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News Articles

The following recent articles feature programs and people sponsored or supported by Sealaska Heritage Institute:

Canyon Country family linked to iceman
By Jerry Berrios, Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
CANYON COUNTRY_Dorothy Rosenberg's sister called her recently to give her some news about a long-lost relative - a really, really long-ago-lost relative. Rosenberg, 80, who belongs to the Alaskan Tlingit tribe, learned through DNA testing that an iceman who died 200 to 300 years ago in the wilds of British Columbia is one of her ancestors...(more) (05-06-08)

DNA link answers life's big question for Juneau man
By Kim Marquis l JUNEAU EMPIRE
Fernando Rado's family got a whole lot bigger Thursday, when he found out through the results of DNA testing that he is a descendant of an ancient man whose remains were found in a glacier nearly 10 years ago. The news also answered a question many people ponder throughout their lives: Where am I from? "There's a globe of the Earth and there's a point right there where you come from ... it's a lock in the picture for me," Rado said...(more) (05-4-08)

DNA tests support Alaska-Yukon tribal connections
Ed Schoenfeld, CoastAlaska - Juneau
JUNEAU, ALASKA  Remains of a centuries-old man found in a receding Canadian icefield have been linked to Southeast Alaska Natives. Organizations based in the Yukon and Juneau say DNA testing demonstrates the close historic connections between tribal groups on both sides of the border.
..(Listen) (04-30-08)

Smithsonian Bound
By Eric Morrison
JUNEAU EMPIRE

The copper sun embedded in the mouth of the raven carved into the canoe's prow glistened Wednesday as the paddles from nine men rhythmically sliced through the water of Twin Lakes. Observing from the dock on the lake's edge, lead artist Doug Chilton noted that many of the men testing the unnamed 26-foot canoe bound for the Smithsonian Museum had never paddled before...(more) (05-01-08)

Acknowledging differences creates accepting society
Speaker explains misconceptions about Alaska Natives
Mary Lochner
THE NORTHERN LIGHT (University of Alaska Anchorage)

Issue date:
2/19/08 Section: Features
Sealaska Heritage Institute president Rosita Worl gave a talk about the history and reconstruction of Alaska Native identity Feb. 13 in the Student Union. She spoke of the need for Natives and non-Natives to understand cultural differences in order to promote understanding and harmony, rather than ignoring differences and allowing misunderstandings to fester.

Institute posts Soboleff documents online
More than 1,000 papers documenting Alaska Native history by Tlingit elder Walter Soboleff have been posted on the Internet by Sealaska Heritage Institute in what officials are calling a unique and priceless collection. Running from 1929 to 1995, the documents provide insight into the Native land claims struggle and the Alaska Native Brotherhood, institute President Rosita Worl said. The ANB was a key player in the land claims fight...(more) (02-07-08)

Sealaska's historical photo collection grows
Newest donation from Juneau architectural firm includes 150 pictures from the 1930s
KIM MARQUIS
JUNEAU EMPIRE
While Southeast Alaska Natives traditionally passed history down by sharing elaborate stories, the Sealaska Heritage Institute is finding out that handing on the culture these days requires more than just a good ear. Artifacts are being donated with increasing frequency to the Juneau-based institute, and floor plans are under review for a new storage space, reading room and office that will be dedicated to making historical items and information available to the public...(more) (01-16-08)

Web-based class to offer Haida instruction
Course aims to help resurrect language
ALAN SUDERMAN

JUNEAU EMPIRE
The area's first Web-based Native language course is scheduled to start later this month. The Sealaska Heritage Institute will offer an elementary Haida class to interested participants solely on the Internet. The idea, said Dr. Rosita Worl, president of SHI, is to use the Internet's ease and availability to help resurrect a dying language. She said previous attempts using a traveling teacher or video conferencing had been too cumbersome...(more) (01-14-08)

Southeast Native students vie for Sealaska scholarships
Ed Schoenfeld, CoastAlaska - Juneau
January 7, 2008 
Alaska Native students with roots in Southeast have another chance to get financial assistance for their studies. The Sealaska Heritage Institute is taking applications for its annual scholarship program...(Listen) (01-07-08)

Ancient stone objects donated by Juneau man
SitNews
A Juneau man has donated four ancient stone objects to Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI), marking one of the most significant donations of cultural items received by the nonprofit in recent years...(more) (12-26-07)

New online venture strives to preserve Tlingit language
JOHN RYAN

KTOO-FM
Everybody talks about the weather, but not many people do it in Tlingit. That could change a bit with some new online learning tools produced in Juneau...(Listen) (11-26-07)

Sealaska releases new language tools
Interactive Web program helps teach Tlingit skills
ERIC MORRISON

JUNEAU EMPIRE
Seventy-year-old Tlingit teacher Ruth Demmert has seen firsthand how the Internet and computer technology can inspire the younger generation of Alaska Natives to embrace its culture. "I believe it sparks the interest of the younger people, and I know there's a lot more younger people out there showing pride in the language," she said...(more) (11-22-07)

Forest Service returns ancient human remains to Tlingit tribes
RACHEL D'ORO
The Associated Press
ANCHORAGE - Human remains estimated to be more than 10,000 years old that were found in a cave in the Tongass National Forest rightfully belong to the southeast Alaska Tlingit tribes, the federal government said. Now, 11 years after they were found during a U.S. Forest Service archaeological survey, the remains will be returned to the tribe, agency officials announced Friday. It will be the first time a federal agency has handed custody of such ancient finds over to an indigenous group under the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, they said...(more) (10-21-07)

SHI Sponsors Latseen Basketball Camps
Some Southeast students are learning to play basketball in Tlingit. Sport camps sponsored this summer by the Sealaska Heritage Institute are mixing language skills and court time. More camps may be offered next year. CoastAlaska’s Ed Schoenfeld reports...(Listen) (08-02-07)

Office closure could halt return of artifacts
Southeast Native groups join protest against university's decision
KORRY KEEKER
JUNEAU EMPIRE

Groups around the country, including some in Southeast Alaska, are protesting the University of California-Berkeley's decision to eliminate the unit that restores Native artifacts to their original owners...(more) (07-27-07)

Sealaska begins national canoe project for Smithsonian Institute
By Abby LaForce

For CCW

Juneau's own Sealaska Heritage Institute will be providing a special addition to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. In renovating a hall at the National Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian is creating a new permanent exhibition on the ocean. Featured in the exhibit will be a 26-feet long traditional wood canoe, commissioned by Sealaska. "It's going to be called Oceans Hall. I just visited it last week (and) it's going to be phenomenal," said Rosita Worl, president of Sealaska Heritage Institute...(more)

