KNBA News

Thousands of troops and the latest in American military hardware will soon descend on Alaska for war games between branches of the armed forces. “Northern Edge” is a biennial, large-scale exercise held in May . And planners are looking ahead at the next decade of maneuvers in Alaska’s skies and waters. Northern Edge 2021 will span from the Aleutians to Fairbanks to Juneau, in the air, and on the water in the Gulf of Alaska. “We’re going to have 240 joint aircraft, so that’s aircraft from the Air

The Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation installed a specialty water filtration system in the Tuluksak school on March 2, 2021. YKHC said that the system could provide enough drinking water for the entire Tuluksak Native Community, but soon the system was only being used by the school. After a fire destroyed Tuluksak’s source of drinking water on Jan. 16, 2021, the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation got to work. It sent a team to the community to build new water systems . The team got a water

Human skeletal remains found on Kruzof Island near Sitka in 2020 are modern, but not especially recent . A DNA sample will be compared to a national database of missing persons, and could shed light on who the individual was, and how they came to an end in the woods behind Shoals Point. According to Sitka police, the individual was between the ages of 30 and 50 years old at the time of death, and likely of Native American, Latinx, or other Asian derivative. And while it’s not a lot to go on,

Alaska lawmakers are considering legalizing hatcheries to boost wild shellfish stocks like king crab and mussels. It’s an idea that’s been around since at least the 1990s , and the goal would be to replicate the economic success of Alaska’s enhanced salmon fisheries. But some scientists say they’re worried about what hatchery crab and other species could do to natural populations. Throughout Alaska’s waters, shellfish populations have been in decline for decades — decimated by overfishing in the

A lawsuit challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act received a split decision in federal appeals court on April 6, 2021. The law, the lawsuit and the split resulted in a 300-plus-page decision that confounded experts and lay people alike. The decision won’t impact Alaska directly. But legal experts say Alaska should still keep an eye on the case. The Indian Child Welfare Act, or ICWA, basically provides Tribes with an opportunity to intervene when state child welfare and adoption agencies

The first Tlingit opera in production is about the Tlingit-Russian wars at the start of the 19th century. The opera is still in the early development stages but the creators say it’s bound to be an epic production . Sealaska Heritage Institute recently announced the opera’s development which will be based on the true story of the Tlingit-Russian wars in 1802 and 1804. Ed Littlefield, the opera’s composer, said one word has been used to describe the story so far. “We have been throwing out the

The National Marine Fisheries Service published a final rule designating critical habitat for three populations of humpback whales including some areas in Alaska . The federal ruling affects the eastern Aleutians, Kodiak, Prince William Sound, as well as the coastlines of Washington, Oregon, and California. The ruling excludes Bristol Bay and Southeast Alaska. The rule establishes about 116,000 square nautical miles of protected area for the endangered Western North Pacific and Central American

The process of earning a doctorate takes a lot of time and work. And f or one Iñupiaq woman hearing the words doctor next to her name was pretty emotional . Her response to passing her dissertation defense went viral this month after hundreds of thousands of people saw her reaction. In a video Twitter post, Cana Uluak Itchuaqiyaq recorded herself getting the news that she’d passed her doctoral program at Utah State University. She covered up her face as she cried tears of joy when she was told

Two Yup'ik engineers are trying to push the Yugtun language into the future , using technology. Their latest project opens the door for Yugtun autocorrect, grammar checkers, and automatic subtitles on Yup'ik videos. There are only a handful of Yup'ik computer scientists in the world, according to Christopher Egalaaq Liu of Bethel and Lonny Alaskuk Strunk of Quinhagak. The pair have teamed up to create what is likely the most advanced Yugtun translation tool available online. “There's nothing

The size of king salmon returning to Western Alaska rivers to spawn has decreased over the past few decades . Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks think that they’re closer to understanding why. Peter Westley and Andrew Seitz are fisheries scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks who helped publish new research on king salmon in February. To answer why these salmon are getting smaller, researchers attached tags to the fish that can record the depth and temperature of the