Alaska Native Arts & Culture

Orutsararmiut Native Council held its first Science and Culture camp in July for high school students. Campers collected juvenile fish, like baby king and red salmon, and participated in activities in avian biology, ethnobotany and workshops on federal and state subsistence management.

“To the Aleut people interned at Funter Bay and their descendants, who continue to carry this burden, I am sorry,” Wes Kuhns of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told a small crowd at the St. George community center.

Juneau’s Docks and Harbors board has given the green light for firefighters to burn down the former Thane Ore House restaurant. The 35-year-old former attraction is being razed to make way for a Alaska Native cultural immersion park.

A federal humanities advocate and a Native nonprofit are teaming up to promote Native language education programs. They’ll each contribute about $2 million to fund education programs within tribal communities aimed at revitalizing Native American languages.

The Douglas Indian Association wants you to know its traditional territory stretches far beyond its namesake city and island. A recent boat tour covered some of the T’aaḵu Kwáan’s lands.

A preschool designed to immerse children in the Alutiiq language is about to enter its first full semester of classes. The Administration for Native Americans granted the Sun’aq tribe roughly $2 million dollars to establish the nest school. It wrapped up its pilot semester in May.

Along the banks of the Chilkoot River near Haines, there’s an old culture camp that stood empty for years. A group of young people recently decided to revitalize the traditional site. The Chilkoot Indian Association and the Haines Public Library worked together this year and last to put on the event.

Fish skin: some people eat it, others throw it out, and some make baskets from it. This week at the Sitka Arts and Science Festival, five women are learning how to make a basket from fish skin, beads, and a needle and thread. Their teacher is Athabascan artist Audrey Armstrong, who comes to Sitka every summer to teach this class. 

For almost 30 years, the remote village of Kake has been running its annual summer Keex’ Kwaan Culture Camp – a chance for kids and adults to practice and celebrate Tlingit traditions. It’s the longest running camp of its kind in Alaska. This year, two young women are taking over the reins from a cherished elder and are bringing more Tlingit language to camp and into Kake.