District sets Tlingit curriculum
Plan provides resources to teach Native language, culture to Southeast students
ERIC MORRISON
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Sealaska Heritage Institute and the Juneau School District have co-produced what they say is the first broad-scale Tlingit language and culture curriculum that meets state academic and cultural standards. The curriculum, composed of 18 units, has been distributed to every public school district in Southeast Alaska with the intent of providing more tools to teach the Native language at a time when the number of fluent speakers is dwindling, said Yarrow Vaara, Tlingit language specialist for the institute...(more) (07-16-07)

'Macbeth,' North by Northwest
By Nelson Pressley

Special To The Washington Post
Monday, March 12, 2007; Page C01

The Southeastern Alaskan language Tlingit -- pronounced "klinkit" -- isn't especially full of sound and fury in the "Macbeth" of Juneau's Perseverance Theatre. But that's because in this production, which has been carefully imbued with Tlingit symmetry and ceremony by director Anita Maynard-Losh, the most bloody-minded speeches are rendered in English...(more) (Sponsored by SHI)

Tlingit Macbeth in Washington, D.C.
By WAMU-FM (public radio in Washington D.C.) (Sponsored by SHI)
(Listen) (03-16-07)

Perseverance to Do 'Macbeth' in Tlingit
Associated Press Writer
Jake Waid rubbed his bloodshot eyes, blankly stared at a script for Shakespeare's "Macbeth," then resumed an unfamiliar struggle with a set of lines. "Tleil tsu tlax yei l kusheek'eiyi ye yageeyi kwasatinch, ch'a aan yak'ei," he read slowly of what would normally be, "So foul and fair a day I have not seen."...(more) (Sponsored by SHI)

Exploring Cultural Ties
Perseverance Theatre's Tlingit version of 'Macbeth' to open in Washington, D.C.
By ANNE SUTTON
The Associated Press
Battles are waged to the beat of drums, witches slink across the stage as land otters, and Banquo's ghost dons a raven mask in a Tlingit language adaptation of Shakespeare's brutal and bloody tale of a murderous Scottish lord. Sprung from the rain forests of Southeast Alaska, this Washington, D.C., bound production of "Macbeth" marries the Elizabethan tragedy with an ancient indigenous culture - an elaborate conceit that its players say brings new life to both worlds...(more) (Sponsored by SHI)


Hoonah Artists
Linking to their past, providing for the future; 15 students learn Tlingit weaving and carving

By BRITTANY RETHERFORD
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Fifteen Hoonah residents have been busy honing skills that not only connect them to their past, but also help ensure their financial futures. They have been learning Tlingit weaving and carving as part of a three-year art program under the auspices of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, the nonprofit arm of the Juneau-based regional Native corporation, Sealaska...(more) (01-07)

'08 Celebration days announced
By BRITTANY RETHERFORD
JUNEAU EMPIRE

Juneau residents and business owners, prepare to mark your 2008 calendars - the Sealaska Heritage Institute has set the dates for its biennial bash, Celebration, for June 5-7.
The three-day cultural event will take place in Juneau, as it has since it was first kicked off in 1982, Institute President Rosita Worl said. The board of trustees officially set the dates in a meeting last week...(more) (10-06)

Young Natives go to culture 'boot camp'
Sharing Heritage
By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK
JUNEAU EMPIRE
About 40 young Alaska Native recruits are finishing up an intense, two-week leadership camp in Juneau this week. The students - all descendants of Sealaska Corp. shareholders - stretched their knowledge with rigorous lectures about Native heritage...(more) (08-06)

SHI Announces Juried Art Competition Winners
A former Juneau weaver now living in Colorado has won a major Southeast Alaska Native art contest. Clarissa Hudson’s “Copper Man,” a set of regalia including a Ravenstail robe, earned Best of Show in the third Sealaska Juried Art Competition. Other winners include David Boxley of Washington State and Lani Hotch of Klukwan. CoastAlaska’s Ed Schoenfeld attended the competition’s awards ceremony, spoke with the artists and filed this report. (Listen) (6-06)


Williams Wins Seaweed Contest
Who makes the best dried black seaweed in Southeast Alaska? Ivan Williams of Angoon, according to a panel of traditional food experts. Williams won the third biennial black seaweed contest sponsored by the Sealaska Heritage Institute as part of Celebration ’06, which wrapped up over the weekend. Karen Bernhardt of Hydaburg placed second, Peggy Williams of Angoon won third place and Katherine Smith of Kake was given an honorable mention. CoastAlaska’s Ed Schoenfeld attended the judging and prepared this report on what the experts say makes the best dried black seaweed. (Listen) (6-06)

Celebration 2006 Kicks Off
By Ed Schoenfeld, CoastAlaska Radio
(Listen) (6-06)

Celebration 2006 to Start
By Ed Schoenfeld, CoastAlaska Radio
(Listen) (6-06)

Time for Celebration
Making a grand entrance...(more) (06-02-06)

Welcoming the Celebration
A few minutes after 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, four canoes swung around the hulking hull of the Veendam and came into view of Marine Park, passing the boat ramp before circling wide to their left...(more) (06-01-06)

New movies bolster Native language
Seven films allow students to hear, see and interact in Tlingit
By ERIC MORRISON
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Sealaska Heritage Institute has created seven interactive Tlingit-language movies with Flash Media software to help engage students at a critical time for the Native culture, officials said. "It's kind of taking this old knowledge and using the modern technology to pass it on," said Daphne Wright, a Tlingit-language teacher for the Hoonah School District...(more) (4-16-06)

Efforts to aid Native students succeeding
Forum notes need to still raise retention rates, reduce dropouts and increase test scores
By ERIC MORRISON
JUNEAU EMPIRE
It may be a long road to travel to reach its destination, but the University of Alaska Southeast Native Education Working Group is heading in the right direction, said Joe Nelson. "When you look at the statistics, the retention rates, the dropout rates and performance on tests, there is a long way to go still," said Nelson, the director of Preparing Indigenous Teachers and Administrators for Alaska Schools (PITAAS) program at UAS. "But, the good thing here is that there is discussion among key entities that are committed to improving to making progress....(more) (4-9-06)

New exhibit in Washington includes Tlingit and Haida objects
By Joel Southern, APRN
WASHINGTON, DC (2006-02-03) Tlingit and Haida objects are part of ``Listening to Our Ancestors,'' an exhibit of art by North Pacific Coast tribes that opened Friday at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. © Copyright 2006 APRN (Listen) (2-7-06)

