Alaska Native Arts & Culture

“The world has lost another luminary.” That’s how the Sealaska Heritage Institute began a message announcing the death of Clarissa Rizal at age 60.

Tlingit weaver Teri Rofkar died Dec. 2, 2016. She was 60. The Sitka resident was internationally renowned for her baskets and textiles, made from cedar, spruce tree roots and mountain goat wool collected along Sitka’s shores.

Tlingit battle helmets were designed to inspire fear. The thick, wooden head armor carried imagery of strong warriors, fierce animals or revered ancestors.

A local native corporation is suing the city formerly known as Barrow, demanding it halts the official name-change to Utqiagvik. At least for now. The official switch from Barrow to Utqiagvik is scheduled to go into affect today.

What makes a modern warrior? A tribal organization says it’s someone who fights to preserve subsistence rights, Native languages, clean water and families.

The initial focus will be for students to complete a two-year program at the University of Alaska Southeast in Northwest Coast arts. Then, those students could transfer to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe for further study.

It was a historic year for the Chilkat Indian village of Klukwan. After more than a decade of work, the Jilkaat Kwaan Cultural Heritage Center opened its doors in May. The center tells the still-evolving story of the Chilkat people and also houses some of the world’s most admired works of Northwest Coast Art, the Whale House Collection.

Petersburg’s borough assembly on Monday advanced the rezoning of a controversial piece of borough property on Sandy Beach Road in Petersburg and decided against a driveway easement on the parcel for a neighboring land owner.

Many say the Dakota Access Pipeline resistance is beyond anything they’ve experienced before. But there are preludes in Native American history, and you don’t have to look too far back to find them.

North Slope government and history is now part of high school graduation requirements for all North Slope Borough schools. The borough school board passed a new policy this month making the curriculum change mandatory for students, effectively beginning with freshmen who start in 2017.