Photo: Reggie Paul of Kipnuk, Alaska holds up a house frame he helped to build. (Rhonda McBride)

For several southwest Alaska communities, it took one night of hurricane force winds and floods to destroy what will take years to rebuild.

How and where to begin is a question that a group of men from Kipnuk tackled at a construction workshop in Anchorage, where they’ve been staying since their village was evacuated after an October storm.

But as Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA found out, this time, instead of disaster, it was opportunity that came knocking.

The whack of a hammer. The buzz of a saw. Those are the sounds of hope.

A group of Western Alaska disaster evacuees volunteered for training on basic construction skills, that they hope to use to rebuild their village. (Photo: Rhonda McBride)

Tiffany Caudle is the training coordinator for Alaska Works Partnership, which offered a one-week program on how to frame a house.

“They just lost their homes. They lost everything. I do think this is really helping them positive and stay hopeful. They’ve all been so grateful for this training.”

They were all volunteers, like Devon Mann.

“This is the door. And this one’s going to be the window.”

Devon Mann, 19, works on building a house frame. His house was destroyed in a flood that picked it up and carried it more than five miles. (Photo: Rhonda McBride)

Devon looked sharp in his brand, new hoodie, given to him after a military cargo plane airlifted him and most of Kipnuk to Anchorage. He came with only the clothing he had on – and feelings of trauma, after a five-mile ride in a floating house.

“I thought something bad was going to happen to the house, like break apart. I thought that would be it for us. But almost gave up.  But I had hope. I had hope.”

It is hope that keeps Devon going now.

“Everything we’re learning in here and doing, it’s going to be useful for our village.”

Alaska Works Parternership held a workshop for a group of Western Alaska Disaster evacuees, who were mostly from Kipnuk. (Photo: Rhonda McBride)

William Andrew is impressed with his crew of trainees.

“From what they went through, I’ll be honest with you, their attitudes are awesome. They’re wanting to learn. They’re being great.”

Andrew says one week of training in basic construction skills is not enough to learn how to  rebuild a village.

“I’m excited about their future. And I’m hoping they get to rebuild it.”

For now, there are hopes the training will lead to jobs and other opportunities.

Earlier this year, five Natives were among 29 people named Bush Fellows.

The Bush Foundation provides up to $150,000 over two years for their chosen fellows to develop their leadership skills.

In the fourth of five profiles, Brian Bull of Buffalo’s Fire reports on a tribal judge who wants to Indigenize the bench.

Since childhood, Megan Treuer has been fascinated by the judicial system, and concerned with making sure Native people receive fair and equitable treatment under the law.

The daughter of a White Earth Ojibwe tribal judge and an Austrian Holocaust survivor, Treuer serves as Chief Judge for the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe. She has very specific goals for her Bush Fellowship.

“I’m going to cut my judicial caseload in half. And take Ojibwe courses for the two years of the fellowship, and I’m really going to make focusing on the language my top priority and try to learn as much as I possibly can. And then part of my fellowship will be going around to Indigenous scholars, spiritual leaders and mentors that have worked in the area.”

Ultimately, Treuer says she wants to bring humanity to the judicial system.

Her late mother, Margaret Treuer, was the second Native American attorney in Minnesota, and was appointed as a federal magistrate in 1982, making the elder Treuer the first female Native judge in the country.

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