Kake fisherman curates for Museum of the American Indian
'Listening to Our Ancestors' exhibit will include more than 400 items from Alaska
By KORRY KEEKER
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Longtime Kake fisherman Clarence Jackson, 71, has served on the board of Sealaska Heritage Institute for almost 20 years and is a respected elder and oral historian. But he was humbled when the National Museum of the American Indian invited him to curate the Tlingit section of "Listening to Our Ancestors: The Art of Native Life along the North Pacific Coast," an 11-community exhibit that opens at noon Friday in Washington, D.C...
(more) (1-30-06)

TRAPPED: Juneau residents build a replica of a centuries-old fish trap found in 1989
By KORRY KEEKER

JUNEAU EMPIRE
Basket-type fish traps played a crucial role in the foundation of Northwest Coast culture. They allowed people to gather pounds and pounds of fish for the winter, and therefore, establish semipermanent villages. This was hundreds of years ago, and most of the traditional knowledge it took to construct such a trap is long since gone. Nevertheless, Steve Henrikson, the curator of collections at the Alaska State Museum, and Jan Criswell, an experienced weaver of spruce-root and cedar-bark baskets, are creating a replica this month at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum of a basket-style trap found in Montana Creek in 1989. That trap, 500 to 700 years old, was painstakingly restored and now sits in its own display case at the City Museum...(more) (1-19-06)

Dancing in honor
Miranda Worl, 8, a member of the Auke Bay and Mendenhall River Tlingit Dancers performs on Saturday during a ceremony to present two painted Tlingit panels that will be hung at the Auke Bay Shelter next summer...(more) (12-11-05) (Photo of art project sponsored by SHI)

Native art shines at Ninth Annual Arts and Crafts Fair
By ERIC MORRISON
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Chilkat blanket weaver Anna Brown Ehlers understands the true meaning of patience. One of several artists at the Ninth Annual Arts and Crafts Fair at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum, Brown Ehlers spent Saturday putting the finishing touches on a commissioned blanket that has taken her a year and a half to complete...(more) (12-4-05)

Sealaska, UAS join to shore up Haida language
Many agree existing number of fluent speakers is very low
By ERIC MORRISON

JUNEAU EMPIRE
The survival of a language needs your help. A free Haida language course, sponsored by Sealaska Heritage Institute and the University of Alaska Southeast, will begin Monday at 6 p.m. in the fourth-floor conference room at the Sealaska building downtown. The 52.5-hour course will be split up over a three-week period - Oct. 17-21, Nov. 7-11 and Dec. 12-16 - with three-and-a-half-hour classes each night. "The whole goal of the classes is to really get the people who are interested in the language and to give them a grounding in the language - to give them enough ability ... that they can begin to use it on a daily basis," said Jordan Lachler, a linguist for Sealaska Heritage Institute who will be teaching the course...(more) (10-16-05)

Prized tunic on its way home to Chilkat Valley
By TOM MORPHET
CHILKAT VALLEY NEWS
A Chilkat Brown Bear tunic is scheduled to arrive in Klukwan Friday, brought by clan leader and former village council president Joe Hotch. When it arrives here, the woven, full-length garment will be only the ninth tunic in Tlingit possession, said Harold Jacobs, cultural resource specialist for Tlingit-Haida Central Council in Juneau. "It’s a beautiful tunic," said Jacobs. Ceremonial tunics are considerably rarer than Chilkat blankets, as not as many were made, he said...(more) (October 2005)

Bringing history home
Historic Klukwan tunic repatriated to clan
By ERIC MORRISON
JUNEAU EMPIRE
The spirit of Kudeinahaa has come home to Alaska. The Kaagwaantaan Clan and Sealaska Heritage Institute celebrated the repatriation of a Chilkat Brown Bear tunic and its return to Alaska Thursday morning at the Sealaska Building in Juneau. In accordance with the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act of 1990, the ceremonial property, or at.
óow, was returned by the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology in Berkeley, Calif. "It's a really joyous occasion for us whenever we can bring any of our at.óow home, and usually it is followed with great celebration," SHI President Rosita Worl said...(more) (10-07-05)

Klawock raises seven totem poles
By LEILA KHEIRY

KETCHIKAN DAILY NEWS
KLAWOCK - Even with about 60 people working together, 2,000 or more pounds of carved wood is really heavy, especially when it has to be carried uphill, carefully lowered, spun, pulled upright, readjusted and then held steady as it's bolted into place. Even so, citizens of Klawock and visitors from all over Alaska, the Lower 48 and even a few from overseas were on hand for the raising of seven totem poles over a three-day period...(more) (08-23-05)

Photo: Start of a totem pole
Brian Wallace

Juneau Empire
Juneau carver Jim Markes uses an adze to carve a rough form of a seven-foot-long totem Tuesday at Sealaska Plaza...(more) (08-17-05)

Carving of totem focus of Web cam
JUNEAU - Sealaska Heritage Institute is hosting a live camera on its Web site showing master carvers Ray Peck and Jim Marks carving a totem pole at Sealaska Plaza. The Web site is www.sealaskaheritage.org. The Web venture marks the first time the institute has broadcast a Native art project live on the Internet, said Dr. Rosita Worl, president of the institute...(more) (08-12-05)

Strength of mind, body, spirit
Sealaska presents Latseen Leadership Training to bring students to culture
By I-CHUN CHE
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Jamie McDonald considers herself an Alaska Native. But she didn't speak Tlingit and knew little about the culture until she participated in the Latseen Leadership Training at the University of Alaska Southeast. Between Aug. 3 and Aug. 13, McDonald will learn topics from Tlingit language to Tlingit law to Tlingit history. "For me, the most important part of the program is to know other kids are in the same situation, just getting started to learn the language and heritage," McDonald, 20, said. Sealaska Heritage Institute, the cultural arm of Sealaska Corp., is offering the program for the first time. "Latseen" means "strength of mind, body and spirit" in Tlingit. Sealaska Corp. is the regional for-profit Native corporation for Southeast Alaska...(more) (08-10-05)

Learning Tlingit language is challenge and joy for children
Camp weaves education with whale and animal activities
By ANDREW PETTY
JUNEAU EMPIRE
On a clear Friday afternoon, third-grader Michaela Martin told her camp teacher "it's sunny outside" in Tlingit. Children, who are learning how to speak the Native tongue, really shine at the Juneau School District's summer culture camp, said parent Mariana Goodwin. "We've got books at home," Goodwin said. "But kids seem to listen more to strangers." The camp is funded by a federal grant to Sealaska Heritage Institute and passed on to the school district...(more) (07-24-05)

