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If you’ve ever watched salmon merge at the mouth of the river, it’s similar to the scene at Baranof Elementary School. The buses unloaded a school of students, dressed in bright coats with reflective patches, flashing silver. The kids had reason to be excited: Regular class would be suspended for a day of learning.

The school has been hosting a Salmon Celebration Day for the past 9 years.

Each class moves from room to room in 20 minute increments, taking part in different activities. Mark Lee, the principal at Baranof Elementary, said it can be pretty hectic.

“But it’s controlled chaos.” Lee said.

The kids listened to Tlingit stories, built a habitat out of construction paper and played a game about the salmon life cycle.

“It’s nice because the different types of learners that there are, there’s something that appeal to them in one way or another throughout the stations,” Lee said.

One way to do that is by appealing to the kids’ appetites. Teacher Jeffrey Hole wore a tie shaped like a salmon and showed the students how to make salmon dip in four easy steps. The classroom was stocked with boxes of Ritz crackers and several pounds of fish, all donated by Baranof parents.

Dylan Radziukinas, a student, wasn’t a fan of Step #1, which involved separating salmon from the bones.

“When we touched it it felt all gooey and mushy,” Radziukinas said.

But he was a fan of the final product.

Hole says that the goal of his workshop, like all the workshops, is to make this critical resource familiar and fun to first graders–even if that means making a bit of a mess.

The Juneau Police Department says it’s the sixth heroin-related death this year. James Robert Hanson, 48, was discovered by his brother in the family home. In a news release, the police department said it appears Hanson overdosed while the family was in another room.

Juneau police typically don’t release information about in-home, unsuspicious deaths, but Hanson’s mother gave specific permission. She was distressed over the large number of heroin deaths in the capital city.

The family believes Hanson relapsed. The police department is continuing to investigate the death and has requested an autopsy by the State Medical Examiner.

Juneau book lovers can check out the new Mendenhall Valley Public Library in Dimond Park — and check out more books — after its soft opening Monday, Oct. 5. For more than 30 years, the old library was located in the Mendenhall Mall.

The new 24,000 square foot structure — almost twice as much space as its former location — is open and inviting with natural light streaming through exterior and interior glass that reflects off the wood ceiling.

The $14 million project was largely paid for by city sales tax proceeds, a state grant and a contribution of more than $1 million from Friends of the Juneau Public Libraries. The organization raised most of the funds from used book sales at their Amazing Bookstore in the Airport Mall.

A formal grand opening ceremony for the Mendenhall Valley Public Library is planned for November 7.

A Massachusetts college that planned to liquidate its Native art collection has called it off. The pieces are from 52 tribes, including Tlingit and Haida items that might be sacred. Now the country’s oldest theology school could get dinged with penalties as feds investigate.

Over the summer, the Andover Newton Theological School, or ANTS, quietly decided it would sell 80 pieces of Native art from their collection. But their plans didn’t stay quiet for long. The museum that’s housed the collection since the 1940s alerted hundreds of tribal leaders.

Sealaska Heritage Institute was one of the organizations contacted because the school intended to auction off a Tlingit halibut hook, an item that SHI President Rosita Worl says is sacred.

“The halibut hook has spiritual dimensions to it and in this particular case, we have a halibut hook with a wolf,” she said.

Worl believes the school also has a Southeast shamanic doll. If a college or museum receives federal funds, then federal law dictates that certain items in their collection are subject to repatriation.

So, how did Andover Newton wind up with such a vast collection of Alaska Native, Native American and Hawaiian art?

“It was through their own missionaries going out into the field and collecting objects. Like, I tell the story over and over again … they collected our sins,” Worl said.

What those missionaries considered “sins” could fetch the college a million dollars now if the legality of the sale hadn’t come into question.

Peabody Essex Museum President Dan Monroe says the school was confused from the jump. It didn’t file an inventory or summary providing tribes with information. And the college assumed the museum could cherry-pick what was subject to the law, but only tribes have say in that.

“No other party can make those identifications,” Monroe said.

Even so, the school claims that information came from Peabody Essex. Monroe lets out a big laugh before responding.

“OK. Number one: we could never tell them what objects in their collection are subject to NAGPRA. … Because we have no standing in the law and we perfectly well understand that,” Monroe said.

NAGPRA is the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

In 2009, Monroe says the Onondaga Nation asked the school to give back a wampum belt. The school denied the request. As a private college, it thought it wasn’t subject to the law. But here’s the problem with that: some students pay their tuition with Stafford loans, which are funded by the government.

“If the institution receives federal financial assistance, whether directly or indirectly, that would be receipt of federal funds,” said David Tarler.

Tarler works at the NAGPRA office in Washington, D.C. He said the school is being investigated, and in this case penalties can range from $5,000 for each failure to comply up to about $21,000, or .25 percent of the school’s annual budget — whichever is less. Then there are aggravating circumstances, like previously denying a tribe’s claim.

Monroe says he’s still not sure if the college gets it.

“On the plus side, they’ve made the commitment not to sell objects; they’ve made a commitment to comply with  NAGPRA and those are admirable and very positive decisions on their part,” he said. “Regardless of the means of how they arrived at them.”

Martin Copenhaver, the school’s president, said he was too busy to comment but forwarded a letter that said “we will proceed to repatriate artifacts … if feasible and appropriate ways can be found to do so.”  

“I mean, that sent up a red flag to me,” Worl said. “When I read that, ‘if feasible and appropriate.’ What does that mean? It should be if it complies with the law. Who makes that determination? If it’s feasible?”

