Southeast Alaska’s largest tribal government might see its leadership change this week. The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska annual tribal assembly meeting and leadership elections starts Wednesday at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall in Juneau.
The tribe’s second-in-command is challenging its president. President Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson has been in office since 2014. First Vice President Ku.seen Jacqueline Pata announced her candidacy for the top spot last week.
This is the first Tribal Assembly following public accusations made against Peterson, whose former fiancée posted on social media in August 2025 about alleged abuse and sexual assault she experienced during their relationship.
Another woman claimed on social media that Peterson sexually harassed her while she worked at Tlingit & Haida a decade ago.
No criminal charges were filed against Peterson related to these allegations.
Pata served as acting president during a review into the allegations. At a tribal council meeting following the review, Pata said it focused on whether the tribe’s policies and procedures are effective at upholding respect and accountability and whether inappropriate conduct happened in the workplace. She said the tribe added additional training and a third-party reporting system. She did not comment on how the review’s findings reflected on Peterson.
Pata has been second-in-command since 2021.
Before her role with the tribe, she led the National Congress of American Indians for 18 years before stepping down in 2019. She resigned from that role following accusations that she failed to act on multiple sexual harassment reports filed about members of her staff, and hid them from the organization’s board and leadership.
Three other candidates join Peterson and Pata in the presidential race: Lisa Gassman, Tasha Hotch, and Melissa Kookesh.
There are 5 tribal citizens running for first vice president, Pata’s current role, and 15 are running for 5 other vice president positions.
Candidates for each position will give speeches Wednesday at 3 p.m., and delegates will elect those roles Thursday at 1 p.m.
Beyond elections, tribal leadership will give updates on operations, finances and partnerships throughout the week. The keynote speaker this year is David Bean, who chairs the Indian Gaming Association. He’s slated to speak at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The Assembly is typically held in the spring, but this year was moved to the fall. A Tlingit and Haida 2025 release said the move reflected delegates’ personal schedules and shifted the meeting to a time with less seasonal tourism. However, tribal citizens still elected delegates in March. Delegates represent 22 communities across Alaska and the West Coast.
That election was the first following a change in representation that drastically limited the number of delegates coming from urban areas outside of Southeast Alaska. That change left Juneau with the most delegates from any community at 20 representatives.
Tribal Assembly runs through Friday afternoon and will be livestreamed on Tlingit and Haida’s YouTube.