Sealaska Heritage to collect migration stories, songs of Tlingits
By ERIC FRY
JUNEAU EMPIRE
When Clarence Jackson Sr. is alone at the wheel of his seiner, he sometimes turns on a recording of his grandfather's voice and listens once again to stories about Tlingits returning to Southeast Alaska after an absence. Jackson's great-grandfather, who was 100 in 1948, also talked about migrations down the Taku, Stikine and Nass rivers. One story speaks of elders rafting on a river under a glacier to get to the coast. "As they went, they sang a mourning song for themselves as they disappeared under the ice," Jackson said...(more) (07-08-05)

Shim-al-gyack (Tsimshian) Talking Circle
(Radio story by Coast Alaska reporter Ed Schoenfeld)
Nancy Barnes stands in her living room holding a Shim-al-gyack language book. A pot of stew bubbles in the kitchen behind her as she leads the Tsimshian language talking circle she helped organize. The group uses a technique called total physical reponse...(more) (06-28-05)

Study to focus on migration of eight Southeast clans
Songs, dances, oral histories to be collected from elders with $40,000 from federal grant
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The migration of eight Southeast Alaska clans will be documented through a federally funded project planned by Sealaska Heritage Institute. A $40,000 grant from the National Park Service will pay for collecting clan songs, dances and oral histories from elders and other clan members...(more) (06-28-05)

Dictionary preserves language of the Haida
By ERIC FRY
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Scholar John Enrico has compiled the first comprehensive Haida dictionary, the fruit of years of living among the last generation of people who spoke the language regularly at home. About 40 people speak Haida today, not all fluently, Enrico said. The Haida Dictionary was recently published by Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau and the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks...(more) (06-26-05)

Program is 'nest' for Native languages
By ERIC FRY
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Learning Tlingit has changed the lives of the 10 or so young adults in Juneau who have dedicated themselves to the language, one student says. "We had fairly life-changing experiences when we took it to heart to keep the language going, because of the Tlingit concept of respect," Vivian Mork said. Mork said Tlingit wasn't spoken fluently in Wrangell when she grew up there. She began to study Tlingit after moving to Juneau in 2002 to enroll in a summer language program, Kusteeyí, sponsored by Sealaska Heritage Institute. She also enrolled at the University of Alaska Southeast, which has a Tlingit program...(more) (06-16-05)

 "Meet Lydia" now available at local bookstores
The author of new book about a native girl from Southeast Alaska and her subject were guests on KINY's Capital Chat this morning. (Wednesday) Miranda Belarde-Lewis wrote the book about her cousin Lydia Mills...(more) (04-06-05)

Elders help USFS make over book on Tlingit food
Publication features recipes, preparation, detailed descriptions of how to dry fish
By ERIC FRY
JUNEAU EMPIRE
When the U.S. Forest Service approached Southeast Alaska elders about how to revise a booklet on Tlingit food, the elders asked that "subsistence" not appear in the title. "Subsistence" connotes handouts, but putting up food isn't an easy job, elder Ray Wilson said Tuesday. The word seemed to be a regulatory term and didn't convey Native respect for nature and food, elders told the agency...(more) (03-23-05)

Juneau wins bid to keep Celebration
City's pledge of $10,000 swayed board to choose capital city for biennial event
By I-CHUN CHE
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Celebration is coming back to Juneau in 2006. After reviewing offers from Ketchikan and Juneau, Sealaska Heritage Institute, the event's organizer, has decided to keep it in Juneau. This was the first time the institute solicited bids outside of Juneau, and Ketchikan made a play for it. The capital has hosted the biennial Native cultural event since its inception in 1982. Rosita Worl, president of the institute, said the board of trustees chose Juneau for the city's financial contribution...(more) (03-11-05)

Sealaska Heritage considers archival center
(Radio story by Coast Alaska reporter Ed Schoenfeld)
A Juneau-based cultural organization wants to create a home for historic and traditional items belonging to tribal groups. CoastAlaska’s Ed Schoenfeld reports on the Sealaska Heritage Institute’s plans for an archive and cultural center...(more) (02-07-05)

Heritage Institute seeks to connect education to Native experience
The Associated Press
JUNEAU (AP) - When Amelia Rivera attended high school, she didn't hear much about her Native heritage from her teachers. "It's something that I never studied. To be honest, it was something that I was taught to be ashamed of," she said. "It was just a little while ago that I started learning about my culture."...(more) (02-04-05)

Institute says book teaches language, values
Sealaska linguist: children's book not like 'Dick and Jane'
By ERIC FRY
JUNEAU EMPIRE
When a Tlingit boy is rude to his mother and contemptuous of a piece of salmon, it's an opportunity to teach respect. A new illustrated book published by Sealaska Heritage Institute tells a shortened version of an old story as a way to teach the Tlingit language and Tlingit values to young children...(more) (12-24-04)

Sealaska Heritage Develops Culturally-Relevant High School Curriculum
(Radio story by CoastAlaska reporter Ed Schoenfeld)

Tlingit language expert Nora Marks Dauenhauer shares a table with about a dozen teenagers in Juneau’s alternative high school. While discussing the history of
Glacier Bay, the storyteller, poet and author talks about sub, migration, alienation and respect for elders...(more)

Artists learn to engrave
Master carver teaches locals about traditional NW form line
By ERIC FRY
JUNEAU EMPIRE
In short, confident strokes of pencil on paper, master carver Steven Brown drew a killer whale design for Steve Griffin. "Just make that kind of a broad bevel," Brown said Saturday of one line that would become an engraved notch on a silver bracelet. "The dorsal fin is up and bend it back, like that. This OK?" Griffin was one of several students who took a six-day course last week in silver engraving at the Riverbend Housing community center. Brown also taught a three-day class in Northwest Coast form line for Sealaska shareholders the previous week at the Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority offices. A $3,000 grant from the Alaska Native Arts Foundation, and help with travel expenses from Sealaska Heritage Institute, made the classes possible...(more) (12-05-04)

Celebration up for grabs
Sealaska Heritage Institute will consider other communities
By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Celebration - one of Juneau's largest and most lucrative events - may be leaving town. Juneau's Sealaska Heritage Institute, which sponsors Native cultural programs throughout Southeast Alaska, has hosted the cultural festival in Juneau since 1986. But this winter the institute will solicit competitive bid proposals for Celebration 2006 from other Alaska communities such as Ketchikan, Sitka and Anchorage. A decision will be announced in February, said Rosita Worl, the institute's president..(more) (12-02-04)

Indian Point may be listed on National Historic Register
Area would be first traditional cultural site in Alaska on list

