For the first time ever, you can find all the characters for the 20 recognized Alaska Native languages in one place: a keyboard, downloaded right onto your iPhone. An app called Chert pulls in all the characters you need to spell out words in Yupik, Iñupiaq, Tlingit and more.
Alaska Native Arts & Culture
Ketchikan School Board discusses pilot Native language class
The Ketchikan School Board talked about implementing a new Native language program at the high school in cooperation with Ketchikan Indian Community.
Blood lines: Sealaska studies Alaska Native descendant dilemma
Subsistence marine mammal hunt threatened by lineage definition.
Alaskans travel to Standing Rock in opposition of Dakota Access Pipeline
A delegation, made up of indigenous women from across Alaska, is at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota to support opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Lower 48 ivory bans hit Alaska Native carvers
This July, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s near-total ban on the commercial ivory trade went into effect. Regulatory changes are starting to bite into Alaska’s ivory market.
More than 1 million ‘check in’ on Facebook to support the Standing Rock Sioux
It’s a show of support for the tribe that has been rallying against construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which the tribe says could contaminate drinking water and harm sacred lands.
Native artisans worry ivory bans in other states could reverberate in Alaska
The federal government instituted a near-total ban on the domestic commercial trade of African elephant ivory, but many Alaskans are concerned the backlash from this ban is affecting other ivories. St. Lawrence Islander Susie Silook is the author of a petition to protect walrus ivory and other marine mammal by-products from various states’ legislation that would see it banned as a response to the federal ban.
Presbyterian Church apologizes for role in forced assimilation of America’s indigenous population
The Presbyterian Church officially apologized to indigenous people across the country during a gathering of Alaska Native people this weekend. For decades the church took part in the forced removal of children from their homes and families.
Listen: Tlingit translation of ‘Moment in AFN History’ Part 3
AFN got its start in 1966. It focused on land claims for many years. Today, it also works in areas such subsistence, health, education, jobs and governance.
Yakama chief accepts thanks from Alaska’s largest tribal organization
Alaska’s largest statewide native organization honored the Yakama Nation during their annual convention Thursday. The Yakama Nation loaned the Alaska Federation of Natives $225,000 to establish itself 50 years ago.