Aside from the law, she says there’s a larger underlying issue the school doesn’t seem to understand about the collection.

“They keep referring to them as artifacts and they’re not artifacts. They’re at.oow. They’re living things to us; they’re spiritual things to us,” Worl said.

Andover Newton Theological School did recently reach out to the Onondaga about the wampum belt, Worl said. But Southeast tribes are still waiting.

Clarification: we’ve reworded details about how the school may be fined.

State budget pessimists warn that fewer barrels and a growing budget deficit could turn the state into an economic wasteland. But as some Juneau residents have learned, things could still turn around.

In a packed a ballroom at Centennial Hall Wednesday evening, a panel of two oil and gas consultants and two economists debated Alaska’s fiscal future.

Some of the more dire predictions inspire comparisons to Mad Max, a late 70s apocalyptic thriller in which oil reserves have been depleted, financial chaos and famine have set in, and roving biker gangs are the only law.

A warning from the movie’s trailer: “In the future, cities will become deserts, roads will become battlefields, and the hope of mankind will appear as a stranger.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4TdPxOXuYw

In Alaska, fewer barrels of oil are being produced and the price has dropped to under $50 a barrel — about half of what it used to be. The state is expecting a deficit of $3 billion next year.

And with deeper cuts comes a loss of jobs and school funding.

“It’s not going to take 10 or 15 years. I think two or three years, you’ll see a noticeable drop in Alaska’s population,” Larry Persily said. He, along with a panel of three, spoke at Juneau’s Forum on Alaska’s Fiscal Future.

Persily worked for the Obama Administration on Alaska’s natural gas pipeline and now works for the Kenai Peninsula Borough. He said the proposed LNG pipeline offered a glimmer of hope that could add $1.2 billion a year into the budget.

“But in and of itself, it is not going to solve our problem,” Persily said.

A big topic of conversation at the forum was the possibility of a state income or sales tax. But some of the panelists agreed a sales tax could be regressive and hurt struggling people.

Brad Keithley, a consultant firm that focuses on oil, gas and policy matters, said that’s what adding state taxes would do.

“Think about this for a second. If we’re going into a recession, the last thing you want to do is reduce personal incomes,” Keithley said. “The last thing you want to do is take money out of the private economy. Take money out of people’s hands. That’s what taxes do. ”

Persily sees it differently.

“You look at taxes as taking money out of individuals’ hands. I look at taxes as a way of paying for community services, “Persily said. “That’s how it works. That’s how communities work.”

Persily said some people could also afford a reduced PFD check or forgoing it altogether. I asked Josh Warren an attendant at the forum, what he thought of that.

“I love my PFD. I’ve gotten it every year since I was born here. But if that’s what the state needs to educate children, then I think that’s OK,” Warren said.

Juneau has a 5% city sales tax. Places like Anchorage and Fairbanks don’t.

To help with the fiscal crisis, panelists advised municipalities to come up with solutions on their own. Brad Keithley said that meant “thinking local.”

“Because the state’s not going to be riding over the hill to build the next school, to build the next AstroTurf football field, to build the next UAF athletic arena, to build the next crime lab. They’re not going to ride over the hill to do that,” Keithley said.

There’s nothing apocalyptic about that.

A crowd gathered on the capitol steps Tuesday to show their support for Planned Parenthood. In recent weeks, Republican lawmakers in Congress have tried to strip the organization of its federal funding.

Rally goers clutched signs that said, “Have your children by choice not chance”, “Grandpas support Planned Parenthood” and, of course, a sign to honk “if you love Planned Parenthood.”

Dave Sturdevant borrowed his wife’s hot pink scarf for the rally. He blended into a sea of pink shoes, T-shirts and knitted hats that the crowd of about 30 was encouraged to wear.

“It’s about 90 percent senior citizens like myself. You have senior citizens well past reproductive age out here to support the cause for younger women and families,” he said.

There are four Planned Parenthood clinics in Alaska. They provide STD and cancer screenings for men and women, pap smears, sex education and LGBT services. And yes, three of the clinics provide abortions.

Planned Parenthood has been in the headlines lately because of a sting video showing affiliates discussing the harvest of aborted fetal parts. And conservative Republicans are using the controversy to justify defunding federal dollars. Jessica Bogard skipped her lunch break to attend the rally.

“Today is important because the decisions being made have a deadline and a vote. And so we need to make our opposition to the decisions being made to unfund or defund known today,” she said.

A bill to defund Planned Parenthood failed to get enough votes in the Senate. But a potential government shut is looming if lawmakers can’t come to an agreement in the House.

Last week, Alaska’s U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted against a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, and she said she doesn’t support a government shutdown. She was one of eight Republicans to vote against the bill.

Bogard says she’s happy the senator voted with the Democrats.

“But I don’t think it’s a party  issue, it’s a health issue,” Bogard said. “And if you view it that way, the decision is clear. You keep funding Planned Parenthood.”

A woman in an SUV drove by the rally, rolled down her window and shouted “no government funding for private business.” The crowd quieted for a minute before the chanting picked back up.

Amanda Krafft said she thinks most of the reaction to the rally has been positive.

“Maybe only just a couple people have not waved or just looked,” Krafft said. “Maybe one or two stink eyes. But that’s okay. That’s alright.”

Krafft leads the next chant of “Reproductive rights for all! Hurrah, hurrah!” She said she came up with it on the fly.