By ERIC FRY
JUNEAU EMPIRE
The state will ask the federal government to list Indian Point on the National Register of Historic Places, officials said. The roughly 78-acre site, just north of Juneau's state ferry terminal, is considered sacred by Tlingits, said Rosita Worl, president of Sealaska Heritage Institute, which prepared the application for listing...(more) (11-19-04)

Sealaska Heritage develops Woman Who Married a Bear
(Radio story by Coast Alaska reporter Ed Schoenfeld)
David Katzeek
heard about the Woman Who Married a Bear when he was a child. The traditional Tlingit tale was familiar to families headed out to the woods and fields looking for food...(more)

Juneau scholar, poet wins award from First Peoples fund
Nora Marks Dauenhauer is one of five recipients nationwide of 2005 Community Spirit Award
By ERIC FRY
JUNEAU EMPIRE
One day, subway riders in New York City, looking up from their tabloids and reading the ads that run above the cars' windows, saw this poem: "Granddaughters dancing,/ blossoms / swaying in the wind." The Streetfare Journal, which places poems in streetcars and subways, wasn't the only anthologizer of Nora Marks Dauenhauer, but it may be the oddest. Dauenhauer, a scholar and poet in Juneau, has won a 2005 Community Spirit Award from the First Peoples Fund, a Native American organization that supports the arts. She is one of five recipients of the award, which includes a $5,000 stipend...(more) (11-14-04)

Web site offers Tlingit language pronunciation
By TONY CARROLL
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Hearing accurately spoken Tlingit is now just a matter of going to the Internet. On Thursday, Sealaska Heritage Institute launched a new audio language resource on its Web site to help people learn Tlingit sounds. "There are a lot of sounds in Tlingit that aren't present in English," said Rosita Worl, president of the institute...(more) (11-08-04)

Sealaska Heritage lauded for language program
Sealaska Heritage Institute is one of two organizations to receive the Governor’s Humanities Distinguished Cultural Service Award this year for its Native language program. The award recognizes organizations for making significant contributions to the cultural heritage in Alaska through their efforts in revitalization of Alaska Native languages, according to the Alaska Humanities Forum, which sponsors the program with the Alaska State Council on the Arts...(more) (10-27-04)

Sealaska Heritage Institute Holds Tlingit Immersion Retreat in Hoonah
HOONAH SCHOOLS NEWSLETTER
During the month of August, Sealaska Heritage Institute sponsored a ten-day Tlingit Immersion Retreat in Hoonah. Out-of-town retreat participants stayed at the Icy Strait Lodge, where daily classes in Intermediate and Conversational Tlingit were held...(more) (October 2004)

Alaskans stand out in crowd for museum's opening
By SEAN COCKERHAM
Anchorage Daily News
WASHINGTON -- The Yup'ik funk harmonies of Pamyua flowed between the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument on Tuesday. Tens of thousands, including Robert Redford and Teresa Heinz Kerry, bopped to the unique Alaska beat that began the opening celebration of the National Museum of the American Indian...(more) (09-22-04)

Playwright adapts Native story for kids
Summer Theatre Arts Rendezvous performances conclude today, Saturday
This March, Perseverance Theatre and Sealaska Heritage Institute invited local playwright Merry Ellefson to adapt the Native story "The Woman Who Married The Bear" for its Summer Theatre Arts Rendezvous children's program. Ellefson had never adapted a play before, nor was she very familiar with the mores and history of Tlingit culture...(more) (08-06-04)

Sealaska Heritage looks to HS curriculum
By ERIC FRY
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Sealaska Heritage Institute has received an $850,000 federal grant to develop a Native-oriented high school curriculum in math, science and history. The institute is a private nonprofit founded in 1981 to administer cultural and educational programs for Sealaska Corp., the Southeast regional Native corporation...(more) (08-02-04)

Sealaska Heritage gets grant to identify Native clan hats
A Juneau-based cultural group wants to identify Southeast Native clan hats in museums across the country. The goal is to repatriate the hats to the descendents of the people who created them. CoastAlaska's Ed Schoenfeld reports...(Radio Story)

Sealaska Heritage gets federal grant to help reclaim clan hats
$71,000 will go to document, establish ownership of cultural treasures
By TARA SIDOR
JUNEAU EMPIRE
The Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau can reclaim culturally significant Tlingit clan hats from museums in the Lower 48 with the help of a new federal grant. The National Park Service awarded the institute a $71,000 grant to document and establish ownership of Southeast Alaska clan hats held by museums outside of the state...(more) (07-07-04)

Immersion retreat helps students learn Tlingit language
By Vanessa Orr
CAPITAL CITY WEEKLY
A century ago, it would not have seemed strange to hear Native Alaskans speaking in Tlingit as they went about their daily chores. Now an endangered language, it is rarely spoken by anyone other than elders, or those who have chosen to study and learn this unique mode of communication...(more) (06-22-04)

Group wants plan for Native students
By ERIC FRY
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Local educators and Native organizations are working on a plan to improve Native achievement in the Juneau schools. The group met for the first time Tuesday at ANB Hall. The effort is sponsored by the Sealaska Heritage Institute, the Alaska Native Sisterhood Camp 70 and the Tlingit-Haida Central Council...(more) (06-07-04)

Director of Native museum visits Southeast
By KORRY KEEKER
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Rick West had been invited to Celebration before. But his day job, as director of the National Museum of the American Indian, had always kept him preoccupied. This year, he made Celebration a priority. West participated in Thursday's opening ceremonies, offering remarks and a brief speech about the museum's upcoming grand opening...(more) (06-06-04)

Documentary film to preserve oral traditions
Former Juneau residents produce Dance Regalia Documentary Project

By KORRY KEEKER
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Under a white tent Saturday afternoon in front of Centennial Hall, Ken Hoff, a raven of the Tongass Tribe, shared the story of his Uncle Sonny...(more) (06-06-04)

It's time to celebrate tradition
Event expected to draw more than 5,000 people across the country

THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
Forty-seven dance groups, five more than in 2002, will star in Celebration 2004, Thursday-Sunday at Centennial Hall, the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall, Sealaska Plaza, the Mount Roberts Tramway and Marine Park.

