The organization supporting Tlingit culture and traditions in Hoonah has a new executive director.
Sarah Dybdahl takes over as the Huna Heritage Foundation’s top official next month. It’s the nonprofit arm of the Huna Totem village corporation, which owns and operates the Icy Strait Point tourist attraction.
“I’m really hoping to look for opportunities for the youth and look into ways to preserve the language and the history that they have already documented over the years,” she says.
William “Ozzie” Sheakley, chairman of Huna Heritage Foundation, says Dybdahl was the clear choice.
“She has such strong experience through her previous positions and we are confident she’ll be an innovative leader for the foundation,” he said, in a press release.
Hoonah is on northeast Chichagof Island, 30 miles west of Juneau. About three-quarters of its 800 or so residents are Tlingit. Huna Totem has about 1,360 shareholders with ties to the village.
Dybdahl is from Klawock on Prince of Wales Island, and serves on its Klawock Heenya village Native corporation’s board of directors. Her husband, Travis, is a descendant of Huna Totem shareholders.
She’s spent the past 15 years working for the Sealaska Corp. and its cultural arm, the Sealaska Heritage Institute.
“One of my main responsibilities was working for Celebration and being the kind of the overall coordinator there. And it really was being able to work with and communicate with numerous people with very different backgrounds and needs,” she says.
In her new job, Dybdahl will work with the recently created Huna Traditional Scholars Council. It was set up to address the community’s continued loss of traditional language and other knowledge.
She will also oversee Huna Heritage’s scholarship program, its annual clan conference and ongoing fundraising efforts.
Dybdahl begins work at the foundation’s Juneau office Feb. 9. The previous executive director, Kathryn Hurtley, resigned last year.
