Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians have some of the lowest rates of vaccination against COVID-19 in Alaska — and highest rates of hospitalization and death. Community leaders have gotten creative to encourage vaccination. That brought a clinic Feb. 23 to the Manai Fou Assembly of God Church in Airport Heights, where leaders teamed up with Anchorage’s health department to bring vaccines to a place where many Islanders feel at home. “Having it in a church setting is more comfortable, because

The United Tribes of Bristol Bay, Bristol Bay Native Association and Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation published “The Call” in December , after the Army Corps of Engineers denied Northern Dynasty’s permit application for the proposed Pebble Mine. United Tribes of Bristol Bay is a Tribal consortium that represents 15 Tribes in the region. The Bristol Bay Native Association and the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation support UTBB’s proposal. At a virtual town hall earlier this

The Arctic Winter Games International Committee will postpone the 2022 games in Wood Buffalo, Alberta, Canada. According to a Wednesday, March 3, 3021, news release, the committee, the host society, Wood Buffalo municipality and the government of Alberta made the decision out of concern for the COVID-19 pandemic . “The health and safety of our circumpolar participants, coaches and volunteers is of paramount concern," International Committee President John Flynn said in the news release.

A new musical project led by Sitka-based Nicholas Galanin has signed with legendary SubPop records. “Close the Distance” is the first single off the debut album for Ya Tseen, the latest project from Otis Calvin III, Zak D. Wass and Yéil Ya-Tseen Nicholas Galanin. Ya-Tseen is a nod to Galanin’s name. “The Tlingit title Ya Tseen, which means to be alive translation,” Galanin said. “Using language … it's such a core of our ways of being and thinking. I am always trying to implement or engage in

Matanuska-Susitna Borough -- which covers about 25,000 square miles north of Anchorage -- submitted a bid to host the 2024 Arctic Winter Games. The Arctic Winter Games happen every two years. It’s a multi-sport event and Indigenous cultural celebration involving communities and participants from around the Circumpolar North. And this is the Matanuska-Susitna Borough’s first real shot at hosting the convention. The borough’s purchasing officer Russ Kraft says the borough has bid on previous games

A former mayor of Kotzebue has been promoted to a top regional job within the National Park Service. Maija Katak Lukin has been selected to be the Native relations program manager for the Park Service’s Alaska region . She’s been superintendent of the Western Arctic Parklands since 2016, overseeing operations in 9 million acres that include Noatak National Preserve, Kobuk Valley National Park and the Cape Krusenstern National Monument. Lukin says a lot of her job involves working with tribes

The U.S. Coast Guard’s sole heavy icebreaker, Polar Star, recently broke the nation’s 40-year winter absence from icy waters above the Arctic Circle while on a 12-week deployment to the Bering Strait regio n. Back at the dock in Juneau, Capt. Bill Woityra, commander of the Polar Star, while speaking at last week’s University of Alaska Fairbanks-Northwest Campus’s “Strait Science” series, proclaimed the mission a success. He describes the three main objectives of their deployment. “The first area

In Inupiaq communities, more than any other food, seal oil is a fixture. “I had it for lunch today,” Cyrus Harris said. “I’ll have it for supper tomorrow.” Like many Inupiaq people in the Northwest Arctic, Harris grew up eating traditional foods like seal oil, caribou and musk ox. When his relatives moved into Maniilaq’s Utuqqanaat Inaat long-term care, he found they weren’t able to eat the same food they’d lived off for years. “They didn’t choose to be living off the Western diet that they were

When it comes to stories, it’s not just what you say — it’s how you say it. Local linguists are incorporating storytelling into their language revitalization efforts, giving elders a chance to create and tell stories in their native languages and imparting that knowledge onto language learners. Joel Isaak, an artist and Dena'ina language professor with Kenai Peninsula College, spoke about that project at Alaska Native Studies Symposia, put on by the University of Alaska Anchorage . He said a

A federal lawsuit arguing that Tribal members of the state’s sole Native reservation shouldn’t need state permits to fish outside the reserve’s marine boundaries was dismissed Wednesday . Metlakatla Indian Community sued Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration last year. Lawyers for the Tribe said the 1891 federal law that established the Annette Islands Reserve was intended to create a self-sustaining community — and that the right to fish in waters within a day’s travel of the reserve was an