The Sealaska Heritage Institute expects the biennial Native dance-and-culture festival, conceived in 1980, to draw more than 5,000 people from Alaska, the Lower 48 and Canada...(more)

Canoe races could be competitive
By KORRY KEEKER
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Respect will be the name of the game when five canoe teams compete at Sunday's 2 p.m. Gathering of the Canoes at Sandy Beach. The traditional races, with canoes of 10 paddlers and a rudderman, are held in conjunction with the biennial Celebration...(more) (06-04-04)

Rangimarie brings 'peace and harmony'
By KORRY KEEKER
JUNEAU EMPIRE
The 14 members of Maori singing and dancing group Rangimarie walked about 100 feet from their arrival gate Wednesday at Juneau Airport, before they had their first experience with Alaska Natives...(more)  (06-04-04)

Contest celebrates food from the sea
By CATHY BROWN, Associated Press Writer
JUNEAU (June 4, 5:24 pm ADT) - Rose Gerber tastes black seaweed the way some people taste wine. "Relaxing," she says after savoring an entry in Sealaska Heritage Institute's black seaweed contest. "That one's good for boiled fish," she declares of entry No. 2. And No. 4 is "like eating chips."...(more)  (06-05-04)

Sitka Kaagwaantaan to lead this morning's grand parade
By KORRY KEEKER
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Ed Mercer and the Sitka Kaagwaantaan are honored to be the lead dance group for today's 8 a.m. Grand Entrance and Saturday's 8 a.m. parade in Celebration 2004. The group, formed by Mercer and Naomi Kanosh 10 years ago, is expecting 90 to 95 members to show up this year. The Kaagwaantaan is one of a record 47 dance groups performing at Celebration...(more)

Seaweed contest to feature new rules
Elders will be able to vote for their favorite varieties; results to be tallied Friday

By KORRY KEEKER
JUNEAU EMPIRE
On the rocks of Cone Island and Hole-in-Wall, due west of Craig, Klawock's Henrietta Kato finds what she's looking for. Those are good spots for black seaweed - often called laak'ask, wild celery or yanaide. It's a shimmery green in the water, a rich black when dry. It grows in clumpy blades, two inches wide and sometimes 20 inches long. During minus tides, often in early May, it's time to pick...(more) (06-02-04)

Preserving the Tlingit 'fringe about the body'
Jennie Thlunaut was entrusted with Chilkat weaving technology, and she was prolific
By ANN CHANDONNET
FOR THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
Jennie Thlunaut may be not a household name, but if she had lived in Japan she would probably have been declared a national treasure...(more) 04-21-04
(This article was derived from materials produced by Sealaska Heritage Institute, including the video “Jennie Thlunaut, Chilkat weaver” and "Haa Tuwunaagu Yis, for Healing Our Spirit," Vol. 2.)

"SHI Prepares for Celebration 2004"
(Radio story by Coast Alaska reporter Ed Schoenfeld)

SHI Posts Job Announcement in Tlingit
by Dixie Hutchinson, KNBA-FM
The Sealaska Heritage Institute would like to see the Tlingit language used every day. The regional non-profit is backing that initiative by posting a job announcement for a language specialist in Tlingit. Sociolinguist for the Institute Roy Mitchell says there are a number of Tlingit speakers but finding people who are literate in both Tlingit and English is challenging. Mitchell says part of the message is that there are employment opportunities for people who have those abilities...(more) (Audio)

(KRBD-FM story on SHI's new office)

(KTUU-TV story about SHI's new Native art web,  www.alaskanativeartists.com)
  l  Windows Media or RealOne

Meet the Tlingit
By Pat Chargot
YAK'S CORNER
(SHI President Rosita Worl helped a reporter write about the Tlingit for Yak's Corner, a newsmagazine for kids)...(more)  11-09-03

Web site works to promote Native artists
By TARA SIDOR
JUNEAU EMPIRE © 2003
Tommy Jimmie Sr. put away his wood-carving tools more than 15 years ago, but he is coming out of retirement thanks to a new Web site that markets Native art. "I just want to get back to carving," said Jimmie, 75. "I figure I'm just as good an artist as those other guys out there." Sealaska Heritage Institute recently launched the Web site, www.alaskanativeartists.com, to help Natives such as Jimmie, who is Tlingit, capitalize on the tourism market...(more)  10-21-03

Kanen accepts job in Washington, D.C.
Dale Kanen, U.S. Forest Service district ranger for Craig, has been selected to oversee the agency’s national Office of Tribal Relations in Washington, D.C...(more) 10-01-03

Corporations: Alaska Natives exert control
Part one (Indian Country Today)
A camel is a horse designed by committee. That’s how a modern-day proverb puts it. To listen to Rosita Worl, the Alaska Native corporation is a similar animal, drafted by Congressional committees to reinvent Native life in our largest state...(more) 10-01-03

$14.5 million in federal funds to boost Native school programs across the state
By ERIC FRY
JUNEAU EMPIRE © 2003
The office of Sen. Ted Stevens announced this week that $14.5 million in federal funds will go to Native education programs in Alaska. In Juneau, the money will help expand a Tlingit-oriented elementary school program, continue a popular science summer camp that has a Native focus and provide home educational and social services to preschoolers...(more) 10-01-03

Grant helps Sealaska Heritage go digital with photo archive
By TIMOTHY INKLEBARGER
JUNEAU EMPIRE © 2003
Sealaska Heritage Institute, a nonprofit organization that promotes Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian culture, is set to digitize and post thousands of historical photos on the Internet. The Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency that invests in libraries and museums, awarded Sealaska Heritage a $147,639 grant to post photos owned by Sealaska Heritage and the regional Native organization Sealaska Corp...(more)  09-29-03

Hear our words
Language retreat at Glacier Bay Lodge affords an opportunity to speak Tlingit 24 hours a day
By SCOTT FOSTER
For the
Juneau Empire © 2003
Study German or French in school and you can look forward to a European trip as a reward and an opportunity to further develop language skills in the real world. "Unfortunately, there's not a Tlingit-speaking world for us to go to," said Roy Mitchell, a sociolinguist at the Sealaska Heritage Institute. "We're trying to do the next best thing, which is make one ourselves." That next best thing was a 10-day Tlingit language immersion retreat...(more) 09-28-03)

Tlingit culture camp prepares kids for school
By ERIC FRY
JUNEAU EMPIRE © 2003
The young children, led by teacher Kitty Eddy's voice and her fingers, chanted in unison as they counted in English from one to 100, pausing to stretch out the nines - "thirty-niiiiine" - before gathering speed on the next set of numbers. Then they counted, with the same vigor, the numbers in Tlingit...(more)   08-17-03

Learning by doing
Native language institute works to stave off decline of traditional tongues
By ERIC FRY

JUNEAU EMPIRE © 2003
Students in Donna May Roberts' class in Shim-al-gyack, the language of the Tsimshian Indians, point to the ground in unison, walk in place, rub their stomachs, make kissy sounds and generally do whatever she says. It looks like an aerobics class, but that's the way Roberts teaches language, and it's becoming an important element in the Native language courses at Sealaska Heritage Institute's Kusteeyi program...(more)  08-14-03

