,” said Chilton.

The Raven canoe is expected to arrive in Wrangell waters on Wednesday.

The Raven canoe is set to leave Kake for Petersburg Tuesday morning. It had to delay its planned departure this morning due to inclement weather.