(KTOO-FM story about P.I.T.A.S.)
Reporter intro: "Thirty-five Alaska Native students – fourteen of them freshmen - will be at the University of Alaska this fall working towards education degrees under full federal scholarships.  It’s the fourth year of a program that aims to get more native teachers into rural schools.  As Anne Sutton reports, incoming students gathered on campus last week for prep classes and orientation." (Click here to listen to a story about P.I.T.A.S. by KTOO-FM reporter Anne Sutton)  08-12-03

Tlingit classrooms - a good report card
Emphasis is on English, Tlingit language instruction, Native culture
JUNEAU EMPIRE © 2003
Students in Tlingit-oriented classrooms at Harborview Elementary generally perform as well as other students in the school district, and do better than Native students on average, a recent study shows...(more)  08-11-03

Native leader wins Women of Courage Award

JUNEAU EMPIRE

Rosita Worl of Juneau, comedian Rosie O'Donnell and former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno were among nine women awarded the 2003 Women of Courage Award on June 14 in Washington, D.C. ...(more)  06-20-03

Heritage Institute awards more than $1 million in scholarships
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Sealaska Heritage Institute will award $1.013 million in scholarships to 678 Sealaska shareholders and descendants. The awards, funded by Sealaska Corp. and by grants, will go to Southeast Alaska Natives pursuing educational opportunities during the 2003-04 school year...(more)   05-02-03

A forum for Native voices
Oratory society presents a new generation of speakers
By ERIC FRY
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Ernestine Hayes, who was raised by her grandmother in Juneau while her mother was hospitalized, said she never doubted her mother missed her. When she gave an oration recently, she linked her story with that of people who have been separated from the land, "and the land still misses them." An Alaska Native oratory society founded last year is providing an audience for a new generation of speakers, say local educators and students...(more)  04-28-03

User-friendly Tsimshian-language curriculum is basis for courses
Perhaps only a few dozen in Alaska can speak fluent Shim-al-gyack
By ERIC FRY
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Debi White, a Tsimshian Indian in Ketchikan, said her mother remembered elders speaking their Native language when they didn't want the children to understand what they were saying. "So when I was growing up, a few words were spoken but not the language," said White, who runs a cultural program in the schools for the Ketchikan Indian Community...(more)   04-21-03

Queen honors Sealaska employee
By CHRISTINE SCHMID
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Bessie Cooley used to get punished for speaking Tlingit. Now, she's receiving an award from the queen of England for using her Native language...(more)  01-24-03

Cave reveals 10,500 year old remains
By KRISTIN PRICE
CAPITAL CITY WEEKLY
Anthropologist Jim Dixon believes that the first humans in North America populated the continent via the Northwest Coast. Dixon, author of Bones, Boats and Bison, and the principle investigator on an excavation project on Prince of Wales Island, spoke December 18 at the Sealaska Building in Juneau...(more)  12-25-02

Repatriation conference helps clans learn about bringing their past home
By RILEY WOODFORD
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Thousands of objects made by Tlingit and Haida people - artwork, tools and sacred religious items - were taken from Southeast Alaska during the past 200 years. Some of these artifacts will remain in private collections and public museums. Others may be returning to Alaska, thanks to a federal law that allows Native Americans to reclaim cultural objects and even human remains... (more) 12-09-02

Sealaska to kick off new lecture series in Juneau
FOR THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
Distinguished Tlingit linguist Jeff Leer will be the inaugural speaker featured at the new Sealaska Heritage Lecture Series, scheduled Tuesday, Nov. 12. The lecture series is a new project by Sealaska Heritage Institute meant to tap expertise of Alaska Native language and culture scholars for the benefit of the public, said SHI President Rosita Worl...(more) 11-08-02

More funds for Tlingit language immersion
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
An ongoing Tlingit language immersion effort run by a Juneau-based nonprofit group has won another large federal grant. The Sealaska Heritage Institute program is receiving $864,000 from the U.S. Department of Education's Alaska Native Education Program. The institute was awarded a $446,000 grant from the federal Administration for Native Americans in September...(more)  10-10-02

Sealaska Heritage Institute wins $600,000 for language programs
FOR THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
The Administration for Native Americans has awarded a grant to Sealaska Heritage Institute for Native language immersion programs in Southeast Alaska. The funding bodes a major step forward for SHI's Tlingit language program, said SHI President Rosita Worl...(more)  9-18-02

Empire editorial: Remembering Stella Martin
The measure of a community is more its people than scenery or commerce. For all its beauty, a forested mountain does not bestow dignity on the residents below; trade may create jobs and generate wealth, but it does not of itself address the problems of human relationships. People extend dignity and respect to one another. People resolve conflicts among those with differing interests, values and cultures. Or they don't. Because we all depend on good people to help make us better people, Stella Martin will be missed...(more)  9-1-02

SE loses Native leader
Stella Martin remembered for community activism
By KRISTAN HUTCHISON
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
Stella Martin is being remembered today by the community she dedicated her life to helping. Martin, who died Monday at age 79, had been active in Native and civic organizations for most of her life, including the Alaska Native Sisterhood and Alaska Native Brotherhood, Tlingit and Haida Community Council, and the Salvation Army...(more) (See also Obituary)   8-30-02

Creating a habitat for Tlingit
Total immersion language camp puts students in touch with another time
By KRISTAN HUTCHISON
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
Last week Tlingit language students made the equivalent of a trip abroad, or back in time, to a place where only Tlingit was spoken. While students of French would fly to Paris, the seven Tlingit-language students and five fluent speakers spent a week at a camp near Berners Bay. There they created what they couldn't find elsewhere, a community where they would hear and speak only Tlingit...(more)   8-25-02

Juneau Tlingit institute expands to Ketchikan, Sitka
By KRISTAN HUTCHISON
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE © 2002
It's the first year for Sealaska's Tlingit immersion retreat, but the fourth for the annual summer Tlingit institute. The Sealaska Kusteeyi Institute teaches Tlingit-language students and their teachers. Shirley Kendall came down from Anchorage for the two-week program in Juneau. As a Tlingit-language teacher, she found the teaching-methods class useful...(more)   8-25-02

Sealaska receives artifact gift
Donation is largest from private collector
By GENEVIEVE GAGNE-HAWES
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
Sealaska Heritage Institute has received a gift of more than 50 Native artifacts from an Oregon businessman, its largest donation by a private collector to date. Bob Bowlsby, chief executive officer for Oregon's Spacesaver Specialists, said he received the objects 35 years ago from an 80-year-old woman who traveled throughout Alaska as a teacher in the early 1900s...(more) (Click here for photos!)   7-28-02

Institute works to preserve Native languages
By LEILA KHEIRY
Daily News Staff Writer
Ketchikan recently was host to an annual program that aims to preserve Native Alaska languages by increasing the number of fluent speakers. On Friday, the Sealaska Heritage Institute’s annual Native Language Institute wrapped up two weeks of intensive classes during which students learned the basics of Haida, Tlingit and Shim-al-gyack — the Tsimshian language... (more)   7-22-02

Free Tlingit language class offered every week
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
Hans Chester, a language student and assistant instructor of Tlingit at the University of Alaska Southeast, is offering a Tlingit language class from 2:30 to 4 p.m. every Saturday in the Naa Kaani Room at the Goldbelt Hotel... (more)   7-5-02

Inspired by tradition
The state museum's juried art show includes traditional Native art and new interpretations of ancient forms
By RILEY WOODFORD
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
Native artist Clarissa Hudson took influences from Hawaii and Jamaica, the Seminole and her own Tlingit heritage to create "Copper Woman," a regalia dance outfit that won Best of Show at the Sealaska Juried Art Show...(more)  5-30-02

Traditional rattle seized, returned to Southeast
Raven rattle was confiscated in undercover operation by the National Park Service
By BEN MURRAY
SITKA SENTINEL
SITKA - After 200 years and an extraordinary journey, a piece of Alaska Native heritage came home last weekend. A traditional Raven rattle, or Yeil Sheishoox, dating back to the early 1800s, returned to Southeast several years after being seized in an undercover operation by the National Park Service. The ceremonial rattle was repatriated under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 and was unveiled Saturday in Juneau as part of Celebration 2002, a biennial gathering of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian tribes...(more)   6-11-02

Celebration: Making the connections
Event's cultural resources, performances revive individual ties to tribal communities
By RILEY WOODFORD
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
Toni Welch experienced an epiphany at her first Celebration in 1998. "Coming and seeing the dancers, the pride and traditions and togetherness, I was just overwhelmed," she said. "You can be brought up totally aside from the tradition and you come to this and it reaches down so deep inside you - and it's there." Welch is a Tlingit from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. She returned to Celebration this year with her parents. She said she grew up with some elements of her Tlingit traditions, but not a lot. Her mother and grandmother had been distanced from their heritage. Celebration is part of a process in recent years that has reconnected them...(more) 6-9-02

Celebration seaweed contest highlights traditional food
By RILEY WOODFORD
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
Black seaweed - laak'ask - has been a valuable resource for the Native people of Southeast Alaska for thousands of years. Alaska families have developed their own methods for drying and flavoring the nutritious wild food. Friday afternoon, it will prove to be a particularly valuable resource for three people who provide three judges with the tastiest sample of laak'ask...(more)  6-6-02

New book documents Celebration
Juneau-raised photographer captures Celebration moments since 1982
By RILEY WOODFORD
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
As a child in Juneau in the 1960s, Samuella Samaniego pored over art books in the Juneau Public Library. Now a fine-art and commercial photographer, she's about to see a book of her own work on the shelves of Alaska's libraries. "Celebration," a 50-page volume of black and white photographs, documents the dancing and ceremony of Sealaska Heritage Institute's biennial culture gathering...(more) 5-30-02

Tlingit classroom increases enthusiasm
Harborview students perform 'The Great Táay'
By GENEVIEVE GAGNE-HAWES
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
Students dressed as flowers, birds and berries filled Harborview Elementary School's Tlingit Language and Culture Classroom on Tuesday night. The classroom's year-end play, "The Great Táay (Garden) Party," told the story of a girl named Amy who journeyed through the forest and across the beach searching for food. The children mixed Tlingit and English easily, counting, singing and dancing with enthusiasm...(more) 5-29-02

Haines: Chilkoot association hosts Harvard visitors
CHILKAT VALLEY NEWS
The Chilkoot Indian Association showed off its assets last week to a group from Harvard University School of Government. The tribe was recently nominated for one of Harvard's 16 tribal nation-building awards for community development...(more) 5-26-02

Tlingit immersion students making the grade at Harborview
By MARY LOU BERRY
CAPITAL CITY WEEKLY
When Harborview Elementary first grader Bradley Wright started kindergarten in 2000, he was virtually unaware of his heritage. “My boy didn’t know he was an Indian!” says his father, Richard Wright, of Juneau. "Well, he knew, but he wasn’t knowledgeable." Bradley’s perception was soon to change, however, because the class Richard had enrolled him in was Kitty Eddy’s Tlingit immersion class, in which students learn both academics, and the culture and language of the Tlingit people...(more)  4-17-02

Cards encourage Gold Medal fans to cheer in Tlingit style
By ANDREW KRUEGER
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
Basketball fans attending Gold Medal Tournament games this week can urge their favorite teams to Gashàat wé kooch'éit'aa - get the rebound - and play tough Yan yeené - defense - with the help of a pocket-sized listing of Tlingit yells. Sealaska Heritage Institute has printed 2,000 copies of the list, which includes 17 basketball-related Tlingit cheers and their English translations, to distribute to spectators...(more) 3-28-02

Native spoons draw anthropologist to Southeast
Harvard scientist seeks out elders to learn history, rituals linked to elaborately carved utensils
By RILEY WOODFORD
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
A bear cradles an otter in one carving. In another, a mysterious beast rests head-to-head with a human, their tongues connected. The elaborate Tlingit, Tsimshian and Haida carvings decorate the handles of 40 antique ceremonial spoons. The spoons were carved from goat and sheep horn, probably between 100 and 200 years ago. They have been in the collection of Harvard University's Peabody Museum for decades, but virtually nothing was known about them...(more(Photos)   3-22-02

Class to provide Native language overview
By ANDREW KRUEGER
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
A new summer course at the University of Alaska Southeast will offer a wide-ranging overview of Alaska's indigenous languages. The three-credit class, Anthropology 393: Alaska Native Languages, is being offered as a cooperative effort between the university and the Sealaska Heritage Institute...(more) 3-21-02

Native place Names
Offering clues to Juneau's past
By ANN CHANDONNET
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE
The city of Juneau is fortunate to have retained some of its Tlingit place names, and, in certain cases, to have revived others. Newcomers soon master the pronunciation of "Dzantik'i Heeni" or "Kowee" and come to relish each syllable as proof they're not just passing through, but settling in... (more)   3-3-02

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